Vitrification

Vitrification (from Latin'glass', via French) is the full or partial transformation of a substance into glass. In the production of ceramics, vitrification is responsible for their impermeability to water.

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. Vitrification is also used in the disposal and long-term storage of radioactive waste, in which the waste is immobilized within a hardened glass material considered more stable for containment.

It has also been proposed, though disputed, that the extreme heat of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD vitrified the brain of at least one victim.