"This is a big surprise," said Juan de Pablo, a molecular engineering professor at the University of Chicago. "Randomness is almost the defining feature of glasses. At least we used to think so."
"What we have done is to demonstrate that one can create glasses where there is some well-defined organization. And now that we understand the origin of such effects, we can try to control that organization by manipulating the way we prepare these glasses."
Researchers grew the glass by vaporizing large organic molecules within a vacuum. Those molecules were then deposited layer by layer onto a substrate until the sample was thick enough to analyze.
Scientists attributed the unique molecular structure of the glass to the way the material was created, that is, layering thin deposits of glass one at a time, thereby "trapping" the molecules in their original orientation.
"Glasses are one of the least understood classes of materials," de Pablo said. "They have the structure of a liquid - disorder - but they're solids. And that's a concept that has mystified people for many decades."So the fact that we can now control the orientation of these disordered materials is something that could have profound theoretical and technological implications. We don't know what they are yet - this is a new field of research and a class of materials that didn't exist before. So we're just at the beginning."
The new glass could improve products such as solar cells, LEDs, and optical fibers, researchers said.
I've read of accounts in the ancient world of "malleable glass" - glass that could be shaped after production.
Perhaps this same technology was lost and has been rediscovered with no knowledge of what can be done with the process.
Now, on to Roman concrete and megalith pouring.
What I really want to know is - what is the hand held "basket" with semi-circle handle shown on Mayan and Incan statues and stela.
The "basket" is depicted in some petraglyphs with wavy, radiating lines and has been attributed to excavation wherein the excavated materialis cut and vaporized by this cutting device, leaving no debris to be disposed of.
Mysteries, mysteries...