New State of Matter Discovered by Scientists: Liquid Glass
- Now scientists at the University of Konstanz have identified a new state of matter called liquid glass, which has some unusual properties.
- The research team used a model system consisting of tailor-made colloids solid particles at a micrometer scale that makes them excellently suited to investigation with optical microscopes with an ellipsoid shape, to study the effect of shape on the glass transition in 3D suspensions.
- The result was a new liquid glass that, in addition to being a new state of matter, could grant materials scientists an insight into both glass transition and liquid crystal formation.
- The researchers uncovered a new state of matter, liquid glass, where individual particles are able to move yet unable to rotate – complex behavior that has not previously been observed in bulk glasses.
- The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).


