{"id":243150,"date":"2026-08-25T01:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/molecular-trick-opens-the-door-to-a-new-generation-of-glass"},"modified":"2026-08-25T01:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:29:15","slug":"molecular-trick-opens-the-door-to-a-new-generation-of-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/molecular-trick-opens-the-door-to-a-new-generation-of-glass","title":{"rendered":"Molecular trick opens the door to a new generation of glass"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/molecular-trick-opens-the-door-to-a-new-generation-of-glass.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at TU Dortmund University, Paderborn University, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Oxford have developed a new method for selectively modifying the internal structure of specific types of glass. The study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41563-026-02712-5\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal <i>Nature Materials<\/i>, shows how adding an organic molecule during melting causes the chemical bonds in the material to rearrange. The process reduces the required processing temperature, prevents the substance from decomposing, and allows the magnetic and optical properties to be precisely tuned. These specialized glasses are used, among other things, in gas storage, batteries, optical applications and catalysis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have found a way to chemically modify the structure of glasses derived from so-called metal-organic framework compounds\u2014or MOFs for short\u2014right during the manufacturing process,\u201d explains Dr. Sebastian Henke from TU Dortmund University, who led the study.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve this, the experts used 1,10-phenanthroline. The molecule lowers the melting point while simultaneously altering how the metal atoms in the glass are bonded together. The major advantage is that researchers could develop glasses with magnetic or light-emitting properties that were previously impossible to achieve without destroying the material through extreme heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at TU Dortmund University, Paderborn University, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Oxford have developed a new method for selectively modifying the internal structure of specific types of glass. The study, published in the journal Nature Materials, shows how adding an organic molecule during melting causes the chemical bonds in the material [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}