Steel Glass

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute have created a type of glass that is almost as strong as steel. Scientists used aerodynamic levitation to create these glasses imbued with extra amounts of an oxide of aluminium.

These glasses do not break when they are dropped or hit by another object and as such they can be very useful in building automobile windows, sky scrapers, and smartphone and tablet screens. Traditional glasses can be made stronger by adding large amount of alumina, an oxide of aluminium, to the mix because its dissociation energies are among the highest in oxides. However, adding more alumina causes silicon dioxide crystals to develop where the mix meets the surface that is holding it which makes the glass useless.

In the new process, the mix is held in the air with the help of oxygen gas and laser that mixes the material together. At the end, a glass is derived with more alumina in it that makes it almost as strong as steel.