Posted on 09/24/2017 5:38:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Like most common metals, aluminium lacks natural buoyancy. However, with a little rearranging of the metal’s natural molecular structure, one can produce an ultra-light crystalline form of the metal that is actually less dense than water and, as a result, floats upon it.
Research conducted by Utah State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor Alexander Boldyrev and published in the latest issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry C has yielded just such a crystalline form using computational modeling.
...
According to the research team, the potential for the new aluminium structure is vast, as the metal already features such useful traits as being non-magnetic, resistant to corrosion, easily available, and generally inexpensive to produce.
“Spaceflight, medicine, wiring and more lightweight, more fuel-efficient automotive parts are some applications that come to mind. Of course, it’s very early to speculate about how this material could be used. There are many unknowns. For one thing, we don’t know anything about its strength.”
This is certainly very ingenious. The article misses one minor detail, though. How do you actually MAKE this ingenious material, which is 1/4 the density of currently produced aluminum?
I would think that would be a key parameter to figure out before thinking of ways to use the material.
Another key property would be its toxicity profile.
I was thinking that someone needs to post a picture of a boat. Thanks!
Floating beer cans’
Didn’t Scottie demonstrate transparent aluminum in a Star Trek movie? The one where they had to save a whale?
And better light aluminum than Ice - 9 !
Lighter than water aluminum. Nice.
Now, how do you make it into a product. If you melt it to fill a mold it won’t be crystalline anymore, thus it will revert to beer can aluminum again.
If it is strong enough and not too brittle, it should be an excellent material for aircraft.
We have transparent aluminum now.
It’s an oxide - basically artificial sapphire.
It’s also phenomenally expensive to set up a manufacturing plant for it and so far it’s only been used to protect optics on satellites and in military applications.
“It’s an oxide.”
You linked in an oxygen atom.
I see what you did there.
Good question, but there are more as well. Ease of manufacture, workability,...
Rosy scenario: cheap to produce, moldable, workable with common hand tools, this stuff replaces wood, traditional metal, and most plastics immediately. Within a decade, anyone can own a rustproof car, an unsinkable boat, a forever home...
Not-so-rosy scenario: After spending years and billions of dollars, scientists claim it's almost as good as Styrofoam and only 5K a pound!
That rowboat isn’t floating because the aluminum is lighter than water. It floats because it displaces an equal mass of water.
Forever and retail are not two words that spend too much time together.
Floating Aluminum? I’ve see that many times... They are called Aluminum Boats..
That’s not how boats work. Aluminum is heavier than water. Google buoyancy.
A floating vessel displaces and equal amount of water by weight. If an aluminum(or wood etc.) boat weighs 50 pounds then in displaces 50 pounds of H20.
Displacement ... put a flat piece of aluminum on water - watch it sink. A boat made of steel floats because its shape displaces water, but that does not equal floating steel.
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