Posted on 12/23/2017 11:49:18 AM PST by BenLurkin
"I don't think it's plausible that there's any alloys that we can't identify," Richard Sachleben, a retired chemist and member of the American Chemical Society's panel of experts, told Live Science....
Alloys are mixtures of different kinds of elemental metals. They're very common — in fact, Sachleben said, they're more common on Earth than pure elemental metals are — and very well understood. Brass is an alloy. So is steel. Even most naturally occurring gold on Earth is an alloy made up of elemental gold mixed with other metals, like silver or copper.
"There are databases of all known phases [of metal], including alloys," May Nyman, a professor in the Oregon State University Department of Chemistry, told Live Science. Those databases include straightforward techniques for identifying metal alloys.
If an unknown alloy appeared, Nyman said it would be relatively simple to figure out what it was made of. For crystalline alloys — those in which the mixture of atoms forms an ordered structure — researchers use a technique called X-ray diffraction, Nyman said.
"The X-ray's wavelength is about the same size as the distance between the atoms [of crystalline alloys]," Nyman said, "so that means when the X-rays go into a well-ordered material, they diffract [change shape and intensity] … and from that diffraction [pattern] you can get information that tells you the distance between the atoms, what the atoms are, and how well-ordered the atoms are. It tells you all about the arrangement of your atoms."
With noncrystalline, amorphous alloys, the process is a bit different, but not by much.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
What about DiLythium Crystals.
I have a metallurgical problem. The iron in my blood has turned to lead in my butt. Is there a scientific correction for this? Thank you.
Duranium-neutronium mix?
Al Franken was already feeling up women as an alien baby!
NYT is covering up because Harry Reid funneled $22 million to his rich buddy. Probably why Podesta was touting UFOs.
I went to hah scrool wit Di’Litheeum Cryst’al Jackson.
Same here.
Thinking about hiding the TV remote from myself.
Just remember. “Ye canna mix matter and antimatter cold”.
They continue to say stuff like this, even after the periodic table continues to expand. What about unobtanium!?
Podesta touted UFOs so he'd have a way of explaining missing children.
I was thinking the same thing, 2 elements were recently added. I guess it’s like the 1900 patent office head thinking the department should be shut down, because nothing more was to be invented.
OTOH, I would not be at all surprised that there are plenteous useful allotropes of common materials that we've yet to identify and characterize.
Consider the common element, Carbon: engineers are just beginning to explore the usefulness of newly-discovered allotropes like buckminsterfullerene and graphene -- as well as higher-order microstructures such as nanotubules, etc...
I'd say we're just beginning to explore the riches of materials science!
Interesting
$22M over five years is peanuts; and nothing, to someone like Bigelow.
What about Upsidasium?
Show me some transparent aluminum and I’ll believe it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.