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New lightweight material is stronger than steel

news.mit.edu

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Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#21

Post by chasil »

soperj wrote: post #9
chainwax wrote: post #7

I recall hearing similar claims of graphene a while back. I realize that the lag time between academic proof-of-concept and commercial availability is large, but I still haven't heard of any products coming out that are made of graphene. Do these materials' use cases overlap?

I don't think anyone has ever claimed that graphene is easy to manufacture.

I think anybody can make it with adhesive tape and a piece of graphite, or so the Nobel prize led me to believe.

Making it in large sizes is more difficult.

https://www.abitape.com/an-unlikely-hero-how-sticky-tape-led...

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#22

Post by soperj »

>The researchers have filed for two patents on the process they used to generate the material, which they describe in a paper appearing today in Nature. MIT postdoc Yuwen Zeng is the lead author of the study.

Anyone think they could find the patent that were filed? Or is it only once they're approved that you can see them?

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#23

Post by loceng »

montjoy wrote: post #2

> and can be easily manufactured in large quantities That seems promising. I have a couple of concerns - Can it be recycled? - How are new materials like this tested for toxicity?

Isn't the tradition that something reaches mass market before whatever suppression and disinformation campaigns, paid for by the industry, before there's a strong enough response and therefore reaction by elected officials - who otherwise don't pay attention to such issues? Hopefully it's not harmful/toxic, but we don't seem to have an apparatus that counters the above influence; sugar, cigarettes, asbestos, etc.

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#24

Post by Lio »

chainwax wrote: post #7

I recall hearing similar claims of graphene a while back. I realize that the lag time between academic proof-of-concept and commercial availability is large, but I still haven't heard of any products coming out that are made of graphene. Do these materials' use cases overlap?

> but I still haven't heard of any products coming out that are made of graphene.

Vitoria have sold bike tyres using a graphine layer for a couple of years now:

https://www.vittoria.com/ww/en/tyres/road-tires/corsa

They were used by both the winners of the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana last year.

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#26

Post by HPsquared »

throwaway4aday wrote: post #18
gp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would still sink as water has a density of 1, depending. I think your lookup for wood's density gave you a number belonging to a hardwood.

You're right, but it is close. Add some air bubbles and it would be buoyant.

I mean technically a submarine is just a bunch of steel and one big air bubble.

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#27

Post by blix »

throwaway4aday wrote: post #14

Can't wait for 3D printed parts made out of this stuff. > the new material’s elastic modulus — a measure of how much force it takes to deform a material — is between four and six times greater than that of bulletproof glass. They also found that its yield strength, or how much force it takes to break the material, is twice that of steel, even though the material has only about one-sixth the density of steel. That's g…

It's hard to say without reading the paper itself, but in general one should be skeptical of claims that such-and-such material is stronger than steel. The properties that make steel interesting are not its elastic modulus or yield strength.

This material is probably closer to graphite (which beats steel in elastic modulus and yeild strength) than something you would actually want to use in a structural application. It will probably be ~very~ difficult to print.

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#29

Post by throwaway4aday »

ngngngng wrote: post #25

The article touches on potential to use instead of steel, perhaps even in buildings. But I imagine its heat tolerance would likely kill any chances of that, no?

It's potentially a thermoset plastic in which case it should be able to resist somewhat high temperatures (maybe 300C). So not fireproof but not terrible either.

Re: New lightweight material is stronger than steel

#30

Post by HPsquared »

chasil wrote: post #21
soperj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone has ever claimed that graphene is easy to manufacture.

I think anybody can make it with adhesive tape and a piece of graphite, or so the Nobel prize led me to believe. Making it in large sizes is more difficult. https://www.abitape.com/an-unlikely-hero-how-sticky-tape-led...

Carbon nanotubes have a similar situation: they're often present in soot, but the hard part is to make them in a controlled way in large amounts.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28278030/

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