Sunday, August 16, 2026
Science

Active particles could make stable glasses stronger without catastrophic brittle failure

The strongest glasses have an Achilles' heel that causes them to fail catastrophically when pushed past their limit. They do not bend or stretch, as all damage concentrates into a single plane and the material fails in an instant. This brittleness has long capped the usefulness of high-stability amo...

Active particles could make stable glasses stronger without catastrophic brittle failure
Image: Phys.org
The strongest glasses have an Achilles' heel that causes them to fail catastrophically when pushed past their limit. They do not bend or stretch, as all damage concentrates into a single plane and the material fails in an instant. This brittleness has long capped the usefulness of high-stability amorphous solids, from bulk metallic glasses to engineered metamaterials.

Originally published at Phys.org

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