Liquid-like Glass May be a True Solid

Is glass a solid, or a liquid? Watching a glass blower at work, you can see the liquid nature of hot glass. Now, scientists have combined computer simulations and information theory to show that glass is, in reality, a true solid.

On a microscopic scale, solidification means that molecules have settled into a crystalline structure. When looked under the microsope, though, it appears as if glass never settles but, instead, keeps flowing-albeit more slowly; in fact, it would take an estimated 10 million years for a window pane to flow perceptibly.

This particular puzzle has made scientists question whether or not glass is a liquid or solid. In order to see what happens at very low temperatures, and whether the whole material becomes truly solid, the scientists turned to computer simulations.

In the end, the scientists found that the size of the solid-like regions of the material increased over time. In addition, atoms in the solid-like regions organize into geometrical shapes, such as icosahedra. These configurations were actually predicted before but now, scientists have more evidence.

"We found that the size of the solid regions of icosahedra would grow until eventually there would be no more liquid regions and so the glass should be a true solid," said Paddy Royall, one of the researchers, in a news release.

In other words, it seems as if glass is actually a true solid. This tells scientists a bit more about the properties of glass, which could be useful in the future.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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