Research at the Australian National University studying the development of shatter-proof mobile phone screens with the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France could lead to a radical change the types of compounds used in glass, making it more resistant to breaking.

"Everyone knows how frustrating it is when you drop your mobile phone device and get a large crack in the screen," ANU researcher Dr Charles Le Losq said.

Dr Le Losq, from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, began his studies of the structure of glass in France, while undertaking his PhD in 2010.

He wanted to better understand its chemical structures and how this in turn affected its properties.

"The important point is that we really found a new vision of how atoms are arranged in glasses, which is something that is still not well understood and a matter of research."

With seven researchers across six different countries, including Britain and China, the small team included scientists who worked in the fields of chemistry, geochemistry, physics and material science.

Dr Le Losq has worked on a glass type that was used in the screens of mobile phones called alumino-silicate.

"The glasses we analysed are mostly composed of aluminium and silicon oxides, and can also contain various elements... each element influences the flexibility and resistance of the glass," he said.

While not likely to appear on the front of the next generation of smartphones just yet, eventually researchers hope their research could also lead to safer ways of storing nuclear waste.

Dr Le Losq said they needed to modify and build on their current knowledge of glasses for phone screens before applying it to different objects.

"We speak of a maybe five to 10 years' time frame to really apply this knowledge in order to manufacture stronger glasses.

"But the first step is really to know the recipe - how we change the glass composition to influence its structures, and, hence, its properties."

The current findings of the international study haven't yet developed a glass that was resistant to scratches, however, the scientists are working and experimenting with different industrials to find new possible applications.

"The products that can be formed may have very interesting properties, such as harder scratch and fracture resistance, as well as interesting optical properties or being less prone to fingerprints… Starting from our fundamental work, there is a very wide range of possible applications and findings," Dr Le Losq said.