| Posted: April 3, 2007 |
Making Glass From Sugar (but Hold the Sand) |
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(Nanowerk News) The New York Times is running a short piece today titled "Making Glass From Sugar (but Hold the Sand)" which is based on a recent research paper in Nature Materials ("Self-assembly in sugar–oil complex glasses").
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A new form of glass, the unique combination of solid- and liquid-like properties of this sugar-oil emulsion might have applications in optical or sensing devices. Since it can be made with food-grade materials (the oil used was limonene, or orange oil), it might be useful in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
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It might also someday be used to fabricate nanoscale materials, by using a polymerizable compound in place of the oil. In this case the glass would act as a template, holding the compound in the sugar structure. After the compound was polymerized, the sugar could be simply dissolved away.
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