Manufacturing and Application of Next Generation Chalcogenides

玻璃一直是文明中许多重要进步的关键材料;正是玻璃透镜使显微镜第一次看到细菌，望远镜揭示了行星和木星的卫星。几千年来，玻璃器皿本身为化学、生物和文化的发展做出了贡献。现代，玻璃对社会的变革仍在继续;玻璃光纤束改变了互联网和我们的沟通方式。如今，玻璃已经超越了透明材料，并通过不断的研究成为活跃的先进和功能性材料。与传统的由二氧化硅或沙子制成的玻璃不同，现在的研究正在生产由硫等材料制成的玻璃，这种材料产生了一种不寻常的黄色橙子玻璃，具有令人难以置信的各种特性。这种下一代特种玻璃以其功能性和对光、电和热刺激做出反应的能力而闻名。这些眼镜有能力切换，弯曲，自我组织和变暗时，暴露在光线下，他们甚至可以导电。当强光入射到它们上时，它们可以透射普通玻璃阻挡的红外线，并且这些玻璃的性质甚至可以改变。对特种玻璃的需求正在增长，这些先进材料对英国具有重要意义。我们生产和加工材料的企业每年的营业额约为1700亿英镑;占该国GDP的15%，出口额为500亿英镑。通过我们提出的研究计划，我们将生产出世界上独一无二的高纯度、高功能的玻璃。我们提出的研究目标如下：- 使英国成为世界领先的特种玻璃研究和制造设施-发现新的和优化现有的玻璃成分，特别是用硫制成的玻璃-与英国工业界建立联系，帮助他们开发这些新的玻璃材料-展示这些玻璃的重要的新电子，电信，开关设备-与其他英国大学合作，探索特种玻璃的新的和新兴的应用为了实现这些目标，我们汇集了来自南安普顿，埃克塞特，牛津，剑桥和赫瑞瓦特大学。我们与超过15家英国公司合作，这些公司将在其产品中使用这些材料或为制造它们的新方法做出贡献。因此，这一建议提供了一个独特的机会，以支持一项在特种玻璃制造、研究和开发方面的实质性国家方案。

Glass has been a key material for many important advances in civilization; it was glass lenses which allowed microscopes to see bacteria for the first time and telescopes which revealed the planets and the moons of Jupiter. Glassware itself has contributed to the development of chemical, biological and cultural progress for thousands of years. The transformation of society with glass continues in modern times; as strands of glass optical fibres transform the internet and how we communicate. Today, glasses have moved beyond transparent materials, and through ongoing research have become active advanced and functional materials.Unlike conventional glasses made from silica or sand, research is now producing glasses from materials such as sulphur, which yields an unusual, yellow orange glass with incredibly varied properties. This next generation of speciality glasses are noted for their functionality and their ability to respond to optical, electrical and thermal stimuli. These glasses have the ability to switch, bend, self-organize and darken when exposed to light, they can even conduct electricity. They transmit light in the infra-red, which ordinary glass blocks and the properties of these glasses can even change, when strong light is incident upon them. The demand for speciality glass is growing and these advanced materials are of national importance for the UK. Our businesses that produce and process materials have a turnover of around £170 billion per annum; represent 15% of the country's GDP and have exports valued at £50 billion. With our proposed research programme we will produce extremely pure, highly functional glasses, unique to the world. The aims of our proposed research are as follows:- To establish the UK as a world-leading speciality glass research and manufacturing facility- To discovery new and optimize existing glass compositions, particularly in glasses made with sulphur- To develop links with UK industry and help them to exploit these new glass materials- To demonstrate important new electronic, telecommunication, switching devices from these glasses- To partner other UK Universities to explore new and emerging applications of speciality glassTo achieve these goals we bring together a world-class, UK team of physicists, chemists, engineers and computer scientists from Southampton, Exeter, Oxford, Cambridge and Heriot-Watt Universities. We are partners with over 15 UK companies who will use these materials in their products or contribute to new ways of manufacturing them. This proposal therefore provides a unique opportunity to underpin a substantial national programme in speciality-glass manufacture, research and development.