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Negative CTE material

Posted by Hemos on from the making-things-work dept.

florescent_beige writes "An article on Yahoo talks about zirconium tungstate (ZrW2O8), a material that has a negative coefficient of thermal expansion over a wide range of temperatures. Being non-toxic, it has applications in dentistry, as well as metallurgy and optics. Johns Hopkins physicyst Collin Broholm describes the physics behind the behaviour."

2 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb Example... by Big+Sean+O · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're right mostly. Humidity does effect wood more. I don't think wooden doors stick in the desert.

    A better example would be running hot water over stuck jar lid. The metal expands faster than the glass.

    Kinda off-topic but not really: Water gets denser as it cools to 4 degrees C, then it expands as the temperature drops until ice forms at 0 degrees C. Ice is acutally less dense than water (which is why it floats).

    --
    My father is a blogger.
  2. Old News by GMontag451 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So what? Good old water has a negative CTE, at least from 0 C to 4 C.