Glass Materials Research Progress

Glass in the common sense refers to soda-lime glass, or any similar substance: a hard, brittle, transparent solid made by fusing soda with lime and cooling rapidly. In the technical sense, glass is any amorphous solid, i.e., any non-crystalline solid. Usually, glass is formed by quenching a glass-forming liquid (or melt) through its glass transition temperature sufficiently quickly that a regular crystal lattice cannot form. Most glasses contain silica as their main component and glass former. In the scientific sense the term glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous solids. However, glass science commonly includes only inorganic amorphous solids, while plastics and similar organics are covered by polymer science, biology and further scientific disciplines. This book presents the latest research in this field from around the world.