The Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully developed oxide high-entropy glass with ultra-high hardness and modulus
Recently, the team of Li Jianqiang, a researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, extended the design concept of high-entropy materials to the field of glass. At the same time, combined with the classic theoretical principles of high hardness and high Young’s modulus glass, an oxide high-entropy glass with ultra-high hardness and high Young’s modulus was successfully developed. According to reports, glass with high hardness, high Young’s modulus, and high fracture toughness, with its excellent scratch resistance and resistance to sharp contact damage, is used in electronic display screens of smart phones, laptops, tablets and wearable devices. There are a wide range of urgent application requirements.
As electronic devices are becoming lighter, thinner and smaller, higher requirements are placed on the cover glass of electronic devices, especially mobile terminal devices. In order to improve their hardness, modulus and fracture toughness, the mainstream soda lime glass and high alumina glass in the cover glass market usually need to be chemically strengthened. Due to the presence of the surface stress layer, the hardness, modulus and fracture toughness of strengthened glass have been improved, but this post-processing method limits the later design of the glass shape, and it is difficult to reprocess the glass once it is chemically strengthened. Therefore, the preparation of glass with high hardness, high modulus, and high fracture toughness through innovative component design and preparation methods is of great significance to the electronic glass industry.
Li Jianqiang said that the project is currently at the stage of laboratory basic research results, and future applications in practice need further research and development. According to reports, as a brand-new material system, high-entropy materials have broken the traditional material design concepts and have been extensively studied in the fields of metals, ceramics and intermetallic compounds. Compared with traditional materials, it exhibits unique advantages in mechanical, physical and chemical properties, and has become one of the important research hotspots in the international material academia.