Brief review: Low temperature routes to oxide and non-oxide glasses

During the last three decades a variety of alternative commercial routes emerged leading to materials with similar or superior properties as conventionally melt-processed glasses. This contribution provides a brief review on chemical routes to obtain amorphous non-metallic materials without involving a melting-undercooling process. Through chemical processing a very broad and tunable range of physical, chemical, optical, mechanical or electrical properties can be aquired.