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Paper Stronger Than Cast Iron
TaeKwonDood writes "All paper is made of cellulose, which at the nanoscale level is quite strong, but paper processing makes large, fragile fibers that break easily. Researchers in Sweden have have come up with a manufacturing process that keeps the fibers small, resulting in 'nanopaper' with over 1.6 times the tensile strength of cast iron (214 megapascals vs. 130 mPa). And since cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on the planet, it's cheap to use compared to other exotic, expensive-to-produce options — such as carbon nanotubes."
It's strong enough to build a ship out of... as long as you don't get it wet.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Coming next summer, the Epic battle between Robert Downy Jr. as Iron Man, and an unknown antagonists who goes by the mysterious PAPER MAN! /attempt at humor
Or treatable to be fire-resistant?
I can see a lot of uses for it even if it isn't. But I can see some fairly awe-inspiring ones if it's possible.
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> 214 megapascals vs. 130 mPa
214 megapascal (singular, it's a unit) is about 1.6*10^9 more than 130 millipascal. Use your units properly.
It's just like irony but stronger
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Perfect for government documents and voting machine audit results. :)
This is hardly surprising given that the source for most paper is wood, and wood has the highest tensile strength of any building material known to man based either on weight or cross sectional area.
Not a lot of our building techniques rely primarily on tensile strength, most rely on spanning gaps with weight bearing members. But if you have to hang something heavy, Wood is your friend.
Tensile strength does come into play on collapsing structures, as weight bearing members are removed, and buildings end up hanging from their walls or rafters. Firefighters really dislike entering steel framed buildings, when fighting active fires because steel softens and collapses without warning, where as wood groans and snaps and gives ample warning that it is about to collapse.
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But... cast iron has the tensile strength on the order of concrete. Which is to say, not much at all. Good job guys, you've shown that paper is about as strong as... paper! How did this get published?
This is going to mess up so many games of Paper, Rock, and Scissors.
Wait, so paper beats scissors now?
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With the paper there is the advantage that small particle sizes dramaticly increase strength.
Fantastic!
Tm
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wood has the highest tensile strength of any building material known to man based either on weight or cross sectional area.
No, steel does. That's why I-beams are steel, not wood. It's also why the cables in suspension bridges are steel, not wood poles.
Not a lot of our building techniques rely primarily on tensile strength, most rely on spanning gaps with weight bearing members.
And what determines how well you can span a gap? A combination of compressive and tensile strength. You need to revise your beam bending...
Tensile strength does come into play on collapsing structures, as weight bearing members are removed, and buildings end up hanging from their walls or rafters.
So what does some in to play? Probably a mixture of tensile and compressive strength, depending on what is failing and why.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Great, just what I need - newspapers that groan and snap when I try to read them.
apparently the nanobonds are more porous... would be nice to see some comparison statistics on the physical properties between nanopaper and regular paper per square inch say.
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Icebike wrote
>...wood has the highest tensile strength of any building material known to man based either on weight or cross sectional area.
I Think your estimate of wood is much too high. Wikipedia's article of tensile strength http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensile_strength lists pine wood at 40 MPa I know there are some woods that are significantly stronger but still.
For comparison some other tensile strengths listed in MPa are:
Cast Iron 200
structural steel 400
steel piano wire 2500
Concrete 3
HDPE plastic 37
Aluminum Aloy 455
Glass 4710
Carbon fiber 5650
Carbon nanotubes 63000
> No, steel does. That's why I-beams are steel, not
> wood. It's also why the cables in suspension
> bridges are steel, not wood poles.
The same weight of wood would be stronger.
Some respect has to be paid to longevity. Who would use wood suspension cables in termite country?
There are also problems of attaching wood to other objects. Hard to weld wood you know.
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but where does this leave me?
Like Paper Construction Cranes?
signature is pants
Cuz Paper beats Rock!
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Even when adjusting for weight, the tensile strength of wood isn't so great compared to S-glass or carbon fiber. And when adjusting for cross sectional area, the tensile strength of wood fares even worse because it has a lot of air in its pores.
The same weight of wood would be stronger.
But not the same cross-sectional size.
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"Ever tried writing on iron? Not as easy... and folding it to put it in your pocket tends to be difficult."
However, if you etch a piece of metal, you can use it as a stamp to create numerous copies of the etching, and when you hit severe writers block, its much easier to kill yourself with a piece of tin than paper cuts.
The only conclusion I can come to is that I am superman
And they laughed when I made papier-mâché throwing stars. I'll show them! I am the Paper Ninja (played by Matthew Lillard), and I've just come from OfficeMax!
Apparently Superman didn't take simple physics at school otherwise he would know what tensile strength meant...
If it's loaded in pure tension, you're right, wood is stronger per unit weight. However one thing that you have be careful of with wood beams is that wood has a very low shear strength which makes beams fail at much lower loads than you would expect from the tensile strength alone. It also isn't very strong in tension across the grain which limits your design freedom.
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Well of course he didn't.
Had he taken any physics, he would know he couldn't fly. Tell me, then, what would have happened to Metropolis?
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Anyone who has ever used a public toilet in Sweden would know that this has been in development for some time.
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