Glass

Glass is a type of non-crystalline or amorphous solid. more...

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By traditional convention the term glass is reserved for an amorphous solid which has been formed by quenching a glass forming liquid (or melt) through its glass transition temperature sufficiently quickly that a regular crystal lattice cannot form. However, amorphous solids may be formed by methods other than melt quenching, such as ion implantation or the sol-gel method, and since they exhibit the same disordered atomic structure the terms amorphous solid, glass and non-crystalline solid are often regarded as synonyms.

Glass in the common sense contains silica as the main component and glass former, but silica-free glasses also exist.

The physical and in particular the optical properties of glass make it suitable for technological applications such as windows, containers (bottles, jars, bowls), optics, optoelectronics and laboratory equipment. The ease of formability, and its aesthetic features, such as transparency and pigmentation, render glass a common art medium.

General properties, uses, occurrence

The most obvious characteristic of ordinary glass is that it is transparent to visible light, hence its wide application in everyday use. This transparency is due to an absence of electronic transition states in the range of visible light. The homogeneity of the glass on length scales greater than the wavelength of visible light also contributes to its transparency as heterogeneities would cause light to be scattered, breaking up any coherent image transmission. Many household objects are made of glass. Drinking glasses, bowls and bottles are often made of glass, as are light bulbs, mirrors, cathode ray tubes, and windows. Volcanic glasses, such as obsidian, have long been used to make stone tools, and flint knapping techniques can easily be adapted to mass-produced glass.

In research laboratories, flasks, test tubes, lenses and other laboratory equipment are often made of borosilicate glass (such as Pyrex) for its strength and low coefficient of thermal expansion, giving greater resistance to thermal shock and greater accuracy in measurements. For the most demanding applications, quartz glass is used, although it is very difficult to work. Most such glass is mass-produced using various industrial processes, but most large laboratories need so much custom glassware that they keep a glassblower on staff.

Read more at Wikipedia.org