Glass is metal-stable due to palladium

A team of researchers from the Berkeley Lab and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been successful in researching a metallic glass that is incredibly rigid and flexible even when exposed to light. compressed.

Normally, the structure of glass is durable but brittle so it is easy to crack on large scale. However, the new metallic glass material created by the researchers adds palladium to increase ductility and stiffness, forming a type of glass that can bend without cracking.

With this addition, when placed under pressure, the glass will form more traces of slip rather than cracking. This characteristic makes this type of glass more resistant to impact than other types of glass.

" The results have marked a new step in the fabrication of metallic glass, and we believe it is possible to create a variety of glass with hardness and strength, " said Robert Ritchie, head of the research group . Because the elasticity of the palladium element is high and the energy needed to form the traces is much lower than the energy required to turn the traces into cracks, Enhanced plasticity to support force, allowing it to bend instead of cracking . "

Initially, the researchers built a metallic glass in which the spreading cracks would be prevented by a "microstructure" fence . For increased plasticity, they added palladium.

The first prototype was a glass rod of 1mm in diameter with a microscopic composition of palladium, phosphorus, silicon and germanium elements. By adding silver, researchers can increase the thickness of the glass rods by 6mm.