AsianScientist (Nov. 6, 2017) – Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan have gleaned insights into how liquids turn into glass by studying an organic metal material. They published their findings in Science.
The ability of some liquids to transition into glass has been exploited since ancient times. However, many fundamental aspects of this transition phase remain poorly described in scientific literature. A deeper understanding of how liquids turn into glass could facilitate the development of new glass materials and spur the development of new products such as DVDs or blue ray discs that store data by altering their state of matter.
In this study, a multi-institutional Japanese team, led by Dr. Kenichiro Hashimoto of Tohoku University’s Institute for Materials Research, compared the molecular dynamics of glass formation in conventional liquids, such as a glucose solution, to an organic metal material containing ‘frustrated’ electrons. These electrons, responsible for conducting electrical currents, are unable to reach their lowest energy state due to the way they are geometrically arranged on the material’s crystal lattice.
Slow cooling of conventional glass-forming liquids causes their atoms to organize themselves into regular arrangements, producing a crystallized material. When the researchers slowly cooled the organic metal they were testing, its frustrated electrons similarly organized into a regular pattern and crystallized.
However, when the material was cooled more quickly, crystallization was avoided and the material’s frustrated electrons re-organized, turning into glass in a manner similar to conventional glass-forming liquids. These results highlight the universal nature of the liquid-to-glass transition phase.
The researchers believe their organic metal material provides a convenient test platform for studying the fundamental properties of the liquid-to-glass transition.
The article can be found at: Sasaki et al. (2017) Crystallization and Vitrification of Electrons in a Glass-forming Charge Liquid.
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Source: Tohoku University.
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