New Super Strong, Lightweight Metal Ideal For Airplanes, Cars, Mobile Electronics And More
An engineering team from UCLA has built a very lightweight, new magnesium-infused structural metal that has a particularly high specific strength. It is made out of dense but evenly scattered ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles. The UCLA team believe that the metal is ideal for manufacturing the lighter and fuel-efficient spacecrafts, cars and airplanes of the future. Extended applications of the metal also include biomedical devices and mobile electronics.
The research team's novel idea revolves around dispersing and stabilising nanoparticles into molten metals. Though it has been proposed that nanoparticles could enhance the strength of metals such as magnesium, without affecting their plasticity, what the UCLA team has achieved is unprecedented.
Their technique involves infusing a huge quantity of 100 nm small carbide particles into magnesium. To further increase the strength, they used a high-pressure torsion method to compress the metal. The metal created in this way is 14% silicon carbide and 86% magnesium.
Interestingly, the metal created in this novel way was not only able to show a high tensile strength, but it also exhibited great stability at high temperatures and achieved a good stiffness-to-weight ratio.
They pooled in their knowledge about materials processing and physics to achieve desired results. To test its capabilities, the team also came up with a scalable manufacturing method.
Unlike micro-scale ceramic particles which make the metal loose its plasticity, nanoscale particles achieve enhanced strength without compromising on other crucial properties. This happens because nano particles tend to clump together.
Right now, the team believes that though the untapped potential of the new metal is only just explored, their work only reflect the tip of the iceberg - which consists of a completely new class of metals that could have revolutionary properties.
Since magnesium is an abundantly available resource, moving forward the research work could be scaled up without causing any environmental damage.
What are your thoughts about the new research work by UCLA team? Share with us in comments below.
Source: <a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-researchers-create-exceptionally-strong-and-lightweight-new-metal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCLA researchers create exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal | UCLA</a>
The research team's novel idea revolves around dispersing and stabilising nanoparticles into molten metals. Though it has been proposed that nanoparticles could enhance the strength of metals such as magnesium, without affecting their plasticity, what the UCLA team has achieved is unprecedented.
Their technique involves infusing a huge quantity of 100 nm small carbide particles into magnesium. To further increase the strength, they used a high-pressure torsion method to compress the metal. The metal created in this way is 14% silicon carbide and 86% magnesium.
Interestingly, the metal created in this novel way was not only able to show a high tensile strength, but it also exhibited great stability at high temperatures and achieved a good stiffness-to-weight ratio.
They pooled in their knowledge about materials processing and physics to achieve desired results. To test its capabilities, the team also came up with a scalable manufacturing method.
Unlike micro-scale ceramic particles which make the metal loose its plasticity, nanoscale particles achieve enhanced strength without compromising on other crucial properties. This happens because nano particles tend to clump together.
Right now, the team believes that though the untapped potential of the new metal is only just explored, their work only reflect the tip of the iceberg - which consists of a completely new class of metals that could have revolutionary properties.
Since magnesium is an abundantly available resource, moving forward the research work could be scaled up without causing any environmental damage.
What are your thoughts about the new research work by UCLA team? Share with us in comments below.
Source: <a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-researchers-create-exceptionally-strong-and-lightweight-new-metal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCLA researchers create exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal | UCLA</a>
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