Posted on 12/23/2015 12:40:15 PM PST by Red Badger
At left, a deformed sample of pure metal; at right, the strong new metal made of magnesium with silicon carbide nanoparticles. Each central micropillar is about 4 micrometers across. Credit: UCLA Scifacturing Laboratory
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A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ratio. The new metal is composed of magnesium infused with a dense and even dispersal of ceramic silicon carbide nanoparticles. It could be used to make lighter airplanes, spacecraft, and cars, helping to improve fuel efficiency, as well as in mobile electronics and biomedical devices.
To create the super-strong but lightweight metal, the team found a new way to disperse and stabilize nanoparticles in molten metals. They also developed a scalable manufacturing method that could pave the way for more high-performance lightweight metals. The research was published today in Nature.
"It's been proposed that nanoparticles could really enhance the strength of metals without damaging their plasticity, especially light metals like magnesium, but no groups have been able to disperse ceramic nanoparticles in molten metals until now," said Xiaochun Li, the principal investigator on the research and Raytheon Chair in Manufacturing Engineering at UCLA. "With an infusion of physics and materials processing, our method paves a new way to enhance the performance of many different kinds of metals by evenly infusing dense nanoparticles to enhance the performance of metals to meet energy and sustainability challenges in today's society."
Structural metals are load-bearing metals; they are used in buildings and vehicles. Magnesium, at just two-thirds the density of aluminum, is the lightest structural metal. Silicon carbide is an ultra-hard ceramic commonly used in industrial cutting blades. The researchers' technique of infusing a large number of silicon carbide particles smaller than 100 nanometers into magnesium added significant strength, stiffness, plasticity and durability under high temperatures.
The researchers' new silicon carbide-infused magnesium demonstrated record levels of specific strength—how much weight a material can withstand before breaking—and specific modulus—the material's stiffness-to-weight ratio. It also showed superior stability at high temperatures.
Ceramic particles have long been considered as a potential way to make metals stronger. However, with microscale ceramic particles, the infusion process results in a loss of plasticity.
Nanoscale particles, by contrast, can enhance strength while maintaining or even improving metals' plasticity. But nanoscale ceramic particles tend to clump together rather than dispersing evenly, due to the tendency of small particles to attract one other.
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.
To further enhance the new metal's strength, the researchers used a technique called high-pressure torsion to compress it.
"The results we obtained so far are just scratching the surface of the hidden treasure for a new class of metals with revolutionary properties and functionalities," Li said.
The new metal (more accurately called a metal nanocomposite) is about 14 percent silicon carbide nanoparticles and 86 percent magnesium. The researchers noted that magnesium is an abundant resource and that scaling up its use would not cause environmental damage.
Explore further: New 'high-entropy' alloy is as light as aluminum, as strong as titanium alloys
More information: Lian-Yi Chen et al. Processing and properties of magnesium containing a dense uniform dispersion of nanoparticles, Nature (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nature16445
Journal reference: Nature
“Blackie” Duquesne soon to be involved.
“Blackie” Duquesne soon to be involved.
Maybe the silicon carbide acts as an insulator?...........
You can weld aluminum, just keep oxygen away from it.
Argon shielding gas, therefore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElT5qmUyagU
What about guns?
Hmmmmm...................
Vw bug had Mg crankcase and trans housing.
Can’t wait for the new generation of magnesium silicon carbide nanoparticle quadcopter frames on hobbyking.
See post 24 below, this guy ain’t half bad repairing that mag casting.
I’m think space elevators. If we can find a material strong/light/durable enough for that, then it becomes possible to have a real spsce industry, not just the science experiments we have now.
My son is a doper working with gallium nanowires to create nano LED's.
Might be good for a frame/receiver. Probably not good for a barrel.
Well, magnesium is flammable, unlike the heavier metals, so that is a good question.
Sounds like this stuff would be perfect for airplanes, but then again, an airplane with a flammable fuselage seems like a recipe for disaster.
Silicon carbide is a very inert and stable material and in fact can be found in the waste product produced by refining steel (and is part of the steel alloy). It’s not going to burn. Large chunks of magnesium on the other hand, if suitably ignited will burn. Firefighters are well aware of this.
Is it just me, or is this a little ironic?
I think the flammability would also be an issue with making a gun out of it, at least the firing chamber and barrel. Gunpowder definitely burns hot enough to ignite magnesium.
It’s just you..................B^)
OK, great, we have a new metal with some really OUTstanding properties. Let industry make of it what they will.
I’m waiting to see/hear what nano-particles like this will do for iron, steel, titanium, tungsten, etc., and also to some very strong and versatile composite metals that have been developed. Not even mentioned is what other types of nano-particles can do, even for magnesium, let alone the other types of metals.
We are in a new age - cars will be built far stronger than now, and be hundreds or more pounds lighter.
I’d also love to see what will happen with these composite metals and the Flash Bainite process (see this INCREDIBLY interesting article: http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/12/super-strong-flash-bainite-steel.html). That process, all by itself, seems to allow for far stronger steel that is still bendable and weldable, which could result in the same structural strength with far less weight. Combining that with this nano-composite process might yield even further performance gains.
What a great idea! A gun that disposes of itself!............................
And to think they wanted to close the Patent Office in the 1880’s because everything that could be invented had been!...................
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