Real Materials

Amorphous Materials and Glasses

· A crystal is the lowest free energy configuration of a solid. An amorphous material with the same chemistry will have a higher free energy (Gibbs function)
· For systems such as ceramics, slow cooling may give a crystalline structure (a). Fast cooling may yield an amorphous material (b), a glass.

From: Kingery, Bowen, & Uhlmann, "Introduction to Ceramics,"
Wiley (1976)