An international study on glass led by ANU and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France could lead to the development of shatter-proof mobile phone screens.
An international study on glass led by ANU and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France could lead to the development of shatter-proof mobile phone screens.
Lead researcher Dr Charles Le Losq from ANU said the new knowledge, based on experiments and computer modelling, could be used to alter the structure of glass to improve resistance to fractures.
"Everyone knows how frustrating it is when you drop your mobile device and get a large crack in the screen," said Dr Le Losq from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.
He said glass appeared to be structured randomly, but it was actually quite ordered at the microscopic level of a few atoms.
Read more at Australian National University
Image: The silicate melt is poured on a graphite plate to make glass (composite image with smashed mobile phone screen as an overlay). (Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU)