Transparent aluminum can require less internal support to build tall glass curtain wall skyscrapers.
For decades, chemical engineers have dreamed of developing a glass-transparent material that combines the strength and durability of metals. This "transparent metal" can be used to build tall glass curtain wall skyscrapers with little internal support. Military buildings can install such thin and transparent metal windows to withstand the highest level of artillery fire. As early as the 1980s, scientists began experimenting with a new type of ceramic formed from a mixture of aluminum, oxygen, and nitrogen powder. After heat treatment and cooling of ceramics, crystalline materials with high hardness are obtained. They put the mixed aluminum powder under tremendous pressure, heated it at a high temperature of 2000 ° C (3632 F) for several days, and finally polished to produce a new material that is transparent like glass and has the strength of aluminum. This space material, considered to be transparent aluminum or ALON, has been used by the military to produce armored windows and optical lenses.