Architected Glass‐Ceramics

From surviving the first accidental drop to protecting consumer electronics with durable covers; from enabling heat‑resistant cookware to powering next‑generation solid‑state batteries; and from inducing bone growth to restoring lost teeth, glass‑ceramics have seen steadily expanding applications over the past seven decades. The ability to manipulate phase assemblage and engineer well‐defined crystalline microstructures, coupled with high‑speed glass forming and scalable manufacturing processes, has established glass‑ceramics as a unique and versatile family of materials. This review summarizes recent advances in the development of a number of glass‑ceramic systems, and their optical and mechanical performance. We emphasize the concept of architected glass‑ceramic design, in which functional properties are engineered through the intentional design of structure across multiple length scales, including the spatial arrangement of crystalline and glassy phases as well as externally imposed geometric features, so that performance is dictated not only by composition and crystallization, but also by the architecture. It may not be a surprise that mechanical properties such as Young's modulus (60–150 GPa) or hardness (2.8–8.0 GPa) of glass‑ceramics remain below those of some technical ceramics ( E in the range of 200–460 GPa and HV 12–44 GPa). However, it is less widely recognized that the upper end of certain glass‑ceramics exhibit fracture toughness (0.9–5.0 MPa·m 0.5 ) values comparable to those of technical ceramics such as Al 2 O 3 (2.0–4.0 MPa·m 0.5 ) and approaching the low end of ZrO 2 (5.0–8.0 MPa·m 0.5 ). Moreover, transparent glass‐ceramics that retain optical clarity comparable to their precursor glasses, with haze as low as 0.12% at 0.8 mm thickness, can achieve strength and toughness approaching those of transparent ceramics. Continued progress will depend on further optimization of crystalline phases, microstructural architectures, and innovative processing strategies. Meanwhile, computational tools, including molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and machine learning (ML), are expected to play an increasingly important role in accelerating the discovery and design of strong, tough, and multifunctional glass‐ceramic materials for emerging applications.