📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot ai: US scientists simulate elusive ideal glass that behaves me

Scientists have created the first computer model of an “ideal glass,” a theoretical material physicists have been searching for since the mid-20th century.

The breakthrough could help researchers better understand how disordered materials behave and potentially guide the design of stronger and more versatile industrial materials.

The work was led by physicist Eric Corwin at the University of Oregon. Using advanced computational modeling, his team built a structure in which molecules are packed as tightly and stably as possible while still remaining amorphous, meaning they lack the ordered pattern typical of crystals.

Glass is unusual because it behaves like a solid even though its molecules are arranged randomly.

This puzzling behavior has long raised questions about how materials without a regular molecular structure can still remain mechanically stable.

Corwin said that at the molecular level, glass looks disordered compared to crystals.

“If you look at glass at a molecular level, you would see that the molecules are arranged amorphously,” Corwin said. “They’re kind of random. They’re all pushed up against one another, but there’s no structure.”

Chasing the ideal glass

Physicists have long suspected that an “ideal glass” state could exist. The idea was proposed in 1948 by Princeton chemist Walter Kauzmann, who theorized that cooling glass far enough could eventually produce a perfectly stable amorphous structure where molecules are packed as tightly as possible.

Such a state has never been observed in nature, leaving scientists without a real example to study. Corwin’s team decided to tackle the problem using mathematical modeling instead of waiting for nature to produce one.

“We thought maybe we can just jump to it,” Corwin said. “We can construct the best possible structure.”

To do that, the researchers began with a simplified system in which molecules were represented as round disks.

They drew inspiration from the structure of two-dimensional crystals, where each disk is surrounded by six neighbors arranged in a repeating honeycomb-like pattern.

However, instead of keeping the crystalline order, the team developed a method to maintain the tight packing of the disks while removing the repeating structure that defines crystals.

Amorphous yet crystal strong

The result was a configuration that remained completely disordered but behaved mechanically like a crystal. According to the researchers, the structure represents the densest possible arrangement for that type of system.

The team confirmed the behavior by testing how the simulated material responded to pressure, bending, and melting. These tests showed that the model exhibited mechanical stability comparable to crystalline materials despite lacking their ordered structure.

“The conclusion is that our structure mechanically behaves identically to a crystal, even though it is completely amorphous,” Corwin said.

Understanding this state could help researchers better understand the glass transition, the process by which liquids become rigid glasses without forming crystals.

The work may also have implications for advanced materials such as metallic glasses, which combine the strength of metals with the flexibility of glass-like structures.

Metallic glasses are known for their strength and resistance to deformation, but they are difficult to manufacture because they must be cooled extremely quickly from liquid to solid.

“If we could develop a much better understanding of the glass transition and understand what makes an alloy better or worse at forming a metallic glass, we could design alloys that you could cool much more slowly,” Corwin said.

He added that improved materials could transform manufacturing. “You could mold a car engine, you could mold a jet fighter. It would be revolutionary.”

The researchers plan to expand their work beyond two-dimensional simulations to explore ideal glass structures in three-dimensional systems.

The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot ai: US scientists simulate elusive ideal glass that behaves me

Scientists have created the first computer model of an “ideal glass,” a theoretical material physicists have been searching for since the mid-20th century.

The breakthrough could help researchers better understand how disordered materials behave and potentially guide the design of stronger and more versatile industrial materials.

The work was led by physicist Eric Corwin at the University of Oregon. Using advanced computational modeling, his team built a structure in which molecules are packed as tightly and stably as possible while still remaining amorphous, meaning they lack the ordered pattern typical of crystals.

Glass is unusual because it behaves like a solid even though its molecules are arranged randomly.

This puzzling behavior has long raised questions about how materials without a regular molecular structure can still remain mechanically stable.

Corwin said that at the molecular level, glass looks disordered compared to crystals.

“If you look at glass at a molecular level, you would see that the molecules are arranged amorphously,” Corwin said. “They’re kind of random. They’re all pushed up against one another, but there’s no structure.”

Chasing the ideal glass

Physicists have long suspected that an “ideal glass” state could exist. The idea was proposed in 1948 by Princeton chemist Walter Kauzmann, who theorized that cooling glass far enough could eventually produce a perfectly stable amorphous structure where molecules are packed as tightly as possible.

Such a state has never been observed in nature, leaving scientists without a real example to study. Corwin’s team decided to tackle the problem using mathematical modeling instead of waiting for nature to produce one.

“We thought maybe we can just jump to it,” Corwin said. “We can construct the best possible structure.”

To do that, the researchers began with a simplified system in which molecules were represented as round disks.

They drew inspiration from the structure of two-dimensional crystals, where each disk is surrounded by six neighbors arranged in a repeating honeycomb-like pattern.

However, instead of keeping the crystalline order, the team developed a method to maintain the tight packing of the disks while removing the repeating structure that defines crystals.

Amorphous yet crystal strong

The result was a configuration that remained completely disordered but behaved mechanically like a crystal. According to the researchers, the structure represents the densest possible arrangement for that type of system.

The team confirmed the behavior by testing how the simulated material responded to pressure, bending, and melting. These tests showed that the model exhibited mechanical stability comparable to crystalline materials despite lacking their ordered structure.

“The conclusion is that our structure mechanically behaves identically to a crystal, even though it is completely amorphous,” Corwin said.

Understanding this state could help researchers better understand the glass transition, the process by which liquids become rigid glasses without forming crystals.

The work may also have implications for advanced materials such as metallic glasses, which combine the strength of metals with the flexibility of glass-like structures.

Metallic glasses are known for their strength and resistance to deformation, but they are difficult to manufacture because they must be cooled extremely quickly from liquid to solid.

“If we could develop a much better understanding of the glass transition and understand what makes an alloy better or worse at forming a metallic glass, we could design alloys that you could cool much more slowly,” Corwin said.

He added that improved materials could transform manufacturing. “You could mold a car engine, you could mold a jet fighter. It would be revolutionary.”

The researchers plan to expand their work beyond two-dimensional simulations to explore ideal glass structures in three-dimensional systems.

The findings were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com