Vitreous state of matter

The differences between the properties of the glassy and the crystalline substances are the direct consequence of the absence of long-range order in the glass structure and the flexibility of its structure. This concept of flexible network and factors stabilizing its randomness as criteria of the existence of the glassy state is being developed. Inorganic solid bodies have the form of chemical compounds, solid solutions or multiphase mixtures. These states find their equivalents of random structure in glasses. Multicomponent glasses resemble solid solutions whose degree of homogeneity is various and depends on their chemical composition, the mode of their formation and history. (author). 18 refs, 1 fig