Sheared Aluminum's Odd, Possibly Useful Behavior

Chiggy_Von_Richtoffe writes "Researchers at Ohio State University have turned up some interesting things about aluminum when sheared at the atomic leavel. Apparently it mimics certain ceramics and semiconductors, as well as having a stronger shear-strength than copper. I can't wait until we can get all sorts of cool new toys from this vein of research."

Comments

Another technology predicted by Star Trek

[netringer]

Scotty could have told 'em the about the formula for Transparent Aluminum.

cool toys?

[jericho4.0]

'this could mean that aluminum behaves more like ceramics in certain ways than anyone had previously thought'

Sorry, but this just doesn't qualify as news. Science, yes. But even as science it's just another tiny step towards our nano-tech-utopia fantasy.

ceramic?

[Hadlock]

so what kind of applications would this lead to? they talk about sheared aluminum having the same properties as ceramics.... making plates and cups out of sheared aluminum? or maybe a flywheel/clutch?

aluminum's low melting point seems to really hinder it's usefulness in ceramic applications, as one of ceramic's strong points is it's imperviousness to intense and prolonged heat.

Re:ceramic?

[Raiford]

Ceramics are not isolated to high-temperature engineering applications. High-dielectric materials such as the titanates for capacitors and many pizeoelectrics are used at room termperature just like other semiconductor materials.

Re:ceramic?

[AJWM]

Aluminum makes a far better ceramic when oxidized: extremely hard, temperature resistant, transparent in crystalline form, and if you mix a bit of chromium in, it'll even lase. It's called corundum, or sapphire in crystalline form (or ruby with a little chromium added).

Re:Aluminium

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you have such bad teeth that you can't pronounce it correctly.

Re:Aluminium

[Monkelectric]

actually if you read your own damn link you linked to you would have seen:

...In 1761 de Morveau proposed the name "alumine" for the base in alum. In 1807, Davy proposed the name alumium for the metal, undiscovered at that time, and later agreed to change it to aluminum. Shortly thereafter, the name aluminium was adopted by IUPAC to conform with the "ium" ending of most elements. Aluminium is the IUPAC spelling and therefore the international standard. Aluminium was also the accepted spelling in the U.S.A. until 1925, at which time the American Chemical Society decided to revert back to aluminum, and to this day Americans still refer to aluminium as "aluminum".

Is Too !

[Raiford]

... and actors that play British scientist in the movies pronouce it aluminium and then run off to have a spot of tea.

quasicrystals!

[apsmith]

Hey, that's what I did my PhD thesis work in! :-)

Aluminum is the largest component of the most easily formed
"quasicrystals", and this analysis seems to be yet another indication that the seemingly normal metal face-centered-cubic structure of alumnium is actually not very far removed from some quite strange states of matter. Further evidence is right there on the periodic table - gallium, just below Al, has one of the strangest ground-state structures of any metal, and melts at a balmy 35 degrees Celsius!

For those who have access, I actually wrote a paper on this over 10 years ago... ah the memories...

Lithium

[lommer]

I am so tired that when I first read the article, I thought they interviewed a lithium about the subject. I was really starting to wonder what was wrong until I realized the researcher's name was Li...

Shearing Evironment +Controls?

[Nyphur]

What environment was this shearing done in and was the aluminium used pure? If it was done in a non-sterile environment, acidic particulates could have reacted with the momomolecular aluminium sheet. Assuming the alumininum was pure, they should have left a control which is a polymolecular block of the element, left in the shearing environment. That way they could check the top layer of the control and if any changes had occured, the top momomolecular layer, the experiement would have been invalid because a change would ahve occured in the momomolecular sheet. Aluminium is quite reactive so was an inert gas placed over the sample as it was sheared?... Otherwise it may have reacted or oxidised. It would require very little contamination to ruin the sheet since it is only one molecule thick.

Re:Aluminium

[Trongy]

> Perhaps you've heard of our airplanes?
That's aeroplanes.

Re:Aluminium

[canadian_right]

Actually, Canada refines almost as much as the USA, and Latin America refines a fair bit too.

2001 total production
Canada 2,582,787
USA 2,636,955

Canada has lots of cheap Hydro electric power which is required to smelt aluminium. Lots more stats at www.aluminium.org and a nice overview here Aluminium industry over the last 45 years. And a real nice summary with easy to read tables, aluminuim PDF

Re:Aluminium

[canadian_right]

That nothing compared to the very numerous 'dumb amerocan' stories up here in the Great white North.

Like the America tourist who wanted to go hunting in Canada. Brought his gun up, all nice and legal, then went hunting in a bushy area in the CENTER of West Vancouver. The 'forest' was a 50 foot wide green space buffer with a railroad running down the middle that runs close to the coast right in the middle of town.

Canada customs regularly confiscates guns from visiting American (or did before 9/11) coming up to Canada for a visit and forgot about a gun in the glove box or trunk.

And we all have visited California and got the locals to believe our neighbors are Eskimo's, we are real proud of the wooden sidewalks we just got put in, and we have snow all year - even if we are a 3 hour drive north of Seatle.

How many Americans are aware that Canada is their biggest trading partner? You have to combine all of Europe to match the trade the USA does with Canada.