A new method of manufacturing glass could lead to the production of ‘designer glasses’ with applications in advanced photonics, whilst also facilitating industrial scale carbon capture and storage. An international team of researchers, writing today in the journal Nature Communications, report how they have managed to use a relatively new family of sponge-like porous materials to develop new hybrid glasses.

A ‘trouble maker’ from a bygone method of glass production could find a new use as an optical diffuser in medical laser treatments, communications systems and household lighting.