More Super-Materials To Come?
Kim’s team has created the new metal on a small scale. But before it can be mass-produced, researchers must confront a tricky production issue.
Currently, steelmakers use a silicate layer to cover and protect mass-produced steel from oxidation with the air and contamination from the foundry. This silicate can’t be used for Kim’s steel because it has a tendency to react with the cooling aluminum, compromising the final product. Before we starting building skyscrapers out of super-steel, they’ll have to figure out a way to protect the material out in the real world.
It’ll be worth it. The final product of all this tinkering “is 13 percent less dense compared to normal steel, and has almost the same strength-to-weight ratio compared to titanium alloys,” Kim says. That’s remarkable, but Kim insists that the method is actually more important than the result. Now that his results are published, he expects scientists to cook up a multitude of new alloys based on the B2-dispersion method.
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