Super-hard metal 'four times tougher than titanium'

BBC ^ | 07/22/2016 | Helen Briggs

[BenLurkin]

A super-hard metal has been made in the laboratory by melting together titanium and gold.

The alloy is the hardest known metallic substance compatible with living tissues, say US physicists.

The material is four times harder than pure titanium and has applications in making longer-lasting medical implants, they say.

Conventional knee and hip implants have to be replaced after about 10 years due to wear and tear.

Details of the new metal - an alloy of gold and titanium - are revealed in the journal, Science Advances.

Prof Emilia Morosan, of Rice University, Houston, said her team had made the discovery while working on unconventional magnets made from titanium and gold.

The new materials needed to be made into powders to check their purity, but beta-Ti3Au, as it is known, was too tough to be ground in a diamond-coated mortar and pestle.

[SpaceBar]

It will probably be used as thin coatings on critical wear surfaces.

[Lazamataz]

This explains why the aliens want our gold.

Okay, so explain all the anal probing.

[PapaBear3625]

Looking at the linked paper in sciencemag.org, it's got a Vickers hardness of 800 HV (corresponding to a Rockwell hardness of 62 (comparable to the hardest tool steels)).

So, it's not the hardest metal there is (but close). It's the hardest metal compatible with being implanted in a human body for extended periods.

[Safrguns]

Can someone please explain in layman’s terms how the softest metal can strengthen the strongest one?

[babygene]

“explain in layman’s terms how the softest metal”

Gold isn’t the softest metal...

[Paradox]

People make a big deal about Titanium, and its great, but mostly because of its strength to weight ratio. Lots of metals tougher or harder, etc. Pure titanium actually has a lot of drawbacks, but aircraft grade Ti is good. This sounds like just another alloy.

[Quick Shot]

Yep, like adding Aluminum to Bronze to make it stiffer, sounds strange, but true.

[petro45acp]

“Well, it’s real name has thirty-seven syllables. I just call it Unobtainium.” Dr. Brazelton......

“The Core”

KYPD

[Yo-Yo]

Can someone please explain in layman’s terms how the softest metal can strengthen the strongest one?

Easy. Here's the explanation from Science Magazine:

The fourfold increase in the hardness of Ti3Au compared to other Ti–Au alloys and compounds can be attributed to the elevated valence electron density, the reduced bond length, and the pseudogap formation.

Child's play.

[Covenantor]

beta-Ti3Au

meh.... waiting for Rc-Ti3Au

[longfellow]

now adays $6 million is a drop in the hat.

[from occupied ga]

Tougher than tungsten?

Tungsten is not biocompatible.

[CurlyDave]

Can someone please explain in layman’s terms how the softest metal can strengthen the strongest one?

Gold is far from the softest metal. I suspect the softest common metal at room temperature is mercury, which is liquid.

[Company Man]

and the pseudogap formation

Of course! I completely overlooked the pseudogaps! How foolish of me.

[Paradox]

Imagine, something as soft as Carbon can make Iron into Steel.

[fwdude]

now adays $6 million is a drop in the hat.

Sad but true.

In the mid-70's, a million dollars could have you living like a king. Of course, interest rates were at double digits then.

[Squantos]

Unobtainium !

[Squantos]

Procrastinator !......:o)

[IronJack]

I suspected as much. Why not?

[from occupied ga]

tungsten toxicity