UCLA Creates Super-Strong, Super-Light Metal (ucla.edu) 70
An anonymous reader writes: Engineers working on planes, rockets, and other vehicles are always looking for new metals to make their creations lighter and stronger. A new invention from UCLA demonstrates "record levels of specific strength — how much weight a material can withstand before breaking — and specific modulus — the material's stiffness-to-weight ratio." The metal is mostly (86%) magnesium, but infused with an even dispersal of ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles (abstract). A key part of their work was preventing the nanoparticles from clumping, since they attract each other if left alone. "To counteract this issue, researchers dispersed the particles into a molten magnesium zinc alloy. The newly discovered nanoparticle dispersion relies on the kinetic energy in the particles' movement. This stabilizes the particles' dispersion and prevents clumping."
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Bob The Angry Flower explains it well. [angryflower.com]
Don't want (Score:2)
The metal is mostly (86%) magnesium
Not sure I want anything made of this material in my house or vehicle.
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The metal is mostly (86%) magnesium
There are some inherent risks, but I doubt it would be all that easy to get it to start burning in most typical consumer applications.
On the downside, magnesium can be bear to put out when it gets going.
Re:Don't want (Score:5, Insightful)
On the downside, magnesium can be bear to put out when it gets going.
That probably takes the understatement of the thread award...
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-06/let-burning-metals-lie [popsci.com]
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Magnesium has been used repeatedly as a structural metal in aircraft since ... world war 2, at least.
Sure it's a pig to put out. But by the time that the structure of a plane is burning, you're in a massive multiple fatalities situation (like, survival happens by luck, not planning, judgement or personal actions). and you've already lost structural integrity and control of your fuel.
Re: Don't want (Score:2)
Two words: Belly landing.
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None of these are either rocket science, or news.
If you have a strong, stiff material, that is no reason to NOT use it for wing s
Re:Don't want (Score:4, Informative)
No that was the "... I doubt it would be all that easy to get it to start burning ..." bit that was the real understatement.
Magnesium in bulk itself is extremely hard to get burning - think spending some minutes with an acetylene gas welder. But the alloys that are used in practice also includes ingredients (commonly calcium) that makes it even harder.
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But most consumers want an indestructable Wolverine endoskeleton, so this really is a deal breaker.
Re:Don't want (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife and I had one of the grilles in this series. We got the recall notice right after thoroughly cleaning the grille for the first time. Normally the inside of the chamber is protected by a layer of oxidation, but a thorough cleaning scrapes the oxide layer off and exposes fresh magnesium. Ours didn't catch fire, but after we got the recall notice we looked into it and apparently the first heavily-documented case of the grille burning was after the owners thoroughly cleaned it and probably exposed fresh magnesium right before using it again.
Magnesium is used successfully for other applications, but usually with the fire-risk considered an acceptable tradeoff. Engine blocks, with steel liners for the cylinder walls and with aluminum cylinder heads so that the magnesium isn't directly exposed to flame, and in wheels that should be safe unless a tire failure results in a skidding bare wheel scraping against pavement are both common in racing. The very term, "mag wheel," is based on the use of magnesium wheel, even if most are now aluminum for street-legal uses.
For the right applications this alloy could be very good. Just don't make barbecue grilles out of it.
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Uh, you would be wrong [youtube.com]...
For the right applications this alloy could be very good. Just don't make barbecue grilles out of it.
So, actually, I'm not wrong. :)
For most applications it wouldn't be an issue. I can't remember how many times my cellphone has caught fire, maybe because the number is "0". Yes, yes Lion batteries, danger, etc etc etc but it just doesn't really happen all that much in real life. But it would be fine for a lot of the things I mentioned- knives, antennas, bike frames, most tools (ever had a hammer catch fire? Me neither.), tablet cases, etc etc.
So yeah, there are definitely places you wouldn't want to use it,
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I can't imagine why anyone would make a grill out of magnesium. Same goes for car parts. Aluminum alloy is much cheaper, not flammable, and nearly as lightweight. Maybe mag wheels made sense in the past before they figured out how to make really good aluminum wheels, but these days forged aluminum wheels are pretty hard to beat and don't cost *that* much (and cast ones are pretty decent and downright cheap). And everyone makes engine blocks out of aluminum these days.
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Re:Don't want (Score:5, Funny)
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Because, from wikipedia: "Magnesium is flammable, ..."
Magnesium is also inflammable.
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Why the hate against magnesium?
Um, why do you think so many Ferraris have engine-fire problems?
I believe it is the magnesium used for the engine block.
Well, that, among other things...
Magnesium.
Light? Yes.
Strong? Yes.
Burn-ey? Yes.
Hint: Don't use water to put out the fire.
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Didn't some country use magnesium for tank armor because of the strength?
And then they discovered if the tank was hit, the magnesium caught on fire and the crew died of toxic fumes.
Don't know whether it's true. But if it is, I'd expect them to die from the searing heat.
Re: Vehicles On Fire (Score:1)
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The British were building warships with aluminum superstructures to save weight, but lost one to a fire during the Falkland Islands war.
Two corrections.
First of all, it is not easy to burn aluminum. [wikipedia.org] Nowhere near as easy as magnesium. Aluminum melts (at 933.47 K) long before it burns.
Second, the ships that the British Navy lost during the Falklands War were not made of aluminum. [nytimes.com]
Probably safe (Score:2)
The metal is mostly (86%) magnesium
Not sure I want anything made of this material in my house or vehicle.
(I just had to look it up. Damn my OCD!)
According to the Wikipedia article on Magnesium rims [wikipedia.org], the bulk metal is difficult to ignite. This mirrors my own experience - it's hard to ignite a strip of magnesium for a chemistry demonstration.
(From the article: Mag rims are no longer made, not because they're dangerous, but because they tend to pit and crack and need constant polishing.)
It seems likely the extra 14% would make the alloy less combustible than raw Magnesium. If you're already on fire hot enough to
Re:Probably safe (Score:4, Interesting)
the bulk metal is difficult to ignite.
Magnesium alloys are very good heat conductors so applying flame to one area of a large solid piece of magnesium alloy won't ignite it, any more than, say, aluminium alloy materials as the heat is ducted away from to contact point. On the other hand magnesium powder, thin ribbon or wire will burn without too much effort.
Acquaintances of mine who put some magnesium-alloy aircraft wheel hubs in a bonfire were somewhat disappointed by the lack of performance until one of them rigged up a feed of pure oxygen into the bonfire at which point they lit off quite nicely.
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[Puts another entry onto the the bucket list. Somewhere above "deal with the 12kg of mercury in the shed".
Re:Probably safe (Score:4, Interesting)
According to the Wikipedia article on Magnesium rims, the bulk metal is difficult to ignite. This mirrors my own experience - it's hard to ignite a strip of magnesium for a chemistry demonstration.
The power tools were off limits without supervision when I went to high school. This apparently became a hard rule a few years before, when the shop teacher walked in on a student who had a magnesium automotive wheel in the lathe, and was up to his knees in magnesium ribbon, in the form of long, curly shavings.
Yes, it's hard to light, but ribbon is much easier to get going than a block, and there's a lot of heat from metal working. (I hear one way to light a block is to curl up a tapered shaving and light the end of it.) Once it's lit it's nearly impossible to extinguish. (It burns in water, for instance, sucking out the oxygen and releasing hydrogen. It burns in carbon dioxide, similarly releasing a black cloud of carbon dust. Hit it with either of those types of extinguisher and it just gets more violent.) If the kid had managed to light those shavings they'd have tangled in his pants and followed him around as he tried to escape.
(I haven't tried it, but I bet an electric arc would light off a block of magnesium just fine...)
This stuff might be somewhat safer: I'd expect the nanoparticles to interfere with making long, thin, shavings.
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Try to put out the fire with fluorine gas. That's when the escapades really begin!
Nothing prefers fluorine over oxygen, aside from the alkaline earths (column II).
Then again, if you're spraying fluorine gas on a fire, then you should not be allowed in a lab. That would kill the whole town, just from the fluorine release alone.
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If you can't get hold of FOOOF.
Above are formulae, not sound effects.
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Sand won't ... what?
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Concrete is not fireproof. It's pretty resistant to the heat of a typical house fire, but I imagine magnesium burns at a higher temperature, and at high temperatures, concrete does disintegrate. But even at lower burning temperatures, it spalls and crumbles. It handles fires a lot better than wood, but if you think it's so great, I encourage you to start a big magnesium bonfire in your house, right next to a structural wall, and see how it works out for you.
BTW, there's more and more houses here in the U
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Oh definitely, that's probably the best way to make a building with present technology. I'm just pointing out that concrete-only buildings like you see in various third-world nations are not a good construction technique.
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Re: Don't want (Score:3)
Magnesium alloys require 1700-2100C to ignite, of you've already got a fire that hot the car is already a total loss and the only additional damage might be deformed cement that a normal gas and steel fire might not have damaged, blacktop is shot either way.
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Not sure I want anything made of this material in my house or vehicle.
I DEFINITELY don't want any of it in an implant - at least until they figure out how to make it using something other than aluminum in the initial unclump-the-nanoparticles step.
Aluminum inside the body is HORRIBLY toxic. It was the cause of the alzheimers-like "dialysis disease" that severely limited the time the early artificial kidneys could be used - before they figured that out and changed the material of the tub holding the water t
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Most things inside the body are toxic; we have immune systems to handle foreign bodies, and these systems will attack just about anything artificial. However, titanium is an exception, which is why so many surgical implants are made out of it. It's completely biocompatible, and bone will even grow into it.
So if you want an artificial endoskeleton, just use titanium. It's not as indestructible as adamantium of course, but it's a lot stronger than your normal bones.
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I sure hope you have no aluminium nor any solid H2O at home! That is rocket fuel! ...
Or perhaps you shouldn't be afraid of simple things that aren't dangerous? Be afraid for plastics (often ignites easily and generates nasty smoke), fabric (easily ignited, some likes to melt and fuse with skin etc.) and wood instead? Or even candles - one of the most common reason for fires at home. Those things that actually can be a danger.
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It's an alloy. I don't know about this particular alloy, but alloyed metals can have radically different properties from their base components. Take a look at stainless steel for instance: it's made of iron, carbon, and chromium. Iron is of course the largest constituent (I'm guessing around 80%). Iron is ductile, and also ferromagnetic: you can stick magnets to it. It also has a tendency to rust really, really easily. Now you add a bunch of chromium (the grades with more chromium are more "stainless"
Very cool (Score:4, Interesting)
This stuff has limitless possibilities. Everything from knives to bumpers to bike frames....the list of potential applications is endless.
Better cellphone cases. Better engines and electric motors. Better ballistic armor. Better tools. Better antennas. Better vehicles that fly/float/roll.
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This stuff has limitless possibilities. Everything from knives to bumpers to bike frames....the list of potential applications is endless.
Well, steel has one under-appreciated quality that this material (being partly ceramic) probably doesn't have: a benign failure mode -- at least if it hasn't been hardened. This makes it an excellent material for something like bumpers where it will absorb energy by continuing to deform instead of shattering.
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Or what the Predator blades are made from.
How long 'till I get my supermetal bike frame? (Score:3)
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All important details missing. (Score:2)
How strong?
How much does it cost?
Can it be scaled up enough to build cars, bridges and buildings out of it?
One tiny request (Score:2)
Can it be scaled up enough to build cars, bridges and buildings out of it?
I think the real question is whether it should be used for these purposes. If you do decide to go ahead and get a car made of this alloy please get a dash cam with wireless streaming because you may end up with a spectacular youtube video, albeit is short sone since the camera probably won't take long to melt!
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How strong?
Super-.
Why didn't they use boron carbide? (Score:1)
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The main author had already published a paper using graphene in 2012.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359646212001868
Scripta Materialia Volume 67, Issue 1, July 2012, Pages 29–32
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That would make it even lighter. And I don't know why they call it a metal, it is a composite, a meta-material surely?
It's a metal-matrix composite, which have been around for decades.
What we really want to know (Score:2)
Is it transparent?
Neo Nano-particles? (Score:2)
I'm so excited that modern science has started to use nano-particles. In the past, we'd just use molecules and atoms in chemistry and metallurgy.
From the perspective of the Silicon nano-particles, that Magnesium must be HUGE.
Can it be welded or machined? (Score:3)
There is also the question of how to weld it. Does it make a strong weld with the dispersed embedded particles, or is welding a problem?
As for all the speculation about it being a fire hazard, the effect of the silicon carbide on combustion is very unclear. It could make the material less flammable because the silicon carbide will not contribute to combustion.
Still, it seems likely that this material, or something using similar technology, will make it into general use. Stronger and lighter with reasonable cost will always pay off.
Re: UCLA has Materials Science? (Score:2)