New glass cuts carbon footprint by nearly half and is 10x more damage resistant | Hacker News Reader

New glass cuts carbon footprint by nearly half and is 10x more damage resistant

psu.edu

63 pointsclouddrover12 comments

While researching the melting temperature of glass (1400 - 1600 C), I discovered how glass panes ("float glass" [1]) are made: molten glass is floated on molten tin in a positive-pressure of nitrogen (to keep the tin from oxidizing). The molten tin provides a very flat surface for the glass to cool on, which means cheaper glass because you don't have to polish the sides after it cools. I had no idea!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_glass

Annoyingly, there's no description of the composition of the glass nor the manufacturing process, it could be transparent rubber for we know.

"The researchers explained that the limits of LionGlass have not yet been found, because they reached the maximum load allowed by the indentation equipment."

Equally vague and obscure. (Surely they could use a guesstimate, when one's test equipment runs out of range there are usually workarounds. Although not as accurate, they at least provide a ballpark measurement.)

Also, the article mentions only crack resistance but nothing about scratch resistance (they're not necessarily the same). I wonder why.

Based on the lead glass wizard's most recent works this is likely to be an anorthite-based glass.

https://www.matse.psu.edu/directory/john-mauro

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00223...

[bonus] https://www.instagram.com/linotagliapietra/

It is indeed likely to be an anorthite-based glass, because anorthite is very abundant, but in any case even without those research papers the description suggests that it must be some kind of alumo-silicate glass.

If the use of such glass would become widespread, we would actually revert to the use of a glass similar in composition with obsidian, a material preferred by our remote ancestors.

Thanks for that, those links are of much more use than the original story. :-)

I was expecting Lionglass to include Lithium ions, but they named it after their mascot!

Apparently, "about 10 to about 14 mol % of K2O; from 0 to about 4 mol % of CaO; from about 14 to about 18 mol % of Al2O3; and from about 66 to about 74 mol % SiO2" https://patents.justia.com/patent/20220332632 So, an aluminum-potassium-calcium oxide mix instead of the sodium carbonate.

Very interesting reference, thanks.

The workarounds require extra equipment and they're much more complicated. Better to wait for a more capable machine.

If they were serious about emissions they should not have filed a patent.

how is the insulation of this new glass, great if it saves emmisions on the production side, but if it lets all the heat in my house fly outside it won't save a thing.

Glass panes are generally poor insulation regardless of glass family.

You get insulation gains from double | triple paning along with low-e coatings.

https://engext.ksu.edu/buildingenvelope/windowsanddoors

For those not into defenestration, See:

National Fenestration Rating Council https://www.nfrc.org/

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