Traditional glass is made from silicon dioxide. We may also have a general idea that materials like boron, polymers and metals have also been used in the process. However, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have made a breakthrough recently and developed zinc-based metal-organic glass. The material has been named ZIF-62. the new glass has a zinc atom surrounded by two organic compounds, imidazolate and benzimidazolate to create a metal-organic Framework. These new materials form glass more readily than other types, and are much more pliable with the same pyramid shaped atomic structure as silica glass.

Traditionally, silica glass is known to have the best glass-forming ability, but according to the researchers, ZIF-62 is better. In fact, ZIF-62 has outperformed 50 existing types of glass, and is much more pliable than silica-based glass. The researchers also found that by making adjustments to the recipe, the more benzimidazolate they added, the better the material’s glass-forming ability became. Of cause, in comparison to the process for silica glass that has gone through thousands of years of refinement, ZIF-62 still has its shortcomings. At its early state, it’s hard for the new material to compete with the traditional manufacturing process as the organic compounds first need to be synthesized before making this metal-organic glass. 

In the future, the researchers are also planning to carry out further study on other metallic-organic glass recipes, including a potential cobalt-based glass.