A critical study of the emergence of glass and glassy metals as “green” materials

•We provide a study on the capabilities of glass/glassy metals as green materials.•A well materials selection provides certain strategic and competitive advantages.•Points of view on the actually and future influence of these materials are done.•Glasses are materials that are fully recyclable, with a life cycle perfectly closed.•Glassy metals are considered to be among the emerging materials of the future.

In 2008, The National Academy of Engineering (NAE – Washington, DC) identified the glass family (glasses, glass ceramics and glass composites) as central to many of the great engineering achievements of the twentieth century: the development of solid state lasers and optical glass fibers, biomaterials, glasses for imaging technologies, and glass films in microelectronic devices.The work reported in this paper discusses the importance of glass and metallic glasses as environmental friendly materials and also provide some points of view about the future influence of these materials for the related fields of industrial engineering and industrial ecology. The environmental capabilities of metallic glasses (MGs), which are considered to be among the important materials of the future, have not been sufficiently investigated. However, some aspects have yet to be done: the biocompatibility of most MGs, obtaining valuable MGs from waste materials, using MGs in green energy applications (solar cells and hydrogen production), using MGs in catalyst systems, as well as the possibility for using MGs in systems for retention and purification of dangerous pollutants and in the nuclear industry.

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