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Aluminium has a veritable boatload of applications, from aircraft-building to everyday household appliances, all because it’s lightweight and inexpensive to use.
Now, a group of researchers from the US and Russia may have found the way to cut down on its weight even more.
IMAGES COURTESY: REUTERS
An international team of scientists, comprised of Utah State University chemist Alexander Boldyrev and four more from Southern Federal University in Rostov-on Don, Russia, have forged a new type of ultra-light aluminium, one that’s even lighter than water. The team managed the feat by using a computational model to forge the new crystalline aluminium
“My colleagues’ approach to this challenge was very innovative,” says Boldyrev. “They started with a known crystal lattice, in this case, a diamond, and substituted every carbon atom with an aluminum tetrahedron.” According to the calculations, forging aluminium in this form makes it more lightweight. The resulting metal had a density of only 0.61 gram per cubic centimeter, instead of aluminum’s usual density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter.
“That means the new crystallized form will float on water, which has a density of one gram per cubic centimeter.”
The possibilities for such a material are endless, as the aluminium is not only cheap and easy to produce, but also non-magnetic, corrosion-resistant, and easily available. It could potentially be used in spaceflight, medicine, electrical wiring, and even lighter automobile parts. “Of course, it’s very early to speculate about how this material could be used,” Boldyrev adds. “There are many unknowns. For one thing, we don’t know anything about its strength.”
It is however a big win for material science, as the project shows it’s possible to use a different known structure to manufacture a material, thereby changing its properties as needed.
Now, a group of researchers from the US and Russia may have found the way to cut down on its weight even more.
IMAGES COURTESY: REUTERS
An international team of scientists, comprised of Utah State University chemist Alexander Boldyrev and four more from Southern Federal University in Rostov-on Don, Russia, have forged a new type of ultra-light aluminium, one that’s even lighter than water. The team managed the feat by using a computational model to forge the new crystalline aluminium
“My colleagues’ approach to this challenge was very innovative,” says Boldyrev. “They started with a known crystal lattice, in this case, a diamond, and substituted every carbon atom with an aluminum tetrahedron.” According to the calculations, forging aluminium in this form makes it more lightweight. The resulting metal had a density of only 0.61 gram per cubic centimeter, instead of aluminum’s usual density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter.
“That means the new crystallized form will float on water, which has a density of one gram per cubic centimeter.”
The possibilities for such a material are endless, as the aluminium is not only cheap and easy to produce, but also non-magnetic, corrosion-resistant, and easily available. It could potentially be used in spaceflight, medicine, electrical wiring, and even lighter automobile parts. “Of course, it’s very early to speculate about how this material could be used,” Boldyrev adds. “There are many unknowns. For one thing, we don’t know anything about its strength.”
It is however a big win for material science, as the project shows it’s possible to use a different known structure to manufacture a material, thereby changing its properties as needed.
