What new materials have not appeared recently! One of them is metal glasses that combine the advantages of metal and glass, excluding their shortcomings. So, for metal glasses, less fragility is characteristic than that of glass, and great elasticity than that of metals. The unique electronic properties of metal glasses began to be studied relatively recently.
American scientists used high pressure to find out the relationship between the density and the electronic properties of metal glasses based on cerium and aluminum. As a result of the study, their prospects became clear for some specific areas of application.
Under the influence of high pressure, the properties of metal glasses can change, including density and electronic properties. The study of their nature at the atomic level will more accurately predict the properties of metal glasses and purposefully develop them for specific applications.
Conventional metal materials have an ordered metal crystalline grate. In contrast, metal glasses are already disordered at the atomic level. However, this can precisely improve a number of their properties, since it is precisely on the boundaries between crystalline grains in metals that breaks and corrosion often occur. Therefore, metal glasses in which there are no crystalline grains are sometimes more durable and durable. In addition, they are highly effective magnetic materials.
In ordinary glass, the density can be changed by increasing the pressure, which causes the regrouping of atoms and reduces the distances between them. However, in metal glasses, the atoms are already tightly packaged. Perhaps the day is not far when shower doors will be made from durable metal glass.
In the meantime, scientists are exploring the possibilities of further increase in the density of metal glasses with a high cerium content by increasing pressure. This will make it possible to use them not only for the door for showers, but also for other, no less useful applications.