Scientists develop technique to create glass from metal

Scientists have finally achieved the long-sought aim of creating glass from metal.

Professor Scott X. Mao, William, from University of Pittsburgh who formed the 'metallic glass' along with his colleagues, said that though fundamental issue was explored by people in this field for a long time, nobody could solve the problem.

Metallic glasses are unique in that their structure is not crystalline, but rather is disordered, with the atoms randomly arranged. They are sought for various commercial applications because they are very strong and are easily processed.

Mao's novel method of creating metallic glass involved developing and implementing a new technique (a cooling nano-device under in-situ transmission electron microscope) that enabled him and his colleagues to achieve an unprecedentedly high cooling rate that allowed for the transformation of liquefied elemental metals tantalum and vanadium into glass.

The research is published in online in leading science journal Nature.