amorphous

(adjective)

A solid that lacks the long-range order characteristics of a crystalline solid.

Related Terms

  • crystalline

Examples of amorphous in the following topics:

  • Amorphous Solids

    • Solids can be divided into two classes: crystalline and amorphous.
    • Most amorphous solids have some short-range order.
    • However, amorphous solids are common to all subsets of solids.
    • Samples of amorphous metallic glass are shown below.
    • Most classes of solid can be found in an amorphous form.
  • Characteristics of Condensation Polymers

    • The high Tg and Tm values for the amorphous polymer Lexan are consistent with its brilliant transparency and glass-like rigidity.
    • This cold-drawing procedure organizes randomly oriented crystalline domains, and also aligns amorphous domains so they become more crystalline.
    • This contrasts with elastomeric polymers, for which the stretched or aligned morphology is unstable relative to the amorphous random coil morphology.
    • Step-growth polymerization is also used for preparing a class of adhesives and amorphous solids called epoxy resins.
  • Properties of Macromolecules

    • In some cases the entire solid may be amorphous, composed entirely of coiled and tangled macromolecular chains.
    • Natural rubber is a completely amorphous polymer.
    • The following illustration shows a cross-linked section of amorphous rubber.
    • Tg is the temperature below which amorphous domains lose the structural mobility of the polymer chains and become rigid glasses.
    • Elastomers are amorphous polymers that have the ability to stretch and then return to their original shape at temperatures above Tg.
  • Aluminosilicates

    • These can be found as synthetic, amorphous, sodium aluminosilicates, a few naturally-occurring minerals, and synthetic zeolites.
    • Synthetic, amorphous, sodium aluminosilicate is widely used as a food additive, E-554.
  • Thermosetting vs. Thermoplastic Polymers

    • Lignin is the amorphous matrix in which the cellulose fibers of wood are oriented.
  • Properties of Carbon

    • Allotropes of carbon are not limited to diamond and graphite, but also include buckyballs (fullerenes), amorphous carbon, glassy carbon, carbon nanofoam, nanotubes, and others.
    • Some allotropes of carbon: a) diamond, b) graphite, c) lonsdaleite, d–f) fullerenes (C60, C540, C70); g) amorphous carbon, h) carbon nanotube.
  • Allotropes of Carbon

    • Even though amorphous carbon can be manufactured, there still exist some microscopic crystals of graphite-like or diamond-like carbon.
    • The properties of amorphous carbon depend on the ratio of sp2 to sp3 hybridized bonds present in the material.
    • Materials that are high in sp3 hybridized bonds are referred to as tetrahedral amorphous carbon (owing to the tetrahedral shape formed by sp3 hybridized bonds), or diamond-like carbon (owing to the similarity of many of its physical properties to those of diamond).
  • Radical Chain-Growth Polymerization

    • As a result, the morphology of LDPE is an amorphous network of highly branched macromolecules.
  • Properties of Phosphorus

    • Phosphorus after this treatment is amorphous.
  • Properties of Quartz and Glass

    • Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid material.
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