Why Some Glasses Break Suddenlly and Others Deform Smoothly

Topic: Materials Science

Scientists at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research discovered that fragile glasses break suddenly when cooled quickly, while strong glasses deform smoothly. They found that fragility affects how materials fail under mechanical load.

Imagine you have a glass cup in your hand. If you cool it slowly to its freezing point, it will become a crystal with ordered particles. But if you cool it very quickly, the particles won't arrange themselves properly and it will become glass.

Glassy materials are all around us - window glass, metal alloys, polymers, foams, gels, and even soft materials like emulsions and colloids. These materials can behave differently when an external force is applied to them. Some change shape slowly and smoothly (this property is called ductility), while others may resist deformation at first but then suddenly break or crack without warning (this property is called brittleness).

Scientists classify glasses into two types: strong and fragile glasses. Fragile glasses have high energy barriers that increase rapidly upon cooling, making the liquid highly viscous and sluggish even with a small decrease in temperature. Strong glasses, on the other hand, have energy barriers that grow more gradually with cooling.

Researchers Roni Chatterjee and Monoj Adhikari from Smarajit Karmakar's group at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research studied how glassy materials fail under mechanical load. They found that fragile glasses are brittle and break suddenly when cooled quickly, while strong glasses deform smoothly.

Why It Matters

Understanding how glassy materials behave can help us design safer and more reliable objects and engineering applications. This knowledge can also lead to the development of new materials with improved properties.

Key Facts

• Scientists at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research discovered that fragile glasses break suddenly when cooled quickly, while strong glasses deform smoothly.
• Fragile glasses have high energy barriers that increase rapidly upon cooling.
• Strong glasses have energy barriers that grow more gradually with cooling.
• Researchers Roni Chatterjee and Monoj Adhikari studied how glassy materials fail under mechanical load.
• The study was published in Nature Communications.

Key Terms

Ductility

The ability of a material to change shape slowly and smoothly when an external force is applied.

Brittleness

The tendency of a material to break or crack suddenly without warning when an external force is applied.

Implications

Understanding how glassy materials behave can help us design safer and more reliable objects and engineering applications. This knowledge can also lead to the development of new materials with improved properties.