Advancing Aluminium
Aluminium is already highly regarded in manufacturing, as an exceptionally strong metal that is amazingly lightweight, it has earned its place in industries such as aerospace, engineering and fabrication.
You might wonder how you can improve on a metal that is already prised for being one of the lightest metals available, well now researchers claim they could create an even lighter version. So light in fact, it could even float on water without being moulded into a boat!
According to Utah State University and Southern Federal University in Russia, such a thing is possible. A team of researchers used computational design to conceive a form of crystalline aluminium with extremely low density.
The teams approach was exceptionally innovative, starting with the structure of a diamond they substituted every carbon atom with an aluminium tetrahedron which resulted in the material they have named: ‘supertetrahedral aluminium’. This groundbreaking material could have an incredible density as low as just 0.61 grams per cubic metre. When compared to the density of traditional aluminium which typically 2.7 grams per cubic metre, it’s roughly 126.3% lighter!
Ultra-light aluminum: Chemists breakthrough in material design
If this metal was to become more than just a computerised concept the applications could beneficial across industries. Take vehicles for one, many parts are already made from aluminium but should these components be substituted for lightweight aluminium in new cars, the vehicle would potentially be more fuel efficient because of a reduced load.
It could also be important in spaceflights, with every kilogram added to a rocket, the difficulty of launching increases as well as the cost and payload.
But we shouldn’t get too far ahead, while this material would be inexpensive to produce and have a lot of perceived benefits to a number of companies, it has not been manufactured yet so there is still a lot to learn about it, including its strength. However the design is the first step in any new product line, so let’s keep our fingers crossed the success of the project continues.
So for now you should probably stick to materials that do exist and lucky enough here at metal supplies with have bountiful stocks of aluminium as well as other industry standard metals. Take a look at our full list online or call us on 0800 123 7010 to order.
