Researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have used machine learning to design nano-architected materials that have the strength of carbon steel but the lightness of Styrofoam.
Very cool to see. I wonder about the thermal performance. Titanium is typically used over aluminum in aerospace when relatively high temperatures are experienced, (but not as high as the engine) the leading edge of the wing in supersonic jets for example. Being composed of carbon, would it be susceptible to combustion, like diamonds are? Still, with the density of styrofoam, you could certainly replace aluminum in low temperature applications too!
If the structure is highly regular that makes me guess they would have good creep performance, although that’s probably hard to test on such a small sample. It’ll be interesting to see if and when the fabrication can be sped up from two days for a pea-sized sample.
Very cool to see. I wonder about the thermal performance. Titanium is typically used over aluminum in aerospace when relatively high temperatures are experienced, (but not as high as the engine) the leading edge of the wing in supersonic jets for example. Being composed of carbon, would it be susceptible to combustion, like diamonds are? Still, with the density of styrofoam, you could certainly replace aluminum in low temperature applications too!
If the structure is highly regular that makes me guess they would have good creep performance, although that’s probably hard to test on such a small sample. It’ll be interesting to see if and when the fabrication can be sped up from two days for a pea-sized sample.