Superhero fans have long wondered how the likes of Superman, Spiderman and Wonder Woman can withstand explosions and fires, but their costumes remain light, flexible and pristine.
The answer may sit with new nano technology that is creating materials with the “strength of carbon steel but the lightness of Styrofoam”.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have outlined the technology in a new paper published in Advanced Materials.
The paper says the new materials offer “a conflicting combination of exceptional strength, light weight and customizability”.
The researchers believe the breakthrough could benefit a wide range of industries, from automotive to aerospace.
Nano-architected materials are made of tiny building blocks units. You would need 100 of these units to reach the thickness of a human hair.
“Nano-architected materials combine high performance shapes, like making a bridge out of triangles, at nanoscale sizes, which takes advantage of the ‘smaller is stronger’ effect, to achieve some of the highest strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, of any material,” study first author Peter Serles said.
“However, the standard lattice shapes and geometries used tend to have sharp intersections and corners, which leads to the problem of stress concentrations. This results in early local failure and breakage of the materials, limiting their overall potential.”
The new materials were created using 3D printing at the micro and nano scale.
This more than doubled the strength of existing designs, withstanding a stress of 2.03 megapascals for every cubic metre per kilogram of its density, which is about five times higher than titanium.
“This is the first time machine learning has been applied to optimize nano-architected materials, and we were shocked by the improvements,” Dr Serles said.
“We hope that these new material designs will eventually lead to ultra-light weight components in aerospace applications, such as planes, helicopters and spacecraft that can reduce fuel demands during flight while maintaining safety and performance.”
