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MIT Unveils New Material That's Strongest and Lightest On Earth (futurism.com)
A team of MIT researchers have created the world's strongest and lightest material known to man using graphene. Futurism reports: Graphene, which was heretofore, the strongest material known to man, is made from an extremely thin sheet of carbon atoms arranged in two dimensions. But there's one drawback: while notable for its thinness and unique electrical properties, it's very difficult to create useful, three-dimensional materials out of graphene. Now, a team of MIT researchers discovered that taking small flakes of graphene and fusing them following a mesh-like structure not only retains the material's strength, but the graphene also remains porous. Based on experiments conducted on 3D printed models, researchers have determined that this new material, with its distinct geometry, is actually stronger than graphene -- making it 10 times stronger than steel, with only five percent of its density. The discovery of a material that is extremely strong but exceptionally lightweight will have numerous applications. As MIT reports: "The new findings show that the crucial aspect of the new 3-D forms has more to do with their unusual geometrical configuration than with the material itself, which suggests that similar strong, lightweight materials could be made from a variety of materials by creating similar geometric features."
I doubt *any* material will completely replace steel. The particular properties of steel, it's strength combined with easy machining and reasonable cost will always be right for some applications, much as brass is still used. Steel didn't completely replace brass, carbon fiber didn't completely replace steel, and this new material won't completely replace any of it's predecessors.
However, steel allowed us to make things that couldn't be made with brass, carbon fiber works better than steel for some things, and this new material will be the best choice for some things.
There are very few application where carbon fiber is better than steel, because it lacks most of the properties of steel. It's not elastic, it's not machinable, it's brittle, it doesn't wear well. There seems to be no replacement for steel used structurally (including this stuff), for tool steel, for anything that needs to flex a bit in normal use, etc.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
The material in question is graphene, which they did not create or unveil.
The structure in question is theoretical, and they have not made it nor do they have any real plans or methodology to do so.
They made a mathematical model and then 3D printed a PLASTIC model in the same shape.
They then crushed the plastic model and noted that it was pretty strong given its density, just as they predict a graphene structure in the same shape to be.
They're not creating the graphene structure, and a macro version of the structure in plastic may or may not exhibit similar properties as a true version made of ultra thin graphene.
https://youtu.be/VIcZdc42F0g
I'm all for improved materials, but let's not make shit up, futurism.com .
Er, are you joking? Bullet casings? How many hundreds of millions of those are made every year???
> because it lacks most of the properties of steel. It's not elastic, it's not machinable, it's brittle, it doesn't wear well.
Maching carbon fiber is a bit different from machining carbon steel, just like machining stainless steel is a bit different. It most certainly is machined. Actually in some ways the machining of carbon fiber is very similar to stainless steel.
Carbon fiber is slightly MORE elastic than steel. The modulus of elasticity is about 150Gpa with steels ranging about 150-180Gpa.
"Brittleness" (KIc) can't be directly compared since carbon fiber is a composite, but generally cracking is localized - it's not particularly brittle.
"Doesn't wear well" isn't scientifically confined, so I can't give hard numbers for that. We can note that the two major typesnof fiber tows and the many available resins allow a designer to choose the wear properties appropriate for the application.
The big advantage steel has over carbon fiber is cost. While the cost of carbon fiber has reduced significantly in the last ten years, it's still $10/pound in quanity. That definitely matters if you need thousands of pounds of it. It's not too significant if you need less than a pound of material for something you're already spending $30+ on.