Penn State researchers have formulated a new composition of germanosilicate glass with zinc oxide that shows promise for lens applications.
The researchers invented a new family of zinc germanosilicate glass that has a high refractive index comparable to that of pure germania glass. The samples also showed high transparency, good ultra-violet-shielding properties, and good glass forming ability, making them suitable for lens applications. They published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids.
Other glasses with comparable properties have various roadblocks such as toxicity of materials, higher opacity, or simply being difficult to form.
The new glass also should be less expensive to manufacture than current glasses used for this purpose.
Research was funded by Penn State. Conghang Qu and Arshiya Bhadu, both undergraduate students in materials science and engineering at Penn State, also contributed to this work.
The researchers have filed for a patent.
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:34PM (1 child)
I have no doubt [wikipedia.org] those savings will be passed along to the poor bastards who buy the glasses. None [forbes.com] whatsoever [theguardian.com].
- D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @07:23PM
I think I know where the "savings" will end up going...