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Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by setquk on Sunday April 22, 2018 @07:02AM (#16895630)
Transparent aluminum?
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by candlefather on Sunday April 22, 2018 @02:24PM (#16897638)
Will be very useful for transportation of whales
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by leowoo91 on Sunday April 22, 2018 @08:25AM (#16895870)
More like a "Valyrian steel"
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by romanr on Sunday April 22, 2018 @09:19AM (#16896035)
Dragon glass
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by jacquesm on Sunday April 22, 2018 @07:13AM (#16895651)
No, alloys with some of the properties of glass in terms of atomic arrangement but not transparent.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by amelius on Sunday April 22, 2018 @07:40AM (#16895742)
Breakable, and not transparent? Sounds like the worst of two worlds ... ;)
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by jacquesm on Sunday April 22, 2018 @07:44AM (#16895763)
Harder, hard to corrode. Those are important properties and you could always make a composite (sandwich) of more than one material.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by IshKebab on Sunday April 22, 2018 @08:49AM (#16895935)
"Glass" means non-crystalline, basically. It doesn't mean that it is like glass.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by durkie on Sunday April 22, 2018 @09:42AM (#16896123)
better thermal and energy transfer properties too.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by rbanffy on Sunday April 22, 2018 @07:41AM (#16895745)
It's very hard to make a metal (where electrons can easily jump from atom to atom) transparent.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by hpcjoe on Sunday April 22, 2018 @11:44AM (#16896638)
Transparency is a function of wavelength/photon energy as well as the underlying material. Glass (the silica version) is opaque to portions of the UV spectrum.

Generally you'll get absorption (opacity) when the photon energy exceeds an energy gap, allowing valence band electrons to be bumped into conduction bands, creating a corresponding hole in the valence. In the case of metals, there is effectively no gap at points in k-space, so there is absorption throughout the spectrum.

Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by rbanffy on Sunday April 22, 2018 @06:43PM (#16899079)
I imagine a clever arrangement of atoms where non-metallic regions alternate with metallic ones could do the trick, as long as the transparent regions line up enough.

But anything this orderly doesn't look like a glass anymore.

Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by logfromblammo on Monday April 23, 2018 @12:46PM (#16905090)
For aluminum, you purify it, oxidize it, and then fuse it into a single crystal of corundum.

A hybrid alumina-silica glass can be created. The hybrid glass has a higher elastic modulus than other silica glass systems, and sheets of it can bend further before fractures form. This glass can be further toughened by creating it with high sodium content, then later exchanging the sodium ions with potassium ions. This type of glass is probably in your pocket right now.

Doped alumina-yttria hybrids are also useful in lasers.

Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by ravenstine on Sunday April 22, 2018 @12:23PM (#16896842)
That's the ticket, laddie!
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by floor_ on Monday April 23, 2018 @07:53AM (#16902556)
This was the first thing I thought of when i read the title. Some ML nerd went "Hmm, I bet I could use ML to figure out how to make the mystical Star Trek alloy."
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by kale on Tuesday April 24, 2018 @02:28PM (#16915252)
I always though sapphire fulfilled the requirements of "transparent aluminium". It's used as a lens material for a lot of phone cameras.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by dahart on Sunday April 22, 2018 @10:18AM (#16896259)
Hello, computer.
Re:Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic... by setquk on Sunday April 22, 2018 @10:42AM (#16896357)
How quaint!