Scientists studying the development of high-density, super-thin glass have reported the discovery of an unknown phase of liquid.These glass types can be used in many ways, including OLED displays and optical fibres. However, they can also have stability issues. This new type of material was created in an effort to address those issues.The liquid phase, which was recently discovered, promises thinner glass than any of the previous materials. This could allow for new uses of the glass and even entirely new types of devices."There are many interesting properties that have come out of nowhere," states Zahra Faakhraai, University of Pennsylvania physicist.It's a novel material.Glass is a special kind of material. It forms when liquids solidify. Although it has the properties of a solid, the internal structure of glass is not affected by the liquid phase. Scientists still find it fascinating.Ultra-thin glasses can make it difficult to control the transition without crystallization. This is especially true if you are working at large scales. Thin glasses can retain more liquid than normal. This can lead to instability or degradation.A technique called vapor deposition is used to cool liquids. However, it is not clear if this is possible with thin glasses.Researchers spent many years experimenting to prove that vapor deposition could actually decrease some of the liquid-like characteristics of thin glass. This was how the new liquid phase was discovered. It was different from the usual liquid phase used in the production of this type of glass.Fakhraai says that the two liquids are different structures. They look a lot like graphene or diamond, which are solids made from carbon, but have very different solid forms."Following-up experiments showed that individual molecules were packed into a structure which wasn't a crystal, but was something else. The researchers believe there may be implications for other materials based on the phase's geometry.This means that there is potential to produce ultra-thin glass with a density much higher than crystal by using vapor deposition or the new phase liquid in glass.Additional studies will be done to determine how the phase transition occurs, including a closer examination of the deposition phase. This could also help scientists unravel some of the remaining mysteries surrounding glass.Fakhraai says, "We hope that this fundamental understanding motivates additional applications and a better ability design thin film glasses with similarly enhanced properties." We can design better thin films if we understand the structure-property relationship in them.These findings will be published in PNAS this week.
