Canadian university invents a glass that bends but doesn't break

New Delhi: The Department of Mechanical Engineering of McGill University in Canada has invented a new technique to significantly increase the toughness of glass so that when it falls from a table on the floor ,it will not break. Instead it will simply bend and become slightly deformed.Prof. François Barthelat and his team have successfully taken inspiration from the mechanics of natural structures like seashells in order to discover this new tough form of glass.Barthelat and his team studied the internal ‘weak' boundaries or edges to be found in natural materials like nacre and then use lasers to engrave networks of 3D micro-cracks in glass slides in order to create similar weak boundaries. The results were dramatic.The researchers were able to increase the toughness of glass slides (the kind of glass rectangles that get put under microscopes) 200 times compared to non-engraved slides. By engraving networks of micro-cracks in configurations of wavy lines in shapes similar to the wavy edges of pieces in a jigsaw puzzle in the surface of borosilicate glass, they were able to stop the cracks from propagating and becoming larger. They then filled these micro-cracks with polyurethane, although according to Barthelat, this second process is not essential since the patterns of micro-cracks in themselves are sufficient to stop the glass from shattering.