A new material could unleash revolutionary potential for automobile manufacturers and even create the next generation of body armor. New reports Indicates. The material is said to be four times stronger than steel and up to five times lighter. This is a very bold claim that will no doubt have a lot of eyes on him in the future.
The new material was created by researchers and materials scientists working at UConn, Columbia University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The substance was detailed in a study published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Sciences In July of this year.
Researchers say the new material is four times stronger than steel, making it sturdier than one of the materials most commonly used in constructing vehicles, buildings and other things. They created the material using a DNA scaffold, enabling the formation of complex nanostructured silica – a material similar to glass.
It may seem impossible for glass to be stronger than steel, but glass is usually very fragile due to imperfections in its structure. This new DNA scaffold eliminates a lot of those drawbacks, allowing for a stronger material that, although similar to glass, falls along the lines of steel when it comes to overall durability.
Of course, creating a large piece of glass that is completely flawless is a monumental endeavor. That’s why the researchers relied on their intelligence to make this happen and used nano-sized pieces of glass to create the material, allowing it to be made from several pieces of flawless glass in a frame-like design. Think of it as a frame for a building but on a much smaller scale.
From here, the researchers covered each piece with a layer of glass that was only a few hundred atoms thick. Because there is a lot of empty space between each piece, it allows the material to be stronger than steel and lighter as well.
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