Liquid-to-glass transition process gains clarity
For millennia, people have used molten sand and other ingredients to create glass and fashion beads, vessels, lenses and windows.
These days, metallic glasses – made entirely of metal atoms – are being developed for biomedical applications such as extra-sharp surgical needles, stents, and artificial joints or implants because the alloys can be ultra-hard, extra strong, very smooth and resistant to corrosion.
While a combination of trial and error and scientific research helped refine glassmaking processes over time, controlling the creation of metallic glasses at the atomic level remains an inexact endeavor informed largely by long experience and intuition.
“Our job,” says Paul Voyles, “is to build fundamental understanding by adding more data.”
The Beckwith-Bascom Professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Voyles and collaborators in Madison and at Yale University have made significant experimental strides in understanding how, when and where the constantly moving atoms in molten metal “lock” into place as the material transitions from liquid to solid glass.
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