What new materials are there?

[_Del_]

Pretty sure graphene is going to be WAYYYY more expensive than rebar, sand, gravel, and rocks.

But you can probably use only half as much because it's twice as strong!*

(Whatever that means in this context. I didn't read the article, but I'm guessing based on the blurb it didn't discuss types of strength and settled for "twice as strong" )


Edited to add: Managed to find this actual study
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adfm.201705183

We demonstrate an extraordinary increase of up to 146% in the compressive strength, up to 79.5% in the flexural one, and a decrease in the maximum displacement due to compressive loading by 78%

Claims "low-cost" but gives no particulars. Given that it also talks about other methods, I assume it means low-cost in relation to other methods of graphene-concrete composites.

 

[antigravite]

And now, infrared stealth! Enjoy…
- - - - - - - - -

Infrared cameras are the heat-sensing eyes that help drones find their targets even in the dead of night or through heavy fog.

Hiding from such detectors could become much easier, thanks to a new cloaking material that renders objects — and people — practically invisible.

“What we have shown is an ultrathin stealth ‘sheet.’ Right now, what people have is much heavier metal armor or thermal blankets,” says Hongrui Jiang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.


Hongrui Jiang UW-MADISON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Warm objects like human bodies or tank engines emit heat as infrared light. The new stealth sheet, described this week in the research journal Advanced Engineering Materials, offers substantial improvements over other heat-masking technologies.

“It’s a matter of the weight, the cost and ease of use,” says Jiang.

Less than one millimeter thick, the sheet absorbs approximately 94 percent of the infrared light it encounters. Trapping so much light means that warm objects beneath the cloaking material become almost completely invisible to infrared detectors.

Importantly, the stealth material can strongly absorb light in the so-called mid- and long-wavelength infrared range, the type of light emitted by objects at approximately human body temperature.

By incorporating electronic heating elements into the stealth sheet, the researchers have also created a high-tech disguise for tricking infrared cameras.

“You can intentionally deceive an infrared detector by presenting a false heat signature,” says Jiang. “It could conceal a tank by presenting what looks like a simple highway guardrail.”

To trap infrared light, Jiang and colleagues turned to a unique material called black silicon, which is commonly incorporated into solar cells. Black silicon absorbs light because it consists of millions of microscopic needles (called nanowires) all pointing upward like a densely-packed forest. Incoming light reflects back and forth between the vertical spires, bouncing around within the material instead of escaping.

Although black silicon has long been known to absorb visible light, Jiang and colleagues were the first to see the material’s potential for trapping infrared. They boosted its absorptive properties by tweaking the method through which they created their material.

“We didn’t completely reinvent the whole process, but we did extend the process to much taller nanowires,” says Jiang, who developed the material in National Science Foundation-supported facilities at UW–Madison.

They make those nanowires by using tiny particles of silver to help etch down into a thin layer of solid silicon, which results in a thicket of tall needles. Both the nanowires and the silver particles contribute to absorbing infrared light.

The researchers’ black silicon also has a flexible backing interspersed with small air channels. Those air channels prevent the stealth sheet from heating up too quickly as it absorbs infrared light.

Jiang and colleagues are working to scale up their prototype for real-world applications with assistance from UW–Madison’s Discovery to Product program. They received a U.S. patent in the fall for the material’s use in stealth. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation supported the research through its Robert Draper Technology Innovation Fund, and is actively pursuing two additional patent applications.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
source: Sam Million-Weaver, ‘Stealth’ material hides hot objects from infrared eyes, 20180621, University of Wisconsin–Madison press release,
https://news.wisc.edu/stealth-material-hides-hot-objects-from-infrared-eyes/

A.

 

[lastdingo]

Absorption of IR emissions is useless.

That's no way of matching the IR radiation of the background (which is what matters) and to simply absorb all the emitted IR radiation will heat the material up, so you need to cool on the inside, dump the thermal energy and once the heat sink is 'full' you need to get rid of that energy in some other way.

Moreover, you cannot switch such IR absorption on and off. BAe's use of the Peltier effect to hide a tank or change its shape in the far IR spectrum (both but for a short, controlled duration) made much more sense.

 

[antigravite]

Absorption of IR emissions is useless.

That's no way of matching the IR radiation of the background (which is what matters) and to simply absorb all the emitted IR radiation will heat the material up, so you need to cool on the inside, dump the thermal energy and once the heat sink is 'full' you need to get rid of that energy in some other way.

Moreover, you cannot switch such IR absorption on and off. BAe's use of the Peltier effect to hide a tank or change its shape in the far IR spectrum (both but for a short, controlled duration) made much more sense.

OK. But signs of the times.
One new paper showed up with a reconfigurable, electrode-activated, IR cloaking material… and may be one step closer to future background matching devices…

Omer Salihoglu, Hasan Burkay Uzlu, Ozan Yakar, Shahnaz Aas, Osman Balci, Nurbek Kakenov, Sinan Balci, Selim Olcum, Sefik Süzer, and Coskun Kocabas, “Graphene-Based Adaptive Thermal Camouflage”, Nano Letters,
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01746
Publication Date (Web): June 27, 2018
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01746

Anon (Press release), "Thermal camouflage disguises hot and cold", ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: June 27, 2018
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2018/acs-presspac-june-27-2018/thermal-camouflage-disguises-hot-and-cold.html

A.

 

[bobbymike]

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/skyscrapers-could-soon-generate-their-own-power-thanks-see-through-solar-cells

Lance Wheeler looks at glassy skyscrapers and sees untapped potential. Houses and office buildings, he says, account for 75% of electricity use in the United States, and 40% of its energy use overall. Windows, because they leak energy, are a big part of the problem. "Anything we can do to mitigate that is going to have a very large impact," says Wheeler, a solar power expert at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

A series of recent results points to a solution, he says: Turn the windows into solar panels. In the past, materials scientists have embedded light-absorbing films in window glass. But such solar windows tend to have a reddish or brown tint that architects find unappealing. The new solar window technologies, however, absorb almost exclusively invisible ultraviolet (UV) or infrared light. That leaves the glass clear while blocking the UV and infrared radiation that normally leak through it, sometimes delivering unwanted heat. By cutting heat gain while generating power, the windows "have huge prospects," Wheeler says, including the possibility that a large office building could power itself.

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a21987787/tnt-replacement-bis-oxadiazole-los-alamos/

The chemistry of explosives is a delicate matter. A little less carbon, a little more nitrogen, and the right amount of oxygen can transform a relatively inert substance into quite the showstopper.

For more than 100 years, TNT has been the premier mixture of chemicals for blowing things up, and it's even used as a metric to measure the yield of nuclear explosions and other monumental blasts. But new research out of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Army Research Laboratory has discovered a new chemical, bis-oxadiazole (C6H4N6O8), that has many of the advantages of TNT, is thought to be less toxic to produce, and makes a bigger bang.

"It would be about 1.5 times the power of TNT," says David Chavez, an explosives chemist at Los Alamos who worked on the new molecule. "So fairly energetic, quite a nice improvement compared to TNT."

 

[bobbymike]

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.1.20180717a/full/#.W04rvBKAM4A.twitter

The real enemy of fuel efficiency is weight. That is why manufacturers are taking a hard look at the materials—traditionally, steel—that make up the frame, hood, and other parts. Some companies are turning to advanced materials such as aluminum and carbon fiber; others are implementing a new generation of lightweight, high-strength steel.

Losing weight

The attributes of aluminum and carbon fiber are enticing to automakers: Not only are both materials one-fifth the weight of steel, carbon fiber is also up to 10 times as strong. However, aluminum costs three times as much as steel to manufacture, and companies would need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to incorporate new welding production techniques.

Carbon fiber is three to five times as expensive as aluminum, partly because few factories manufacture it. To address that issue, BMW invested heavily in a joint venture with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers from 2010 to 2017. The resulting carbon-fiber factory at Moses Lake, Washington, has single-handedly increased global production of the material by 50%. The fiber’s current cost isn’t public, but “our goal is to reduce the price of carbon fiber to the price of aluminum by 2020,” says SGL spokesperson Katharina Schraidt.

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/tu-sdn072318.php

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (July 23, 2018)--Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have developed magnetic elastomeric composites that move in different ways when exposed to light, raising the possibility that these materials could enable a wide range of products that perform simple to complex movements, from tiny engines and valves to solar arrays that bend toward the sunlight. The research is described in an article published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In biology, there are many examples where light induces movement or change - think of flowers and leaves turning toward sunlight. The light actuated materials created in this study are based on the principle of the Curie temperature - the temperature above which certain materials will change their magnetic properties. By heating and cooling a magnetic material, one can turn its magnetism off and on. Biopolymers and elastomers doped with ferromagnetic CrO2 will heat up when exposed to laser or sunlight, temporarily losing their magnetic properties until they cool down again. The basic movements of the material, shaped into films, sponges, and hydrogels, are induced by nearby permanent or electromagnets and can exhibit as bending, twisting, and expansion.

 

[bobbymike]

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/niobiumtungstenoxide

Lithium-ion batteries could have much higher power and recharge far more rapidly using a new class of complex oxide electrodes, a new study finds.

Such research could lead to batteries that can store large amounts of energy in minutes rather than hours, helping speed the adoption of technologies such as electric cars and grid-level storage of renewable energy, researchers say.

In their simplest form, batteries consist of three components—a positive electrode called a cathode, a negative electrode called an anode, and an electrolyte connecting both electrodes. When a lithium-ion battery is discharging, lithium ions flow from the anode to the cathode; when recharging, from the cathode to the anode. The faster lithium ions can move, the faster the battery can charge and the greater its power (that is, the more energy it can deliver during a given time).

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2018_084_diamond-an-indispensable-material-in-fusion-technology.php

It happens in the fire of the sun: hydrogen atoms are fused to helium and in the course of this nuclear fusion reaction, gigantic amounts of energy are released. In fusion power plants on Earth, this “starfire” might one day contribute to sustainable and secure energy supply. Worldwide, fusion researchers cooperate to take the first reactors into operation. At KIT, so-called gyrotrons are developed for the ITER research reactor and smaller reactors, such as Wendelstein 7X and ASDEX Upgrade. Gyrotrons are microwave oscillators generating a temperature of up to 150 million degrees Celsius in the reactor, similar to a very big microwave. This high temperature makes the tritium fuel reach the plasma state required for fusion. To guide microwave radiation from the gyrotrons into the plasma and in order to maintain a vacuum and keep the radioactive tritium inside the reactor, a team around Dr. Dirk Strauss and Professor Theo Scherer of KIT’s Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) designs appropriate window units. For the disks, only one material is suited: “diamond is indispensable,” says Dirk Strauss. “No other known material survives the extreme microwave radiation and, at the
same time, has the required permeability with low losses.”

 

[bobbymike]

https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/nanocrystals_emit_light_by_efficiently_tunneling_electrons

Using advanced fabrication techniques, engineers at the University of California San Diego have built a nanosized device out of silver crystals that can generate light by efficiently “tunneling” electrons through a tiny barrier. The work brings plasmonics research a step closer to realizing ultra-compact light sources for high-speed, optical data processing and other on-chip applications.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_studies_space_applications_for_GaN_crystals_999.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Scientists_design_material_that_can_store_energy_like_an_eagles_grip_999.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Smallest_transistor_worldwide_switches_current_with_a_single_atom_in_solid_electrolyte_999.html

 

[bobbymike]

https://newatlas.com/platinum-gold-alloy-worlds-most-durable/55936/

Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed what they say is the most durable metal alloy ever created. Made up of a combination of platinum and gold, the new material is apparently 100 times more wear-resistant than high-strength steel, which makes it the first metal alloy to join the same class as diamond. Even better, it naturally produces its own lubricant that, under normal circumstances, is extremely fiddly and expensive to make.

 

[sferrin]

https://newatlas.com/platinum-gold-alloy-worlds-most-durable/55936/

Engineers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed what they say is the most durable metal alloy ever created. Made up of a combination of platinum and gold, the new material is apparently 100 times more wear-resistant than high-strength steel, which makes it the first metal alloy to join the same class as diamond. Even better, it naturally produces its own lubricant that, under normal circumstances, is extremely fiddly and expensive to make.

Awesome. Let's make a ship out of it.

 

[fredymac]

But there's an even weirder wrinkle to the story. During testing, the researchers realized that a black film had started forming on top of the alloy. This stuff turned out to be diamond-like carbon, an effective lubricant that normally takes a pretty involved and expensive process to create.

"We believe the stability and inherent resistance to wear allows carbon-containing molecules from the environment to stick and degrade during sliding to ultimately form diamond-like carbon," says Curry.

So a platinum-gold alloy coats itself in a layer of diamond dust when under stress. I wonder what would happen if a goose happened to swallow some of it.

 

[Grey Havoc]

;D


http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_high_capacity_sodium_ion_could_replace_lithium_in_rechargeable_batteries_999.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Super_cheap_earth_element_to_advance_new_battery_tech_to_the_industry_999.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Quantum_material_is_promising_ion_conductor_for_research_new_technologies_999.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/18/09/27/0540258/spheres-can-make-concrete-leaner-greener

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-d-mesostructures-mechanically-materials.html

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.army.mil/article/211914/

ADELPHI, Md. -- What happens when gold and silver just don't cut it anymore? You turn to metallic alloys, which are what Army researchers are using to develop new designer materials with a broad range of capabilities for our Soldiers.

This is exactly what scientists Dr. David Baker and Dr. Joshua McClure from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory are doing to lighten the load and enhance the power of Soldier devices used on the battlefield.

Their research, conducted in collaboration with Prof. Marina Leite and Dr. Chen Gong at the University of Maryland and Prof. Alexandre Rocha at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil, was recently featured on the cover of the Sept. 4 issue of Advanced Optical Materials.

 

[bobbymike]

https://www.army.mil/article/213039/?fbclid=IwAR2ZwMbwLmTOBva8xkJjZuMxG1ImwfBLq0K8QEjvoNK--JdxPtpzzCvoua0

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD. -- Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and Arizona State University have teamed up on a new material composition that super heroes, if real, would envy.

They've designed a super strong alloy of copper and tantalum that can withstand extreme impact and temperature. It's likely the closest material on earth to vibranium, a rare, fictitious metallic substance found in Marvel's Wakanda and used in Captain America's shield.

Its structure and deformation response make it a candidate for ballistic impact or protection applications for military vehicles or personal protection for Soldiers, said Dr. Kristopher Darling, a materials scientist with ARL's Lightweight and Specialty Metals Branch.

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/30/belgian-research-could-replace-usb-sticks-data-stored-powder/

 

[TomcatViP]

Cool. If your intend was to get cremated past your death you might also wish your digital self to be blown away in the same spot as your hashes... Who says we are eternal slaves of digital media?

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://www.asianscientist.com/2018/02/tech/thermoelectric-converter-batteries-energy/

https://www.asianscientist.com/2018/12/tech/flexible-inexpensive-thermoelectric-generator-waste-heat/

https://www.asianscientist.com/2018/01/tech/thermoelectric-power-generation-room-temperature/

https://www.asianscientist.com/2018/07/in-the-lab/superlattice-sandwich-thermoelectric-conversion/

First development is from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, the next two developments are from Osaka University, the last is from a joint Japanese/Taiwanese team headed up by Professor Hiromichi Ohta at Hokkaido University.

 

[muttbutt]

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/amber-irish-nanomaterial-smartphone-batteries

Researchers from AMBER have forged a new nanomaterial that could make significantly better batteries for smartphones and electric vehicles.

 

[bobbymike]

Additive manufacturing promising with AF-9628, a high-strength, low cost steel developed in AFRL – Air Force Research Laboratory

 

[bobbymike]

Stanford builds a heat shield just 10 atoms thick to protect electronic devices

 

[sferrin]

Using fungi to fix bridges - Binghamton News

America’s crumbling infrastructure has been a topic of ongoing discussion in political debates and campaign rallies. A self-healing concrete could be the solution.

www.binghamton.edu

 

[bobbymike]

Army eyes pearls in innovative project to bolster body armor

Could pearls help save a soldier’s life?

www.foxnews.com

 

[bobbymike]

Nine countries join U.S. strategic minerals initiative

The United States on Thursday said nine countries have joined its initiative to help discover and develop reserves of minerals used to make electric vehicles, part of an effort to cut the world's reliance on China for the high-tech materials.

mobile.reuters.com

 

[bobbymike]

What About Calcium Batteries? - Popular Mechanics SA

A recently synthesized chemical offers the promise of an entirely new type of battery: calcium-based, as opposed to the modern batteries that rely on lithium.

www.popularmechanics.co.za

 

[marauder2048]

Additive manufacturing promising with AF-9628, a high-strength, low cost steel developed in AFRL – Air Force Research Laboratory

AF-9628 is the case material (though probably not additively manufactured) that was recently selected for the BLU-111 ECP amongst other penetrators.

 

[bobbymike]

New 3D-printed lattice designs defy conventional wisdom on metamaterials

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have designed a new class of 3D-printed lattice structures that combine lightweight and high stiffness, despite breaking a rule previously thought to be required to exhibit such properties. One of the new structures additionally displays...

www.llnl.gov

 

[bobbymike]

Inventing the world's strongest silver

A team of scientists has made the strongest silver ever—42 percent stronger than the previous world record. But that's not the important point.

m.phys.org

 

[bobbymike]

Win the Race for Invisibility

The United States must dominate the field of metamaterials to gain the stealth advantage in the next fight.

www.usni.org

 

[bobbymike]

Secretary of the Army approves new advanced manufacturing policy

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy approved a new policy on advanced manufacturing to help the Army secure a competitive edge against near-peer adversaries.

www.army.mil

 

[sferrin]

"Aiming for lower costs, less lead time for launches, and quicker design iteration, Relativity has designed a launch vehicle made from less than 1,000 components, all of which are 3D printed. The low part count and highly automated manufacturing process means the rocket can go from raw material to flight readiness in less than 60 days."

...

"Production of Aeon 1 and Terran 1 components is accomplished with Stargate: the world’s largest metal 3D printer, developed by Relativity Space. Components are fabricated from a proprietary metal alloy by an increasingly automated and rapid production line, enabling lower costs and less lead time for new vehicles."

Relativity Space Using 3D Printing to Launch a Growing Manifest amid Funding Boost - NASASpaceFlight.com

Relativity Space has announced it has closed a $140 million Series C funding round led…

www.nasaspaceflight.com

 

[bobbymike]

Air Force scientists discover unique stretchable conductor

Conductive materials change their properties as they are strained or stretched. Typically, electrical conductivity decreases and resistance increases with stretching.

www.af.mil

 

[rooster]

Back in the 90s I read about scientists trying to create what I will call metallic snow or styrofoam. Would be incredibly strong and very light and barely conduct heat.

I also recall something about microlaser etching the surfaces of some materials like aircraft skin that would allow nonstealthy shapes, macro shapes, that would not reflect energy back to the emitter.