8 ms·
Transparent aluminum?
by setquk 9y ago
Transparent aluminum?
- jacquesm 9y agoNo, alloys with some of the properties of glass in terms of atomic arrangement but not transparent.
- amelius 9y agoBreakable, and not transparent? Sounds like the worst of two worlds ... ;)
- jacquesm 9y agoHarder, hard to corrode. Those are important properties and you could always make a composite (sandwich) of more than one material.
- IshKebab 9y ago"Glass" means non-crystalline, basically. It doesn't mean that it is like glass.
- durkie 9y agobetter thermal and energy transfer properties too.
- rbanffy 9y agoIt's very hard to make a metal (where electrons can easily jump from atom to atom) transparent.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- hpcjoe 9y agoTransparency is a function of wavelength/photon energy as well as the underlying material. Glass (the silica version) is opaque to portions of the UV spectrum. Generally you'll get absorption (opacity) when the photon energy exceeds an energy gap, allowing valence band electrons to be bumped into conduction bands, creating a corresponding hole in the valence. In the case of metals, there is effectively no gap at points in k-space, so there is absorption throughout the spectrum.
- rbanffy 9y agoI imagine a clever arrangement of atoms where non-metallic regions alternate with metallic ones could do the trick, as long as the transparent regions line up enough. But anything this orderly doesn't look like a glass anymore.
- logfromblammo 9y agoFor aluminum, you purify it, oxidize it, and then fuse it into a single crystal of corundum. A hybrid alumina-silica glass can be created. The hybrid glass has a higher elastic modulus than other silica glass systems, and sheets of it can bend further before fractures form. This glass can be further toughened by creating it with high sodium content, then later exchanging the sodium ions with potassium ions. This type of glass is probably in your pocket right now. Doped alumina-yttria hybrids are also useful in lasers.
- leowoo91 9y agoMore like a "Valyrian steel"
- romanr 9y agoDragon glass
- dahart 9y agoHello, computer.
- setquk 9y agoHow quaint!
- ravenstine 9y agoThat's the ticket, laddie!
- candlefather 9y agoWill be very useful for transportation of whales
- floor_ 9y agoThis was the first thing I thought of when i read the title. Some ML nerd went "Hmm, I bet I could use ML to figure out how to make the mystical Star Trek alloy."
- kale 9y agoI always though sapphire fulfilled the requirements of "transparent aluminium". It's used as a lens material for a lot of phone cameras.