Tag Archives: glass

Archivists, rejoice! Fused quartz stores data for millions of years at the University of Southampton (UK)

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There’s a July 9,  2013 news item on Nanowerk touting nanostructured glass device which is being compared to Superman’s memory crystal (see this Wikipedia essay on Superman’s Fortress of Solitude for a description of Superman’s memory crystals),

Using nanostructured glass, scientists at the University of Southampton have, for the first time, experimentally demonstrated the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional digital data by femtosecond laser writing. The storage allows unprecedented parameters including 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1000°C and practically unlimited lifetime.

Coined as the ‘Superman’ memory crystal, as the glass memory has been compared to the “memory crystals” used in the Superman films, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz, which is able to store vast quantities of data for over a million years. The information encoding is realised in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures. [emphases mine]

The July 9, 2013 University of Southampton news release, which originated the news item, provides more details,

A 300 kb digital copy of a text file was successfully recorded in 5D using ultrafast laser, producing extremely short and intense pulses of light. The file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometres (one millionth of a metre).

The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarisation of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polariser, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.

The research is led by Jingyu Zhang from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and conducted under a joint project with Eindhoven University of Technology.

“We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organisations with big archives. At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan,” says Jingyu. [emphasis mine]

“Museums who want to preserve information or places like the national archives where they have huge numbers of documents, would really benefit.”

This work was presented at the CLEO 2013 (Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in San Jose [US]). Here’s a link to and a citation for the 2 pp presentation paper,

5D Data Storage by Ultrafast Laser Nanostructuring in Glass by Jingyu Zhang, Mindaugas Gecevičius, Martynas Beresna, and Peter G. Kazansky. Presentation paper for CLEO 2013

© 2013 Optical Society of America OCIS codes (140.3390) Laser materials processing, (210.0210) Optical data storage

This research was conducted as part of the European Union’s Femtoprint project, which is funded under the Framework Programme 7 initiative. Here’s more about Femtoprint from the homepage,

FEMTOPRINT is to develop a printer for microsystems with nano-scale features fabricated out of glass. Our ultimate goal is to provide a large pool of users from industry, research and universities with the capability of producing their own micro-systems, in a rapid-manner without the need for expensive infrastructures and specific expertise. Recent researches have shown that one can form three-dimensional patterns in glass material using low-power femtosecond laser beam. This simple process opens interesting new opportunities for a broad variety of microsystems with feature sizes down to the nano-scale. These patterns can be used to form integrated optics components or be ‘developed’ by chemically etching to form three-dimensional structures like fluidic channels and micro-mechanical components. Worth noticing, sub-micron resolution can be achieved and sub-pattern smaller than the laser wavelength can be formed. Thanks to the low-energy required to pattern the glass, femtosecond laser consisting simply of an oscillator are sufficient to produce such micro- and nano- systems.

These systems are nowadays table-top and cost a fraction of conventional clean-room equipments. It is highly foreseeable that within 3 to 5 years such laser systems will fit in a shoe-box. The project specific objectives are:

1/ Develop a femtosecond laser suitable for glass micro-/nano- manufacturing that fits in a shoe-box

2/ Integrate the laser in a machine similar to a printer that can position and manipulate glass sheets of various thicknesses

3/ Demonstrate the use of the printer to fabricate a variety of micro-/nano-systems with optical, mechanical and fluid-handling capabilities. A clear and measurable outcome of Femtoprint will be to be in a situation to commercialize the ‘femtoprinter’ through the setting-up of a consortium spin-off. The potential economical impact is large and is expected in various industrial sectors.

I think any archivist hearing about data storage that can last a million years will be thrilled although I suspect it’s going to be a long, long time before these 5D ‘memory’ crystals are going to be storing any data for anyone. In the meantime, there are efforts such as the Council of Canadian Academies’ (CCA) Memory Institutions and the Digital Revolution assessment (mentioned 2/3 of the way down in my June 5, 2013 posting).

“Spring is like a perhaps hand,” E. E. Cummings, Harvard, and nano flowers

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It’s always a treat to read a news/press/media release that starts with poetry. From the May 16, 2013 Harvard University press release,

“Spring is like a perhaps hand,” wrote the poet E. E. Cummings: “carefully / moving a perhaps / fraction of flower here placing / an inch of air there… / without breaking anything.”

This was written to celebrate the publication of a paper by Wim L. Noorduin and others, from the press release (Note: Links have been removed),

By simply manipulating chemical gradients in a beaker of fluid, Wim L. Noorduin, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and lead author of a paper appearing on the cover of the May 17 issue of Science, has found that he can control the growth behavior of these crystals to create precisely tailored structures.

“For at least 200 years, people have been intrigued by how complex shapes could have evolved in nature. This work helps to demonstrate what’s possible just through environmental, chemical changes,” says Noorduin.

The precipitation of the crystals depends on a reaction of compounds that are diffusing through a liquid solution. The crystals grow toward or away from certain chemical gradients as the pH of the reaction shifts back and forth. The conditions of the reaction dictate whether the structure resembles broad, radiating leaves, a thin stem, or a rosette of petals.

…

Replicating this type of effect in the laboratory was a matter of identifying a suitable chemical reaction and testing, again and again, how variables like the pH, temperature, and exposure to air might affect the nanoscale structures.

The project fits right in with the work of Joanna Aizenberg, an expert in biologically inspired materials science, biomineralization, and self-assembly, and principal investigator for this research.

Aizenberg is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at Harvard SEAS, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

Here are some details about how the scientists created their ‘flowers, from the press release,

To create the flower structures, Noorduin and his colleagues dissolve barium chloride (a salt) and sodium silicate (also known as waterglass) into a beaker of water. Carbon dioxide from air naturally dissolves in the water, setting off a reaction which precipitates barium carbonate crystals. As a byproduct, it also lowers the pH of the solution immediately surrounding the crystals, which then triggers a reaction with the dissolved waterglass. This second reaction adds a layer of silica to the growing structures, uses up the acid from the solution, and allows the formation of barium carbonate crystals to continue.

“You can really collaborate with the self-assembly process,” says Noorduin. “The precipitation happens spontaneously, but if you want to change something then you can just manipulate the conditions of the reaction and sculpt the forms while they’re growing.”

Increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, for instance, helps to create ‘broad-leafed’ structures. Reversing the pH gradient at the right moment can create curved, ruffled structures.

Noorduin and his colleagues have grown the crystals on glass slides and metal blades; they’ve even grown a field of flowers in front of President Lincoln’s seat on a one-cent coin.

“When you look through the electron microscope, it really feels a bit like you’re diving in the ocean, seeing huge fields of coral and sponges,” describes Noorduin. “Sometimes I forget to take images because it’s so nice to explore.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Rationally Designed Complex, Hierarchical Microarchitectures by Wim L. Noorduin, Alison Grinthal, L. Mahadevan, and Joanna Aizenberg. Science 17 May 2013: Vol. 340 no. 6134 pp. 832-837 DOI: 10.1126/science.1234621

H/T to the May 17, 2013 news item on Azonano.

Looking at glass on the molecular scale

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Glass isn’t transparent (at the molecular scale) as it’s cooling and scientists have been curious about this transition from liquid to glass state. According to an Oct. 15, 2012 posting by Carol Clark for Emory University’s eScienceCommons, a team from Emory University (and New York University)  has cracked this mystery. First, here’s more about the mystery (from Clark’s article)

Scientists fully understand the process of water turning to ice. As the temperature cools, the movement of the water molecules slows. At 32 F, the molecules lock into crystal lattices, solidifying into ice. In contrast, the molecules of glasses do not crystallize.The movement of the glass molecules slows as the temperature cools, but they never lock into crystal patterns. Instead, they jumble up and gradually become glassier, or more viscous. No one understands exactly why.

The phenomenon leaves physicists to ponder the molecular question of whether glass is a solid, or merely an extremely slow-moving liquid.

This purely technical physics question has stoked a popular misconception: That the glass in the windowpanes of some centuries-old buildings is thicker at the bottom because the glass flowed downward over time.

“The real reason the bottom is thicker is because they hadn’t yet learned how to make perfectly flat panes of glass,” Weeks says [Emory physicist Eric Weeks]. “For practical purposes, glass is a solid and it will not flow, even over centuries. But there is a kernel of truth in this urban legend: Glasses are different than other solid materials.”

Speaking more technically about the transition,

“Cooling a glass from a liquid into a highly viscous state fundamentally changes the nature of particle diffusion,” says Emory physicist Eric Weeks, whose lab conducted the research. “We have provided the first direct observation of how the particles move and tumble through space during this transition, a key piece to a major puzzle in condensed matter physics.”

Weeks specializes in “soft condensed materials,” substances that cannot be pinned down on the molecular level as a solid or liquid, including everyday substances such as toothpaste, peanut butter, shaving cream, plastic and glass.

The scientists have prepared a video animation of what they believing is occurring as glass cools (no sound),

Here’s what the movie depicts (from the Clark article),

The movie and data from the experiment provide the first clear picture of the particle dynamics for glass formation. As the liquid grows slightly more viscous, both rotational and directional particle motion slows. The amount of rotation and the directional movements of the particles remain correlated.

“Normally, these two types of motion are highly coupled,” Weeks says. “This remains true until the system reaches a viscosity on the verge of being glass. Then the rotation and directional movements become decoupled: The rotation starts slowing down more.”

He uses a gridlocked parking lot as an analogy for how the particles are behaving. “You can’t turn your car around, because it’s not a sphere shape and you would bump into your neighbors. You have to wait until a car in front of you moves, and then you can drive a bit in that direction. This is directional movement, and if you can make a bunch of these, you may eventually be able to turn your car. But turning in a crowded parking lot is still much harder than moving in a straight line.”

There’s more about the work and team in Clark’s article. H/T to the Oct. 16, 2012 news item on Nanowerk for alerting me to this work. You can find the article the researchers have written at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),

Decoupling of rotational and translational diffusion in supercooled colloidal fluids by Kazem V. Edmond, Mark T. Elsesser, Gary L. Hunter, David J. Pine, and Eric R. Weeks. Published online before print October 15, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1203328109 PNAS October 15, 2012

The article is behind a paywall.

Clay and nanotechnology

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There’s an interesting Aug. 23, 2012 essay by Will Soutter for Azonano about colloidal clay and some early nanotechnology products,

… colloid chemistry, which deals with the chemical and physical interactions of nanoscale particles, is a much older field – it has been studied and used in the chemical industry extensively since the early 19th century.

Even before colloids, or nanoparticles, were fully understood, they were used in many manufacturing techniques, to produce glass and ceramics with unusual, attractive properties.

I have come across reference to nanoparticles and glass (my Sept. 21, 2010 posting about the Lycurgus Cup) but this is the first I’ve heard of clay and nanoparticles,

Porcelain, which is a much finer-grained ceramic, does not require glazing – it is inherently waterproof, and has a more attractive appearance. These properties stem from the main constituent of the clay used for porcelain, called kaolinite, or china clay.

The colloids in this clay are extremely small, and behave differently to other clay particles when in solution. The particles, like most clay colloids, are platelet-shaped and have negatively-charged flat sections. Unlike most clay particles, however, they also have positively charged edges, which changes the colloid dynamics almost entirely and results in a different solid structure when the porcelain is fired.

The article is illustrated with images of porcelain and ruby glass demonstrating the effect that nanoparticles can have on materials.

Curved glass, Italy, and Diamon-Fusion

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You just don’t expect a glorious moment when you’re searching for more information about a glass company but I had it on seeing some of the gallery images at the Curvet website (Italy),

_Edilizia facciate, vetrate isolanti, fotovoltaic (Curvet Italy website)

Getting to the news part of this, Curvet has signed with Diamon-Fusion international (they produce nanocoatings used on glass) for a third renewal  of their licensing deal. From the May 17, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Diamon-Fusion International, Inc. (DFI), global developer and exclusive licensor of patented hydrophobic nanotechnologies, announced today the renewal of its license agreement with Italian glass manufacturer Curvet Group, one of the world’s leaders in the fabrication of specialty bent and flat glass in the architectural field for its application license agreement for Diamon-Fusion® glass nano-coating. This is the third renewal for Curvet Group and extends the partnership with DFI into 2017. For over a decade, Curvet has utilized DFI’s industrial flexibility in its 3D ultra-efficient CVD chamber, a patented technology that showcases DFI’s exclusive production capabilities.

Here’s a little more about Curvet,

Curvet Group produces glass for use in many different applications, incorporating modern stylish designs and a myriad different colors and effects, while maintaining and enhancing the inherent safety aspects and practical uses of this versatile product. Its wide-range of market segments include; home furnishings, bathroom furniture, automotive, transportation, marine, construction, architecture, urban furniture, household appliances, lighting and new technologies. In addition, the importance of renewable energy products today is an area in which glass plays a prominent part and where Curvet is an international leader in the field.

Curvet, a 30-year Italian privately-held holding group, is the only company in Europe that is able to produce bent glass of every type with unique and innovative solutions for every sector. The differentiation in equipment and the resulting flexibility are the key factors of Curvet’s success. It is the only company to carry out the whole processing of flat glass into any kind of curved finished product. Curvet is also a manufacturer of tempered, laminated and security glass with strategic distribution and sales offices in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, USA and Morocco.

I have mentioned Diamon-Fusion and its technology previously (in a Nov. 26, 2009 posting and in a Feb. 11, 2011 posting) but here we go again with a very brief description  (from the May 17, 2012 news item),

Through DFI’s patented nano-coating process, the treatment to the glass creates a water repellent effect which enables ease of cleaning and protection against scratches, abrasion, hard water, soap scum, mildew and environmental elements, therefore considerably reducing the overall costs of maintenance. The Diamon-Fusion® nano-coating is optically clear, and does not affect the natural reflection of the glass.

If you want to see more beautiful images of Curvet glass, go here and click on the coloured boxes.

SiO2: The Science of Glass; glassblowing and glory holes

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The SiO2: The Science of Glass traveling exhibit from the Montreal Science Centre opened at the Canada Science and Technology Museum on Nov. 5, 2011 and can be seen until April 9, 2012.

I wonder if there’s any chance the exhibit will travel to the West Coast? I have a longstanding interest in glass and notice the images from the Montreal Science Centre website look quite interesting. Here’s a sample,

Glass from the Libyan Desert (Verre du désert Libyen) © Denis Farley

Here’s a synopsis of the show from the Montreal Science Centre website,

Discover the origins and surprising physical and chemical properties of glass. SiO2: The Science of Glass tells us about the various types of glass, their properties, and about the many methods used in producing glass on an industrial scale. It also explains the role glass has played in the history of civilisation and reminds us of its daily uses. From its production at an industrial scale to its leading-edge innovations, glass will shine through its ubiquitous brilliance and contrasts.

In a Nov. 1, 2010 posting I featured an essay about glass (Heavenly illumination: The science and magic of stained glass [link to original essay on Guardian science blog]) by Andy Connelly, here’s an excerpt about the science of glass from my posting which includes a comment from me,

So what is a glass? Why can we see through it when other materials are opaque? Glasses exist in a poorly understood state somewhere between solids and liquids. [If I ever knew that interesting fact, I’ve long since forgotten it.] In general, when a liquid is cooled there is a temperature at which it will “freeze”, becoming a crystalline solid (eg. water into ice at 0C). Most solid inorganic materials are crystalline and are made up of many millions of crystals, each having an atomic structure which is highly ordered, with atomic units tessellating throughout. The shape of these units can be observed in the shape of single crystals (eg. hexagonal quartz crystals).

Glass is different: it is not crystalline but made up of a continuous network of atoms that are not ordered but irregular and liquid-like. This difference in atomic structure occurs because the liquid glass is cooled so quickly that the atoms do not have time to arrange themselves into regular, crystal-like patterns.

If cooled fast enough almost any liquid can form glass, even water. However, the rate of cooling must be very fast. Fortunately for us, liquids composed primarily of silicon oxide [SiO2] can be cooled slowly and still form a glass.

A few months later I found a brief bit accompanied by  a video about glass on the Guardian science blogs, this time about scientific and art glass blowing, from the news bit by Alex Rappaport and Kiva Ford highlighting Ford’s video of his work,

Aside from Mr Ford’s pastime of creating miniature distillation vessels and delicately curlicued glass jewelry, his day job is as a scientific glassblower, creating extractors, reactors, condensers, and a variety of custom flasks. The vessels used in chemical research cannot be mass produced; each piece has been meticulously handcrafted for thousands of years.

Here’s the video,

I found the information about the decline of science glass blowing a little saddening although Ford seems to feel that there’ll always be a demand for custom work. Amazingly, he works during the day as a scientific glass blower and then goes home to create art glass. I loved his animal series (the detail is amazing).

Years ago, I came across a new media piece about glass and the glory hole. I gather it’s a furnace where you finish your glass. The term exerts a fascination for me and I found this video about glass and glory holes (there is a commercial at the beginning but if you persist I think you’ll find the video amusing),

Happy Weekend!

Vancouver’s Cafe Scientifique features a talk on beetles, biomimcry, and nanocrystalline cellulose

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Vancouver’s Railway Club is a well-known local bar and live music venue that offers unexpected possibilities. From the History page,

It’s a venerable place: it was one of the oldest licences granted in the province after the repeal of prohibition. And while most of the others are now gone, the best still remains here for all to enjoy.

Here’s what the media say…

“The old-school Rail is great if you just want to grab a beer in a trad-pub setting, but what really makes it special is its enduring commitment to the indie music scene. Its little stage has seen dozens of rising stars kick-start their careers and it’s still the best place in town to catch passionate, consistently high-quality acts, ranging from folk to metal to bluegrass to polka.”
Lonely Planet

“Best Good Old Bar…What other bar could you show off to your parents at lunchtime, then return after dark with your latest punk rock, alt-coutnry, or other indie-music-fan squeeze to see live music? Nowhere else, that’s where. Not anymore.”
Georgia Straight, Best of Vancouver Edition, 2005

Under the category of unexpected possibilities, the club is hosting Café Scientifique talks and there’s one coming up on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 that features Mark MacLachlan, a professor from the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Chemistry Department. I featured MacLachlan and his work on nanocrystalline cellulose in a Nov. 18, 2010 post. From the Café Scientifique notice for the March 29, 2011 event,

Our next café will happen on March 29th, 7:30pm @ Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street). The speaker for the evening will be Mark MacLachlan, an Associate Professor from the Chemistry Department at UBC. His talk that evening will be:

Biomimetic Materials … With a Twist!

Natural materials that have evolved in plants and animals often display spectacular mechanical and optical properties. For example, spider silk is as strong as steel and tougher than Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof vests.  Inspired by nature, chemists are now synthesizing materials that mimic the structures and properties of shells, bones, muscle, leaves, feathers, and other natural materials. In this talk, I will discuss our recent discovery of a new type of coloured glass that is a mimic of beetle shells. [emphasis mine] These new materials have intriguing optical properties that arise from their twisted internal structure, and they may be useful for emerging applications.

This sounds closely related to the work publicized in November 2010 (from UBC’s public affairs page),

The UBC researchers [MacLachlan, Kevin Shopsowitz, and Hao Qi] mixed the cellulose from the wood pulp with a silica, or glass, precursor and then burned away the cellulose. The resulting glass films are composed of pores, or holes, arranged in a helical structure that resembles a spiral staircase. Each hole is less than 1/10,000th of the diameter of a human hair.

“When Kevin showed me the films and they were red, blue, yellow and green, I knew we’d been able to maintain the helical structure found in the cellulose.”

“The helical organization we produced synthetically mimics the structure of the exoskeletons of some iridescent beetles,” says Shopsowitz. [emphasis mine]

I look forward to the talk. For anyone who’s not in Vancouver, there are Café Scientifique events in other Canadian cities including Halifax, Ottawa, and Calgary. Go here for a complete listing of events.