Shattered screens may be thing of the past thanks to this ‘unbreakable’ glass

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Shattered mobile phone screens may be consigned to history following the development of an "unbreakable" glass inspired by seashells.

Scientists say the new material is five times more resistant to fractures than standard glass.

Canadian bio-engineers came up with the "strongest and toughest" glass known after being inspired by the inner layer of mollusk shells.

Instead of shattering on impact, they say the new material has the resiliency of plastic and could be used to improve mobile phone screens in the future, among other applications.

The research team explained that while techniques such as tempering and laminating can help reinforce glass, they are costly and no longer work once the surface is damaged.

“Until now there were trade-offs between high strength, toughness, and transparency," said Dr. Allen Ehrlicher, an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at McGill University. "Our new material is not only three times stronger than the normal glass, but also more than five times more fracture-resistant."

Drawing inspiration from nature, he created a new glass and acrylic composite material that mimics nacre or mother of pearl.

“Nature is a master of design," said Ehrlicher. "Studying the structure of biological materials and understanding how they work offers inspiration, and sometimes blueprints, for new materials.

He said nacre gives the best of both worlds: the rigidity of a stiff material and the durability of a soft material.

“It’s made of stiff pieces of chalk-like matter that are layered with soft proteins that are highly elastic," said Ehrlicher. "This structure produces exceptional strength, making it 3,000 times tougher than the materials that compose it.”

The McGill team took the architecture of nacre and replicated it with layers of glass flakes and acrylic, producing 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," said study lead author Doctor Ali Amini, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill.

Now the team plan to further improve the new material by incorporating smart technology, allowing the glass to change its properties - such as colour and conductivity.

Ehrlicher explained that "flexible glass" is supposedly a lost invention from the time of Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar.

According to popular historical accounts by Roman authors Gaius Plinius Secundus and Petronius, the inventor brought a drinking bowl made of the material before the Emperor.

When the bowl was put to the test to break it, it only dented instead of shattering.

After the inventor swore he was the only person who knew how to produce the material, Tiberius had the man executed, fearing that the glass would devalue gold and silver because it might be more valuable.

“When I think about the story of Tiberius, I’m glad that our material innovation leads to publication rather than execution," said Ehrlicher.

The findings were published in the journal Science.