Examples of Amorphous Solids-
Examples of amorphous solids are glasses, ceramics, gels, polymers, rapidly quenched melts and thin-film systems deposited on a substrate at low temperatures. The investigation of amorphous materials is a very active area of research. Despite enormous progress in recent years our understanding of amorphous materials still remains far from complete. The reason is the absence of the simplifications associated with periodicity.
Nonetheless, from a comparison of the properties of materials in crystalline and an amorphous state the essential features of the electronic structure and thereby also macroscopic properties are determined by short-range order. Thus these properties are similar for solids in the amorphous and crystalline state.
Some examples of amorphous solids are glass, rubber, pitch, many plastic etc. Quartz is an example of a crystalline solid which has regular order of the arrangement of SiO4 tetrahedra. If quartz is melted and the melt is cooled rapidly enough to avoid crystallization an amorphous solid called glass is obtained.
