Science Forums: New slippery but hard material - Science Forums

Jump to content

Welcome to ScienceForums.Net!

Welcome to ScienceForums.Net! We welcome science discussion at all levels — from beginners to researchers, covering topics from biology to computer science, and much more. Registration is fast and free, and allows you to post on the forums, so register now and join the discussions!
  
After you've registered, come in and introduce yourself, or visit the forum index. If you need any help  registering, posting, or if you just have some questions about our site, please feel free to contact us at staff at scienceforums dot net.

  • Start new topics and reply to others
  • Subscribe to topics and forums to get automatic updates
  • Create a ScienceForums.Net Blog!
Guest Message © 2012 DevFuse
Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

New slippery but hard material Rate Topic: -----

#1 22 November 2008 - 05:05 PM Mr Skeptic 


Icon
iDon't-Believe-You
From newscientist:

A superhard substance that is more slippery than Teflon could protect mechanical parts from wear and tear, and boost energy efficiency by reducing friction.

The "ceramic alloy" is created by combining a metal alloy of boron, aluminium and magnesium (AlMgB14) with titanium boride (TiB2). It is the hardest material after diamond and cubic boron nitride.
...
BAM is much slipperier than Teflon, with a coefficient of friction of .02 compared to .05. Lubricated steel has a friction coefficient of 0.16.
...
Bruce Cook, lead investigator on the Ames Lab project, estimates that merely coating rotors with the material could save US industry alone 330 trillion kilojoules (9 billion kilowatt hours) every year by 2030 - about $179 million a year.


It also seems that the material's hardness and slipperiness was unexpected from its crystal structure. This seems like it would be a very useful material, though it might not be usable in cooking due to the boron.
Our voting system is broken! It nearly guarantees that we will have only two political parties that have any chance of winning, and that they will be very similar.
0

#2 23 November 2008 - 02:23 AM Flashman 


Baryon
Interesting stuff, maybe NASA can use it in the joints of their solar panel arms :rolleyes:

Wonder how many million miles you could get out of a car engine coated with it....
0

#3 23 November 2008 - 10:37 AM insane_alien 


Genius
if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?
Tired of waiting around for a reply on the forums? Use IRC, 'I don't know how' is no longer an excuse.

"Special" Relativity, stupid ideas seem smarter when they come at you really fast.
1

#4 23 November 2008 - 11:24 AM YT2095 


Icon
Chemistry Expert

Mr Skeptic said:

though it might not be usable in cooking due to the boron.


maybe not for Cooking per se, but as a knife blade it might be ideal, you can already get ceramic blades, but non-stick as well? that would be Great!
0

#5 23 November 2008 - 03:06 PM hermanntrude 


Icon
Chemistry Expert

insane_alien said:

if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?




hehehe awesome
No Trees Were Harmed In The Sending Of This Message. However, A Large Number Of Electrons Were Seriously Inconvenienced

consider text in my posts which is in Purple as being sarcastic.
0

#6 23 November 2008 - 04:47 PM Ophiolite 


Moderately Super

insane_alien said:

if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?
A basic principle of tribology is that you do not make two surfaces of the same material if they are in moving contact,
Data ---> Information ---> Knowledge ---> Wisdom

Per Ardua ad Astra - Through difficulties, to the cinema.
0

Share this topic:


Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users