New glass that is more than TWICE as hard as diamonds could be used to make bulletproof windows  

Diamonds, which are the hardest known substance, are typically used to cut glass into different shapes, but a new type of glass made of carbon is twice as hard as the precious gem.  

A team of Chinese scientists, led by those at Yanshan University, recently unveiled the transparent, yellow-tinted glass called AM-III, which is capable of leaving a deep scratch on a diamond.

The material, which is made entirely of carbon, reached 113 gigapascals (GPa) on the Vickers hardness test, while diamonds typically score somewhere between 50 and 70 on the GPa scale.

‘Consequently, our measurements demonstrate that the AM-III material is comparable in strength to diamond and superior to the other known strongest materials,’ Professor Tian Yongjun of Yanshan University, who led the research, and his team noted in the study published in the journal National Science Review.

AM-III, according to researchers, is not a diamond replacement, but could be used to develop stronger solar cells in solar panels and tougher bulletproof windows that would be 20 to 100 percent stronger than current models.

 

A team of Chinese scientists led by Yanshan University recently unveiled the transparent, yellow-tinted glass called AM-III (stop), which is capable of leaving a deep scratch on a diamond

Tian and his team developed the yellowish glass by increasing the pressure in an experimental chamber to 25 GPa and temperatures to 2,192 degrees Fahrenheit, the South China Morning Post reports.

The increases, however, were done slowly and gradually over a period of more than 12 hours, and the material spent just as much time cooling down afterwards. 

They placed a material called fullerene, which is a football-shaped allotrope of carbon, inside the experimental chamber.

Under these conditions, this material could transform into a diamond, but due to the gradual ramp up of heat and slow cool down, the team created the extremely hard glass.

The material, which is made entirely of carbon, reached a 113 gigapascals (GPa) on the Vickers hardness test, while diamonds typically score somewhere between 50 and 70 on the GPa scale. Pictured are scratches on the diamond made by the glass

The material, which is made entirely of carbon, reached a 113 gigapascals (GPa) on the Vickers hardness test, while diamonds typically score somewhere between 50 and 70 on the GPa scale. Pictured are scratches on the diamond made by the glass

AM-III, according to researchers, is not a diamond replacement, but could be used to develop stronger solar cells and tougher bulletproof windows that would be 20 to 100 percent stronger than current models. Pictured are scratches on the diamond made by the glass

AM-III, according to researchers, is not a diamond replacement, but could be used to develop stronger solar cells and tougher bulletproof windows that would be 20 to 100 percent stronger than current models. Pictured are scratches on the diamond made by the glass

Technically speaking, AM-III is a glass with crystals inside, according to Tian. 

‘The emergence of this type of ultrahard, ultrastrong, semiconducting amorphous material offers excellent candidates to [the] most demanding practical applications,’ the researchers wrote in the study.  

Scientists have long been working to develop the strongest glass and in 2016, scientists at the University of Southern California created a form of metallic glass made from iron that is stronger than titanium.

Tests showed the material, which is called SAM2X5-630, is 588 times more resistant to damage than stainless steel and has twice the resistance of tungsten carbide ceramic used in body armor. 

Professor Veronica Eliasson, an engineer at the University of Southern California, said the material’s unusual chemical structure is what makes it so hard yet also elastic.

She said in a statement: ‘It has almost no internal structure, like glass, but you see tiny regions of crystallization. 

While the new material is not yet transparent enough to be used to make super-hard glass screens, it could be used to create protective casing for mobile devices that would bounce when dropped.

For example, using the material to replace the aluminum sides and back seen in many mobiles such as the iPhone could make the device far more resistant to smashing.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk