[TheForge] New technique builds super-hard metals from nanoparticles

Tue Jan 26 09:53:24 EST 2021

No, not more dense, the weak atomic force limits how closely or distant . .
.(farly?) atoms can be spaced. 

This technique does a lot of interesting things. Many metals and metallics
appear harder but are actually tougher. Eliminating crystal boundaries (the
sparkles indicating enlarged "grain" growth) eliminates brittleness. Like
most materials the weak or failure initiation points are where they are
joined, the larger the joint the weaker. 

I've seen a couple similar articles a few months back mostly regarding
molecular circuitry quantum electronics. (molycircs for you sci fi fans)
They involved molecule thick carbon sheets (name escapes me along with what
I had for breakfast) and single molecule thick nano amorphous metals as
described in this article. 

There were chips being made though interfacing was a big problem. Think
computers the size and general thickness of the period at the end of a
printed sentence with. . . crap memory again, mega, giga, tera, what's two
steps above tera, peta, eta, ? byte with a switch rate at least one step
faster than giga herz.

>From what little I understood of the articles I got the impression electrons
don't travel between molecules, they exchange directly between atoms in
circuits smaller than carbon or metallic molecules. 

Nano tech and materials science is a highly competitive research "branch(?)"
currently, almost every large university has a department and funding
involved.

There are other ways than nanotech to make amorphous metals, very rapid
cooling for iron alloys and NO they aren't easier to forge. However once
forged steel and other alloys can be made amorphous for VERY strong
components, think a crank shaft that'd be ripped out of the engine block
before it broke.

Exciting times. 

Frosty

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 3:45 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] New technique builds super-hard metals from
nanoparticles

No, "closer" would be nearly impossible.  Changes in the volume of steel
grains as they change crystal structure is fairly small, not negligible, but
small.  And martensite (which I believe is the hardest form of steel, short
of cementite = iron carbide) actually occupies slightly *more *space than
ferrite (which I believe is the softest form).  (*Caveat*:  I'm no
metallurgist.)

"More uniform," quite likely.  That may be the point.

Bruce
NJ

On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 10:24 PM Rob Fertner <rfertner at cox.net> wrote:

> But aren't the grains packed closer together and more uniform?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> <theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
> On
> Behalf Of Bruce
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2021 8:19 PM
> To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] New technique builds super-hard metals from 
> nanoparticles
>
> It seemed to me that they were harder not because of density but 
> because of control of the individual grains.
> Bruce
> NJ
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 4:31 PM Rob Fertner <rfertner at cox.net> wrote:
>
> > I'm assuming they're harder because they are denser. I wonder if 
> > this would make them harder to forge?
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> > <theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
> > On
> > Behalf Of Walter
> > Sent: Monday, January 25, 2021 2:05 PM
> > To: theforge <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> > Subject: Re: [TheForge] New technique builds super-hard metals from 
> > nanoparticles
> >
> > I wonder if these could then become the plastics of tomorrow where 
> > they are something we can not reuse or get rid of.
> >
> > On 1/25/2021 2:44 PM, Rob Fertner wrote:
> > > Some interesting metallurgy developments:
> > >
> > > https://phys.org/news/2021-01-technique-super-hard-metals-nanopart
> > > ic
> > > le
> > > s.html
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Rob
> > >
> > > Wichita, KS
> >
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