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How does glass differ from a crystal at the atomic level?
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Examining a superhydrophobic glass surface that resists fog and glare and is self-cleaning.
At the atomic level, the primary difference between glass and a crystal lies in the presence or absence of long-range order, also known as translational periodicity.21
- Crystals: Atoms are arranged in a highly regular, repeating three-dimensional array. If the position of one atom and its neighbors is known, the location of every other atom throughout the entire structure can be precisely determined. This long-range regularity results in sharp, well-defined peaks in experimental data, such as the radial distribution function.213
- Glass: As an amorphous solid, glass lacks this long-range periodicity. Instead, its atomic structure is more similar to that of a liquid, characterized by a random, three-dimensional network. While glass lacks long-range order, it still possesses short-range order; atoms are not randomly distributed but are held together by specific chemical bonds, meaning each atom maintains a consistent distance from its nearest neighbors, much like in a crystal.2453
In essence, while both materials exhibit local structural order due to chemical bonding, only crystals maintain that order across long distances.23