The first direct, real-time observations of an ultrastable glass as it \u201crelaxes\u201d into a supercooled liquid have enabled researchers to quantify a previously mysterious process known as the glass transition. This transition plays a crucial role in numerous fields, including biomedical cryopreservation, drug synthesis, electronic device manufacture and tissue engineering to cite but a few examples. The work could also have implications for solar cells, which often have a coating of patterned glass.<\/p>\n
Despite the ubiquitous nature of glass in modern technology and our everyday lives, we do not fully understand it. Though glasses appear solid, their structure is highly disordered, so they are sometimes regarded as liquids with extremely high viscosity. Other mysteries concern how liquids cool and transform into glasses, and vice versa<\/em> when a glass is heated until it becomes molten. Is this glass transition a distinct thermodynamic state? Or is glass simply a liquid that has been supercooled \u2013 that is, one that retains its liquid properties despite being cooled below its freezing temperature?<\/p>\n To address these and other unanswered questions, researchers from the Universitat Aut\u00f2noma de Barcelona<\/a> (UAB), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology<\/a> (ICN2), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia<\/a> (UPC) and the Instituto de Microelectr\u00f3nica de Barcelona<\/a> (IMB-CNM) developed a microscopy technique to directly observe what occurs when an ultrastable organic glass is heated to above its glass transition temperature. This \u201crelaxation\u201d process transforms it into a liquid.<\/p>\nSimilar to crystalline solids<\/h3>\n