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BookmarkScienceDaily (Jan. 8, 2007) — With environmental regulations forbidding the use of lead in consumer products, scientists in Canada have developed, synthesized and tested a new family of special optical glasses that contain no lead but perform like traditional lead-based optical glass.
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J. W. Zwanziger and colleagues set out to understand origins of the so-called "zero-stress optic response," which underpins the properties of glasses used in rear-projection televisions, liquid crystal on silicon projection systems, optical research equipment and other products.
In a report scheduled for the Jan. 23 issue of ACS' Chemistry of Materials, a bi-weekly journal, they describe finding a simple rule for choosing the composition of glass to minimize the stress optic response. The rule predicted the existence of previously unknown optic glasses.
The researchers then synthesized a variety of alternatives to lead-based glass, producing a new family of lead-free, zero-stress glasses with optical properties like traditional lead-based glasses.
