For a long time, one of the key defining factors of glasses has been their molecular randomness; but when a team at the University of Chicago, led by Professor Juan de Pablo, were analyzing a glass that they had grown in their lab they saw unusual peaks in “what should have been featureless optical data.” Initially they thought the peaks the result of an error in their calculations, but instead the team found that the particular technique they had used to make the glass had enabled them to control the organization of the molecules. It might sound like a small thing, but the capacity to tune the orientation of molecules in glass, which improves the density and thermal stability of the material, could be a breakthrough to improving organic electronic devices, such as LEDs and solar cells.
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