Composite glass breakthrough - unbreakable screens?

[Lynx-lynx]

Researchers working at an Australian uni, and others around the world, have played around with various substances and " turned to a mineral called perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide crystal."


... " team of chemical engineers and material scientists then developed a revolutionary process to wrap or bind the nanocrystals in porous glass"


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-...lass/100578398


This is excellent news and of course will have flow on effects for all sorts of products, eventually

[Quoth]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite

I'd treat ANY scientific news on any regular media site with a lot of scepticism especially when a new wonder material is mentioned.

I have broken four or five iPhone screens through the whole year — costs all of us a lot to repair," Dr Hou said.
University of Queensland composite glass research team

In over twenty five years I've not broken a phone screen. My first mobile phone was 1G, Analogue. My son has broken two in ten plus years. Once by walking into a bollard.

Nothing is unbreakable.

Most of that article is gibberish. Also how resistant is it to scratches or moisture? Porous glasses I found are relatively hard but absorb moisture.

Don't hold your breath. No doubt the PR is to get research funding.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Quoth

In over twenty five years I've not broken a phone screen. My first mobile phone was 1G, Analogue. My son has broken two in ten plus years. Once by walking into a bollard.

No broken screens here either, although my wife single-handedly keeps Shenzhen screen protector makers afloat. Her current one has been on her phone undamaged for nearly a month, a positively frightening record for her.

[tomsem]

I’m waiting for transparent aluminum.

[theducks]

Why would screen manufactures want those? Your device might last over a year.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I’m waiting for transparent aluminum.

"Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide"

Sapphire and diamond can both now be made synthetically at large sizes. The Star Trek technobabble was daft.

Sapphire was used from about 1700s as watch bearings and in the 1930s for autochanger record player stylus. Rubies and diamonds are also used in watches as bearings.
Auguste Verneuil invented the original process to make synthetic sapphire large enough for watch glasses in 1902.

Gorilla Glass also has aluminium in it and is a cheap alternative to sapphire for a phone screen outer layer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass
One of the main competitors is in fact synthetic sapphire. The materials are neither rare nor expensive.

A diamond screen is possible. I don't know if diamond or sapphire is more crack resistant. Diamond is the hardest (most scratch resistant) natural material and sapphire the next hardest natural material. Diamond is unusual because it feels cold like copper being a good heat conductor, but if pure it's an insulator. Beryllium oxide is used as a heat conductive electrical insulator inside RF power transistors because it cheaper.

Diamond is kept artificially expensive by De Beers, AKA Element 12 Company.

Synthetic sapphire—sometimes referred to as sapphire glass—is commonly used as a window material, because it is both highly transparent to wavelengths of light between 150 nm (UV) and 5500 nm (IR) (the visible spectrum extends about 380 nm to 750 nm[58]), and extraordinarily scratch-resistant.
The key benefits of sapphire windows are:
Very wide optical transmission band from UV to near-infrared, (0.15–5.5 µm)
Significantly stronger than other optical materials or standard glass windows
Highly resistant to scratching and abrasion (9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness scale, the 3rd hardest natural substance next to moissanite and diamonds)
Extremely high melting temperature (2030 °C)
Some sapphire-glass windows are made from pure sapphire boules that have been grown in a specific crystal orientation, typically along the optical axis, the c-axis, for minimum birefringence for the application.
The boules are sliced up into the desired window thickness and finally polished to the desired surface finish. Sapphire optical windows can be polished to a wide range of surface finishes due to its crystal structure and its hardness. The surface finishes of optical windows are normally called out by the scratch-dig specifications in accordance with the globally adopted MIL-O-13830 specification.

Wikipedia

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The Star Trek technobabble was daft.

What I read, somewhere, decades ago, was that they were having trouble making or working with some prop and they had to shoot the screne right then, so they came up with the concept of transparent aluminum on the spot. Or maybe it was in the special features on an optical disc more recently. I don't remember.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I’m waiting for transparent aluminum.

I know where you can get the formula

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I’m waiting for transparent aluminum.

Originally Posted by Quoth

"Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride

Aluminium oxynitride (marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation[3]) is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. ALON is optically transparent (# 80%) in the near-ultraviolet, visible and midwave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is four times as hard as fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 115% as hard as magnesium aluminate spinel. Since it has a cubic spinel structure, it can be fabricated to transparent windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes and other forms using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques.

[Lynx-lynx]

wait! stop all research on unbreakable glass because some people have never broken their moble phone screens ... now say it out loud ...

[Lynx-lynx]

"The team has unlocked technology to produce the next-generation of composite glass used in smart phones, televisions, computers and even LED lights"

Yes, I agree the article wasn't published in journal style, and i look forward to the research being peer reviewed, until then general discourse is good enough, imo

[endemion06463]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

wait! stop all research on unbreakable glass because some people have never broken their moble phone screens ... now say it out loud ...

I do get the point though. You have people who treat their stuff with proper respect and those who just throw things around and then complain about stuff breaking.

About the OP, university's come out with nifty inventions and such all the time, can't even count all the new and improved battery technologies... But almost non will ever be actually available to the masses. Because the world as it is is profit driven. So there's your first obstacle, will it sell? Next there are vested interests getting in the way, will it interfere with an already established industry? SED screens never made it to marked because of it just to name one.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Quoth

"Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide"

Sapphire and diamond can both now be made synthetically at large sizes. The Star Trek technobabble was daft.

Sapphire was used from about 1700s as watch bearings and in the 1930s for autochanger record player stylus. Rubies and diamonds are also used in watches as bearings.
Auguste Verneuil invented the original process to make synthetic sapphire large enough for watch glasses in 1902.

Gorilla Glass also has aluminium in it and is a cheap alternative to sapphire for a phone screen outer layer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass
One of the main competitors is in fact synthetic sapphire. The materials are neither rare nor expensive.

A diamond screen is possible. I don't know if diamond or sapphire is more crack resistant. Diamond is the hardest (most scratch resistant) natural material and sapphire the next hardest natural material. Diamond is unusual because it feels cold like copper being a good heat conductor, but if pure it's an insulator. Beryllium oxide is used as a heat conductive electrical insulator inside RF power transistors because it cheaper.

Diamond is kept artificially expensive by De Beers, AKA Element 12 Company.

Wikipedia

Ruby and Sapphire are both Corundum. If it is red it is Ruby. Any other color is Sapphire. Sapphire comes in any color except red. There are also color change Sapphires. If it is pink it is Sapphire, although people are always trying to pass off pink Sapphires as Rubies. Rubies command a much higher price than Sapphires. Starting in 1704 genuine gems were used in watches. Most being Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond and even Emerald. Ruby was preferred.
After Auguste Verneuil invented synthetic jewels in 1902 they began to be used instead of the genuine article. The reason the are used in watches is to reduces friction and wear. Today they are mostly used in mechanical watches and most people think watches with jewels are of a better quality. This has led to some manufacturers adding unnecessary jewels to raise the price of their watches. Also most watches use synthetic rubies, Very rarely do you see watches with synthetic Sapphires or other jewels.
Apache

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by Quoth

"Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide"

Sapphire and diamond can both now be made synthetically at large sizes. The Star Trek technobabble was daft.

Sapphire was used from about 1700s as watch bearings and in the 1930s for autochanger record player stylus. Rubies and diamonds are also used in watches as bearings.
Auguste Verneuil invented the original process to make synthetic sapphire large enough for watch glasses in 1902.

Gorilla Glass also has aluminium in it and is a cheap alternative to sapphire for a phone screen outer layer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla_Glass
One of the main competitors is in fact synthetic sapphire. The materials are neither rare nor expensive.

A diamond screen is possible. I don't know if diamond or sapphire is more crack resistant. Diamond is the hardest (most scratch resistant) natural material and sapphire the next hardest natural material. Diamond is unusual because it feels cold like copper being a good heat conductor, but if pure it's an insulator. Beryllium oxide is used as a heat conductive electrical insulator inside RF power transistors because it cheaper.

Diamond is kept artificially expensive by De Beers, AKA Element 12 Company.

Wikipedia

I have an Omega sea master watch with a sapphire crystal. I've had it for 15 years, and never take it off whether I'm working in the yard, painting, crawling under the house etc. I've bumped, it dropped it, and had it hit with tools. It still looks new with no mark on it. Once I remember saying 'that's it, it'll need a new crystal', but it didn't and all was well. Good stuff.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I have an Omega sea master watch with a sapphire crystal. I've had it for 15 years, and never take it off whether I'm working in the yard, painting, crawling under the house etc. I've bumped, it dropped it, and had it hit with tools. It still looks new with no mark on it. Once I remember saying 'that's it, it'll need a new crystal', but it didn't and all was well. Good stuff.

I think all watches should have a synthetic Sapphire crystal. You can scratch them, but it is very difficult to do so. I have a Tag Heuer that I bought in 1987. It has it's original Sapphire crystal and there isn't a scratch on it. Yes they would increase the cost of a watch, but you save by never having to replace the crystal.
Apache