Dr. Morten Smedskjaer, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience at Aalborg University, will present: “Accelerating Glass Design and Accessing Forbidden States”.

Functional oxide glasses play a critical role in current and developing technologies. However, they are brittle and exhibit low fracture toughness, which seriously limit the scope of their applications, as they cannot deform plastically without fracture. Developing more damage resistant glass compositions is thus believed to be one of the keys for solving some of the major global challenges, but these materials have traditionally been designed empirically through trial-and-error experimentation. Here we review recent advancements in the design of new glass compositions starting at the atomic level, which have become possible through an unprecedented level of understanding of glass physics and chemistry. However, we also show that the possibilities for composition optimization are too limited for certain applications, since around 3/5 of the atoms in most oxide glasses are oxygens. Extrinsic toughening through post-processing is an alternative opportunity for tuning the structure and properties of oxide glasses, since various glassy states can form from a liquid depending on the formation history. Using high-pressure annealing, we show how it is possible to access so-called “forbidden glass” regions, which cannot be reached by any composition or thermal path.

Biography:

Morten M. Smedskjaer obtained his MSc in chemical engineering in 2008 and PhD in materials chemistry in 2011, both from Aalborg University (Denmark). He then worked as research scientist at Corning Inc. in USA, before returning to Aalborg University as Associate Professor in 2012, with promotion to Professor MSO in 2016. Smedskjaer’s research focuses on the structure, topology, dynamics, and mechanical properties of oxide glasses. His research group (currently 3 Ph.D. students and 2 Postdocs) is part of Center for Amorphous Materials Science. As the PI, he has attracted more than $3 million funding, including the prestigious Sapere Aude DFF-Starting Grant to support his research on high-pressure effects. He has published 9 patent applications (2 granted), over 90 journal articles with h-index 19, and given 14 invited talks at international conferences. His awards include the Norbert J. Kreidl Award and Best Ph.D. Award from Danish Academy of Natural Science.