Super
Materials: The Future is Here
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We
often hear of new technological improvements - robots,
gadgets, phones, vehicles, medicine and more. But these are
just part of the picture of scientific achievement. No less
important is the field of chemical engineering, which has
invented some amazing materials in recent years, materials
that may forever change our lives. These
are 7 of the most fascinating and powerful materials science
has come up with in recent years.
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Aerogel
is the proud holder of 15 mentions in the Guinness Book of
Records, which is more than any material has ever had. Also
known as the 'frozen smoke', a nickname resulting looking
like solid smoke, aerogel is actually 99.8% empty space,
which explains its semi-transparent look. This material is a
terrific insulator.
With
a shield made from aerogel, you could challenge any
flamethrower without danger - it will take it without you
feeling a thing. It does the same with cold. With enough of
it, you could build a comfortable house on the moon. Another
amazing factoid - an inch of aerogel could have an internal
structure so complex that an inch long piece could have a
surface area as long as football field.
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Imagine
long chains of carbon, these super-structures are bonded
together by the greatest power in all of the chemical world,
the sp2 bond. These carbon nanotubes have been constructed
with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1,
significantly larger than for any other material.
This
means they are exceptionally strong, and in fact, may be the
only material humanity will be able to use to construct the
'space elevator' that will cart people and cargo up and down
from space stations hovering above the earth. Carbon
nanotubes are 300 times stronger than steel, meaning you
could potentially build towers hundreds of kilometers tall
(or thousands of feet).
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Metamaterials
are artificial materials engineered to have properties that
may not be found in nature. They are assemblies of multiple
individual elements fashioned from conventional microscopic
materials such as metals or plastics, but the materials are
usually arranged in periodic patterns. Metamaterials gain
their properties not from their composition, but from their
exactingly-designed structures. Their precise shape,
geometry, size, orientation and arrangement can affect the
waves of light or sound in an unconventional manner, creating
material properties which are unachievable with conventional
materials.
These
metamaterials achieve desired effects by incorporating
structural elements of sub-wavelength sizes, i.e. features
that are actually smaller than the wavelength of the waves
they affect. The primary research in metamaterials
investigates materials with negative refractive index.
Negative refractive index materials appear to permit the
creation of superlenses which can have a spatial resolution
below that of the wavelength. In other words - it makes
invisibility cloaks.
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Nanodiamond
was convincingly demonstrated to be produced by compression of
graphite in 2003 and in the same work found to be much harder
than bulk diamond, which makes it the hardest known material,
while also being incredibly strong, light and made of the most
common element you can find - carbon. It is an amazing heat
conductor and has the highest melting point of all materials.
Machines built with this material would be lighter, stronger
and more powerful than anything we have today.
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By
cooling molten metal quickly before it has time to re-align
its particles in a solid shape, we can created amorphous
metals - metals that have a disorganized atomic structure. Due
to this structure anomaly, they are twice as strong as steel,
and a few armies are considering using them for shields. In
addition to their strength, amorphous metals have improved
electricity conductivity and can improve the efficiency of a
power grid by up to 40%, saving a huge amount of energy and
the burning of fossil fuels.
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In
about 10 years, you and everyone you know will probably know
all about E-textiles. In fact, you'll be covered with them.
Why carry our cellphones around when we can just wear them?
Clothes in the future will be embedded with these tiny
E-Textiles (already existing today) that can monitor our
health, project videos, make phone calls and bring up
information from the internet when we need it. The
possibilities are endless.
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