A NEW STATE OF MATTER ADDED TO THE LIST!!

 

A new feather added to the wings of the science and technological world by a team of scientists from Germany and the Netherlands.

To begin with there are six states of matter - solid, liquid, gas, plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate and the Fermionic Condensate (in 2003 by Deborah Jin) already discovered.

We all know the liquid,water and gas.

The only difference in the latter two is that 

Bose-Einstein condensates are made up of bosons which are subatomic particles with even number of electrons,protons and neutrons and attract  with each other (in groups, or clumps). Example of boson is gluon.

Fermi condensates are anti-social (they don't attract each other at all). This has to be done artificially. And they have odd number of electrons,protons and neutrons.Example potassium-40

Both exist nearly at -273°C

The rigorous experiments of these scientists using a technology called confocal microscopy lead them to discover a new state of matter called Liquid Glass which exists under mysterious transformations between liquid and solid state of glass.

According to the co senior author Professor Andreas Zumbusch, Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz,"suspensions of colloidal particles are widely spread in nature and technology and have been studied intensely over more than a century, when the density of such suspensions is increased to high volume fractions, often their structural dynamics are arrested in a disordered,glassy state before the can form an ordered structure".

He also added that the usage of synthetic colloids instead of spherical colloids as material building blocks have led them to development of a multitude of novel techniques for the synthesis of colloidal particles with specific geometries and interactions

The explanation behind using ellipsoidal polymethylmethacrylate colloids was stated "due to their distinct shapes our particles have orientation as opposed to spherical particles which gives rise to entirely new and previously on study kinds of complex behaviours".

After examining the temporal development of 3D positions and orientations for almost 6000 ellipsoidal particles using confocal laser scanning microscopy Zumbusch added that at certain particle densities orientations motion froze whereas translational motion did persistt, resulting in glassy states where the particles clustered to form local structures with similar orientation

The liquid glass is nothing but the result of these clusters mutually obstructing each other and mediating characteristic long-range spatial correlations. He explained,"These prevent the formation of a liquid crystal which would be the globally ordered state of matter expected from thermodynamics".

What was Result and further relevance?

The team noticed a regular phase transfory and a non equilibrium phase transformation interacting with one another.

"It also potentially impacts the development of liquid crystalline devices"

The researchers have been attributed towards this technology and further projects will be awaiting for them on this new discovery

Students learn about the new discoveries and they'll get inspire and work on the field of finding new things.

The study was published in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.