ICG has published a special edition of its R&D roadmap activities, which speaks about glass – a material that is at the heart of our optical fiber information networks as and central to so much of our sustainable energy provision, in large photovoltaic cells, solar concentrators, windmill blade reinforcing fibers and energy storage.
For most mobile phone owners, a flat battery and no charger is ‘a fate worse than death’. Society expects both information and energy on tap. But as apps multiply so information flow rates must increase while the exhaustion of carbon based energy vectors requires renewable energy sources to fill the gap. This booklet concerns a material, glass, at the heart of our optical fiber information networks as and central to so much of our sustainable energy provision, in large photovoltaic cells, solar concentrators, windmill blade reinforcing fibers and energy storage. The glasses we have need improvement, the glasses we do not yet have must be found. Their properties must be more completely understood. This book offers a signpost for the next generation embarking on this exciting voyage of exploration and discovery. It has been generated by experts for all who wish to become expert.
The ICG Road Mapping process began in Strasbourg in 2007, at the XXI International Congress on Glass. Several road-mapping workshops followed, covering the most important R&D fields. The results were documented in the 1st edition of MAKING GLASS BETTER in 2010 and led to a reorganization of the TC cluster structure and the creation of new TCs. Since the world is ever changing – even the scientific one – road mapping must be an ongoing process. In the period from 2010-2013 new roadmap workshops with invited experts were arranged; the main results were summarized in the 2nd edition of MAKING GLASS BETTER published in 2014. At the same time the content of the 1st edition was critically reviewed.
Now with this SPECIAL EDITION, we are publishing for the first time material from roadmap exercises that were not designed and organized by the ICG. These results originated in a topical meeting in Sicily, 2013, arranged by the NSF’s International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass (IMI-NFG) and cover the fields of Information and Energy Technology, which are of crucial interest for future glass applications. Its creation gathered pace through information harvesting and finally it blossomed into the fascinating results and roadmaps published here by the ICG, as a SPECIAL EDITION OF MAKING GLASS BETTER. We hope that this special edition, which was designed to identify the most relevant activities in the two fields for the next decade and to promote the necessary fundamental research, will stimulate discussion and create a solid basis for future measures. The pre-competitive character of such activities will enhance cooperation among countries and companies through the ICG global platform, helping to make our material, glass, attractive and promoting the adaptation of education to the future needs of our various societies.
This text is formally entitled Special edition: Functional Glasses: Properties and Applications for Energy and Information. Altogether it covers approximately 100 pages. Its authors are: Klaus Bange, Himanshu Jain and Carlo G. Pantano, and the text has been edited by Klaus Bange, Alicia Durán and John Parker, ICG’s Editorial Team. The publisher is the International Commission on Glass (ICG) and copies are available from DGG (dgg@hvg-dgg.de) at a cost of EUR 20.