McGill University researchers say they've developed an "unbreakable" glass inspired by the inner layer of mollusk shells. As resilent as plastic yet as hard as nacre, it could "improve cell phone screens in the future, among other applications."
The scientists took the architecture of nacre and replicated it with layers of glass flakes and acrylic, yielding an exceptionally strong yet opaque material that can be produced easily and inexpensively. They then went a step further to make the composite optically transparent. "By tuning the refractive index of the acrylic, we made it seamlessly blend with the glass to make a truly transparent composite," says lead author Ali Amini, a Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill. As next steps, they plan to improve it by incorporating smart technology allowing the glass to change its properties, such as colour, mechanics, and conductivity.
