Transparency of glasses

Glass is one of the engineer s most useful and versatile materials. There are many types of glass to choose from to provide a wide range of physical, mechanical, electrical and optical properties for practically every type of environmental condition. The transparency of glass facilitates inspection of process operations and minimises the risk of failure due to unsuspected corrosion, while the hardness and smoothness contribute to easy cleaning. 

Figure 10.3 Optical Transparency of Glass in Comparison to SAN Types (23)...

This section is about an age-old material, glass, which will undoubtedly be the building material of the future - and for several reasons. The transparency of glass makes it the ideal medium for solar cells, and embedding these in a window would seem a logical step to take and such material is now being manufactured. 

Transparency/Opacity. Some plastics can approach or equal the transparency of glass. 

The transparency of glass allows optical inspection or detection of fluidic flow/reaction in microfluidic devices. It also facilitates aligiunent of microstructores in glass with microstructures in silicon. 

These materials may be divided into two classes those which occur naturally, such as wood, stone, and raw rubber, and those which are produced synthetically, such as glass, graphite, stoneware, plastics, and synthetic rubber. Though metals are of prime importance in the construction of chemical plant, non-metals possess certain qualities, which, in spite of their low thermal conductivity and physical strength, make them a preferable material. For example the transparency of glass or the resilience of rubber are often important. 

Many ceramic substances, particularly the oxides, are optically transparent in single crystal or vitreous forms, e.g. the transparency of glass is perhaps its most useful and most characteristic feature. Optical properties are closely related... 

Note in addition to scattering processes, a better rationale for the transparency of glass is due to its electronic band structure, in which the HOMO/LUMO gap is too large to absorb visible light. 

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