Researchers from McGill University International Research in Montreal, Canada, have developed a new type of glass that is five times more resistant to breakage than traditional glass, which is a glimmer of hope for people who suffer from broken screens of their phones due to a fall or impact.
According to the researchers, the new glass material was designed from (glass and a synthetic fiber material made of polymer called acrylic), and this combination provides strength, durability and high transparency.
The new glass is inspired by the inner layer of the shells of pearl-bearing mollusks, and the new material is flexible, much like plastic, and does not shatter on impact.
The researchers said: 'If the new glass is mass-produced and put on the market, it could be used to put an end to high-end smartphones that fail from a short fall to the ground.
"It is surprising that nacre has the toughness of a hard and durable material, and at the same time it is a soft material," said Allen Erlicher, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at McGill University.
Made of solid pieces of chalk-like material covered with soft, highly elastic proteins, this structure produces exceptional strength, making it 3,000 times stronger than the material it is made of.
"Our new material is not only three times stronger than ordinary glass, but also more than five times resistant to breaking," Erlicher added.
And the website of the newspaper "Daily Mail", Thursday, quoted the researchers, how they made the new material, saying: "The shell consists of hexagonal or square sheets of aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate) arranged like a brick wall."
Next, the scientists engineered the nacre and copied it with layers of glass and acrylic foil, resulting in an "extremely strong" opaque material that could be easily and inexpensively produced.
They then went so far as to make the compound optically transparent, by changing the refractive index of the acrylic.
The team's next steps are to improve the glass by incorporating smart technology that allows the glass to change its properties such as color, mechanics and conductivity.
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