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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vitrification

Vitrification \Vit`ri*fi*ca"tion\, n. [See Vitrify.] Same as Vitrifaction.
--Sir T. Browne. Ure.

Wiktionary
vitrification

n. A process of converting a material into a glass-like amorphous solid which is free of any crystalline structure, either by the quick removal or addition of heat, or by mixing with an additive.

WordNet
vitrification
  1. n. a vitrified substance; the glassy result of being vitrified

  2. the process of becoming vitreous

Wikipedia
Vitrification

Vitrification (from Latin vitreum, "glass" via French vitrifier) is the transformation of a substance into a glass, that is to say a non- crystalline amorphous solid. In ceramics it gives impermeability to water.

Vitrification is usually achieved by heating materials until they liquidize, then cooling the liquid, often rapidly, so that it passes through the glass transition to form a vitrified solid. Certain chemical reactions also result in glasses. In a wider sense, the embedding of material in a glassy matrix is also called vitrification. An important application is the vitrification of radioactive waste to obtain a stable compound that is suitable for ultimate disposal.

In terms of chemistry, vitrification is characteristic for amorphous materials or disordered systems and occurs when bonding between elementary particles (atoms, molecules, forming blocks) becomes higher than a certain threshold value. Thermal fluctuations break the bonds; therefore, the lower the temperature, the higher the degree of connectivity. Because of that amorphous materials have a characteristic threshold temperature termed glass transition temperature (T): below T amorphous materials are glassy whereas above T they are molten.

The most common applications are in the making of pottery, glass, and some types of food, but there are many others, such as the vitrification of an antifreeze-like liquid in cryopreservation.

Usage examples of "vitrification".

Sadeq, studies abandoned in the face of increasing intrusions from the world of what is into the universe of what should be, joins a spacelike sect of Sufis, encysted in a matrix of vitrification nanomechs out in the Oort Cloud to await a better epoch.

With vitrification, which took place explosively, the facial parts of the skull were crushed.

Rocks in Peru and Bolivia show evidence of vitrification, and desert conditions exist there also.

Earth, particularly in present-day desert areas, and show a marked similarity to vitrification caused by recent nuclear tests in desert regions.

On reaching the ceiling they did not stop or burst but simply penetrated the vitrification as if it did not exist.

So this vitrification could be the product of some nearly forgotten natural catastrophe.

Agrest were not about to accept such mundane explanations for the vitrification of Baalbek, however.

Seventh had ambled up and was sniffing at the vitrification cell occupied by the nearly late Duke Felix Politovsky.

So, why would they want to stay awake through weeks of boredom, eating their heads off in an expensive stateroom when they could be tucked up in a vitrification pod in the cargo bay?

Nay, the very colour of the stones, and the quantity of what bears every resemblance to vitrification, scattered about, all tend to induce the, belief that the main island owes its formation to the same cause which doubtless produced the smaller one that has now disappeared.

The term serves to cover those opaque earthenwares which are fired until vitrification or an external glassing results.

The air in the house was cold and motionless, but as the Storm subsided, moving away across the forest, the process of vitrification seemed to diminish.

By now the vitrification of the forest had sealed the small pavilion into the surrounding trees, and only the steps and the doorway above remained clear, but for Sanders it still held a faint hope of sanctuary.

Sadeq, studies abandoned in the face of increasing intrusions from the world of what is into the universe of what should be, joins a spacelike sect of sufis, encysted in a matrix of vitrification nanomechs out in the Oort cloud to await a better epoch.