The lightest material on earth. The heaviest substance in the universe. Neutron stars - superdense objects of space

Chinese scientists have developed the lightest material in the world. Its weight is so small that it is easily held on the flower petals.

The material consists of graphene oxide and lyophilized carbon. The developed spongy matter of graphene airgel weighs some 0.16 mg / cm3, which makes the substance the lightest of the solid materials in the world. As you know, graphene has already brought the Nobel Prize to Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov .

Many more scientific discoveries will be made on the basis of this unique material. Without impurities, graphene is a two-dimensional crystal and is the thinnest man-made material on earth. extremely durable.

One sheet as thick as a plastic bag can support the weight of an elephant. The advantages of graphene do not end there. In addition to strength and lightness, the material is quite flexible. It can be stretched without any damage by 20%. One of the latest properties of graphene identified by scientists is the ability to filter water, retaining various liquids and gases.

Do you know what material on our planet is considered the strongest? We all know from school that diamond is the strongest mineral, but it is far from being the strongest.

Hardness is not the main property that characterizes matter. Some properties may prevent scratches, while others may promote elasticity. Want to know more? Here is a rating of materials that will be very difficult to destroy.

Diamond in all its glory

A classic example of strength, stuck in textbooks and heads. Its hardness means scratch resistance. On the Mohs scale (a qualitative scale that measures the resistance of various minerals), a diamond scores at 10 (the scale goes from 1 to 10, where 10 is the most solid). The diamond is so hard that other diamonds must be used to cut it.

A web that can stop an airbus

Often referred to as the world's most complex biological substance (although this claim is now disputed by inventors), Darwin's spider web is stronger than steel and more rigid than Kevlar. Its weight is no less remarkable: a filament long enough to encircle the Earth weighs only 0.5 kg.

Airbrush in a regular package

This synthetic foam is one of the lightest building materials in the world. Airbrush is about 75 times lighter than Styrofoam (but much stronger!). This material can be compressed up to 30 times its original size without compromising its structure. Another interesting point: airbrush can withstand a mass of 40,000 times its own weight.

Glass during a crash test

This substance was developed by scientists in California. Microalloyed glass has an almost perfect combination of stiffness and strength. The reason for this is that its chemical structure reduces the brittleness of glass but retains the rigidity of palladium.

Tungsten drill

Tungsten carbide is incredibly hard and has a high quality high rigidity, but it is quite fragile, it can be easily bent.

Silicon carbide in the form of crystals

This material is used in making armor for battle tanks. In fact, it is used in almost everything that can protect against bullets. It has a Mohs hardness rating of 9 and also has low level thermal expansion.

Molecular structure of boron nitride

About as strong as diamond, cubic boron nitride has one important advantage: it is insoluble in nickel and iron at high temperatures. For this reason, it can be used to process these elements (diamond forms of nitrides with iron and nickel at high temperatures).

Dyneema cable

It is considered the strongest fiber in the world. You may be surprised by the fact that dyneema is lighter than water, but it can stop bullets!

alloy tube

Titanium alloys are extremely flexible and have very high tensile strengths, but do not have the same stiffness as steel alloys.

Amorphous metals easily change shape

Liquidmetal was developed by Caltech. Despite the name, this metal is not liquid and room temperature have a high level of strength and wear resistance. When heated, amorphous alloys can change shape.

Future paper may be harder than diamonds

This is latest invention created from wood pulp, while having a greater degree of strength than steel! And much cheaper. Many scientists consider nanocellulose to be a cheap alternative to palladium glass and carbon fiber.

saucer shell

We mentioned earlier that Darwin's spiders weave some of the strongest organic material on Earth. Nevertheless, the teeth of the sea limpet turned out to be even stronger than the cobwebs. Limpet teeth are extremely hard. The reason for these amazing characteristics is in the purpose: collecting algae from the surface rocks and corals. Scientists believe that in the future we could copy the fibrous structure of limpet teeth and use it in the automotive industry, ships and even the aviation industry.

Rocket stage in which many nodes contain maraging steels

This substance combines a high level of strength and stiffness without loss of elasticity. Steel alloys of this type are used in aerospace and industrial production technologies.

osmium crystal

Osmium is extremely dense. It is used in the manufacture of things that require high level strength and hardness (electrical contacts, handles for tips, etc.).

Kevlar helmet stopped the bullet

Used in everything from drums to bulletproof vests, Kevlar is synonymous with toughness. Kevlar is a type of plastic that is extremely high strength for stretching. In fact, it is about 8 times greater than that of steel wire! It can also withstand temperatures around 450℃.

Spectra pipes

High performance polyethylene is a really durable plastic. This lightweight, strong thread can withstand incredible tension and is ten times stronger than steel. Similar to Kevlar, Spectra is also used for ballistic resistant vests, helmets and armored vehicles.

Flexible graphene screen

A sheet of graphene (an allotrope of carbon) one atom thick is 200 times stronger than steel. Although graphene looks like cellophane, it is truly amazing. It would take a school bus balanced on a pencil to pierce a standard A1 sheet of this material!

A new technology that could revolutionize our understanding of strength

This nanotechnology is made from carbon pipes, which are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. This explains why it is 10 times lighter than steel but 500 times stronger.

microlattice alloys are regularly used in satellites

The lightest metal in the world, the metal microgrid is also one of the lightest construction materials on the ground. Some scientists claim that it is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam! A porous but extremely strong material, it is used in many areas of technology. Boeing has mentioned its use in aircraft manufacturing, mainly in floors, seats and walls.

Nanotube model

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be described as "seamless cylindrical hollow fibers" that consist of a single rolled molecular sheet of pure graphite. The result is a very light material. On the nanoscale, carbon nanotubes are 200 times stronger than steel.

Fantastic airbrush is hard to even describe!

Also known as graphene airgel. Imagine the strength of graphene combined with unimaginable lightness. Airgel is 7 times lighter than air! This incredible material can fully recover from over 90% compression and can absorb up to 900 times its own weight in oil. It is hoped that this material could be used to clean up oil spills.

Massachusetts Polytechnic Main Building

At the time of this writing, MIT scientists believe they have discovered the secret to maximizing graphene's 2D strength in 3D. Their as yet unnamed substance may have roughly 5% the density of steel, but 10 times the strength.

Molecular structure of carbine

Despite being a single chain of atoms, carbine has twice the tensile strength of graphene and three times the hardness of diamond.

birthplace of boron nitride

This natural substance is produced in the vent active volcanoes and 18% stronger than diamond. It is one of two naturally occurring substances that have now been found to be harder than diamonds. The problem is that there is not much of this substance out there, and it is now difficult to say for sure whether this statement is 100% true.

Meteorites are the main sources of lonsdaleite

Also known as hexagonal diamond, this substance is made up of carbon atoms, but they're just arranged differently. Along with wurtzite and boron nitride, it is one of two natural substances harder than diamond. In fact, Londsdaleite is 58% harder! However, as in the case of the previous substance, it is in relatively small volumes. Sometimes it occurs when graphite meteorites collide with planet Earth.

The future is not far off, so by the end of the 21st century we can expect the appearance of heavy-duty and ultralight materials, which will replace Kevlar and diamonds. In the meantime, one can only be surprised at the development of modern technologies.

Durable materials have a wide range of uses.

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There is not only the hardest metal, but also the hardest and strongest wood, as well as the strongest man-made materials.

Where are the most durable materials used?

Heavy-duty materials are used in many areas of life. So, chemists in Ireland and America have developed a technology by which durable textile fibers are produced.

The thread of this material is fifty micrometers in diameter. It is created from tens of millions of nanotubes, which are bonded together with the help of a polymer.

The tensile strength of this electrically conductive fiber is three times higher than the strength of the web of the orb-weaving spider. The resulting material is used to make ultra-light body armor and sports equipment.

The name of another durable material is ONNEX, created by order of the US Department of Defense. In addition to its use in the production of bulletproof vests, new material can also be used in flight control systems, sensors, engines.

There is a technology developed by scientists, thanks to which durable, hard, transparent and light materials are obtained by converting aerogels.

Based on them, it is possible to produce lightweight body armor, armor for tanks and durable Construction Materials. Novosibirsk scientists have invented a plasma reactor of a new principle, thanks to which it is possible to produce nanotubulene, a heavy-duty artificial material.

This material was discovered twenty years ago. It is a mass of elastic consistency. It consists of plexuses that cannot be seen with the naked eye. The thickness of the walls of these plexuses is one atom.

The fact that the atoms are sort of nested into each other according to the “Russian nesting doll” principle makes nanotubule the most durable material known.

When this material is added to concrete, metal, plastic, their strength and electrical conductivity are significantly enhanced. Nanotubulene will help make cars and planes more durable. If the new material comes into wide production, then roads, houses, and equipment can become very durable.

It will be very difficult to destroy them. Nanotubulene has not yet been introduced into widespread production due to the very high cost. However, Novosibirsk scientists managed to significantly reduce the cost of this material. Now nanotubulene can be produced not in kilograms, but in tons.

The hardest metal

Among all known metals, chromium is the hardest, but its hardness depends largely on its purity. Its properties are corrosion resistance, heat resistance and refractoriness. Chrome is a whitish-blue metal. Its Brinell hardness is 70-90 kgf/cm2.

The melting point of the solid metal- one thousand nine hundred and seven degrees Celsius at a density of seven thousand two hundred kg / m3.

This metal is in earth's crust at a rate of 0.02 percent, which is a lot. It is usually found as chromium ironstone. Chromium is mined from silicate rocks.

This metal is used in industry, smelting chromium steel, nichrome and so on. It is used for anti-corrosion and decorative coatings. Chromium is very rich in stone meteorites falling to Earth.

Most durable tree

There is wood that is stronger than cast iron and can be compared with the strength of iron. We are talking about "Schmidt's Birch". It is also called the Iron Birch. Man does not know a more durable tree than this. It was opened by a Russian botanist named Schmidt, while in the Far East.

Due to such properties, iron birch could sometimes replace metal, because this wood is not subject to corrosion and decay. The ship's hull, made of Iron birch, can not even be painted, the ship will not be destroyed by corrosion, the action of acids is also not afraid of it.

Schmidt's birch cannot be pierced by a bullet, you cannot cut it down with an ax. Of all the birches on our planet, it is the Iron Birch that is long-lived - it lives for four hundred years.

Its place of growth is the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve. This is a rare protected species, which is listed in the Red Book. If not for such a rarity, the heavy-duty wood of this tree could be used everywhere.

But the most tall trees in the world, sequoias are not a very durable material. But, according to uznayvse.ru, they can grow up to 150 meters in height.

Most durable material in the Universe

The most durable and at the same time lightweight material our universe is graphene. This is a carbon plate, which is only one atom thick, but it is stronger than diamond, and the electrical conductivity is a hundred times higher than the silicon of computer chips.

Each of you knows that diamond remains the standard of hardness today. When determining the mechanical hardness of materials existing on earth, the hardness of diamond is taken as a standard: when measured by the Mohs method - in the form of a surface sample, by the Vickers or Rockwell methods - as an indenter (as a harder body when examining a body with lower hardness). To date, several materials can be noted, the hardness of which approaches the characteristics of diamond.

compared in this case. original materials, based on their microhardness according to the Vickers method, when the material is considered superhard at rates of more than 40 GPa. The hardness of materials can vary, depending on the characteristics of the synthesis of the sample or the direction of the load applied to it.

Fluctuations in hardness values ​​from 70 to 150 GPa is a generally established concept for hard materials, although 115 GPa is considered to be a reference value. Let's take a look at the 10 hardest materials other than diamond that exist in nature.

10. Boron suboxide (B 6 O) - hardness up to 45 GPa

Boron suboxide has the ability to create grains shaped like icosahedrons. The formed grains in this case are not isolated crystals or varieties of quasicrystals, representing a kind of twin crystals, consisting of two dozen paired crystals-tetrahedra.

10. Rhenium diboride (ReB 2) - hardness 48 GPa

Many researchers question whether this material can be classified as a superhard type of material. This is due to very unusual mechanical properties connections.

The layer-by-layer alternation of different atoms makes this material anisotropic. Therefore, the measurement of hardness indicators turns out to be different in the presence of different types of crystallographic planes. Thus, testing rhenium diboride at low loads provides a hardness of 48 GPa, and with increasing load, the hardness becomes much less and is approximately 22 GPa.

8. Magnesium aluminum boride (AlMgB 14) - hardness up to 51 GPa

The composition is a mixture of aluminum, magnesium, boron with low sliding friction, as well as high hardness. These qualities could be a godsend for the production of modern machines and mechanisms that work without lubrication. But the use of the material in such a variation is still considered prohibitively expensive.

AlMgB14 - special thin films created by pulsed laser deposition, have the ability to have microhardness up to 51 GPa.

7. Boron-carbon-silicon - hardness up to 70 GPa

The basis of such a connection provides the alloy with qualities that imply optimal resistance to chemical influences of a negative type and high temperature. Such material is provided with microhardness up to 70 GPa.

6. Boron carbide B 4 C (B 12 C 3) - hardness up to 72 GPa

Another material is boron carbide. The substance has been actively used in different areas industry almost immediately after its invention in the 18th century.

The microhardness of the material reaches 49 GPa, but it has been proven that this figure can also be increased by adding argon ions to the structure. crystal lattice– up to 72 GPa.

5. Carbon-boron nitride - hardness up to 76 GPa

Researchers and scientists from all over the world have long been trying to synthesize polysyllabic super hard materials where tangible results have already been achieved. The components of the compound are boron, carbon and nitrogen atoms - similar in size. The qualitative hardness of the material reaches 76 GPa.

4. Nanostructured cubonite - hardness up to 108 GPa

The material is also called kingsongite, borazone or elbor, and also has unique qualities successfully used in modern industry. With cubonite hardness values ​​of 80-90 GPa, close to the diamond standard, the strength of the Hall-Petch law can cause their significant growth.

This means that with a decrease in the size of crystalline grains, the hardness of the material increases - there are certain possibilities for increasing up to 108 GPa.

3. Wurtzite boron nitride - hardness up to 114 GPa

Wurtzite crystal structure provides high hardness values this material. With local structural modifications, during the application of a specific type of load, the bonds between atoms in the lattice of a substance are redistributed. At this point, the quality hardness of the material becomes 78% higher.

Lonsdaleite is an allotropic modification of carbon and is distinctly similar to diamond. Solid found natural material was in a meteorite crater, formed from graphite - one of the components of the meteorite, but it did not possess a record degree of strength.

Scientists have proven back in 2009 that the absence of impurities can provide a hardness exceeding the hardness of diamond. High hardness values ​​can be achieved in this case, as in the case of wurtzite boron nitride.

Polymerized fullerite is now considered the hardest material known to science. This is a structured molecular crystal, the nodes of which are composed of whole molecules, and not of individual atoms.

Fullerite has a hardness of up to 310 GPa and is capable of scratching a diamond surface like normal plastic. As you can see, diamond is no longer the hardest natural material in the world, harder compounds are available to science.

So far, these are the hardest materials on Earth known to science. It is quite possible that soon we will have new discoveries and a breakthrough in the field of chemistry / physics, which will allow us to achieve higher hardness.

October 24, 2013

The lighter the better?

From childhood, many people remember the riddle about what is still heavier than a kilogram of down or a kilogram of lead. And many said that a kilogram of lead is heavier. For people - fluff, flower petals and dandelions seem to be something light.

Such a banal thing today as aluminum seemed to scientists of the 19th century a grandiose discovery. Many of them dreamed of dwellings for all the disadvantaged from this light and durable metal. Scientists around the world have always been interested in the creation of the lightest materials that can be transported without any problems.

Thus, humanity is trying to get closer to the divine principle, soar up and come close to the great primary source of all things. How can one not recall here the fairy tale about the invisibility cap - perhaps scientists' minds were still under the impression of children's books?

Use of the lightest materials

But the lyrical side always has a reverse, practical side. The lightest materials - one of the most significant issues and challenges modern science and, in particular, nanotechnologies. Similar materials necessary for the space and military industries, the production of computers based on the latest processors, in transplantology and many other areas of human life.

For a long time, polystyrene foam was considered one of the lightest materials created by man. This is a product of the class of foam plastics, which was made from polystyrene, coupled with its derivatives. It's hard to imagine, but this material consists of 98% air and only 2% remains on the polystyrene itself.

However, life does not stand still, and venerable scientists (after all, restless people) continue to push each other in search of new, even lighter substances. So, quite recently, the entire scientific community was excited by a new discovery in the field of light materials.

frozen air

The new substance was named "aerogel", which in Russian would sound like "frozen air" or "frozen smoke". Indeed, this substance in its appearance is very reminiscent of smoke, which, as if at the request of a crazy artist, inexplicably migrated from the canvas to reality.

This porous substance with a bluish tint resembles styrofoam or slightly hardened shaving foam. One of the main unique properties of this material is the ability to withstand loads that can exceed the own weight of the substance by more than 2000 times! And this, given that airgel is 9.8% air.

In addition, this substance is an excellent thermal insulator, which is almost 40 times superior to insulating fiberglass, so that airgel is already being used in the aerospace industry today. In addition to high thermal insulation characteristics this substance practically does not transmit sound, is able to withstand the effects of the most extreme temperatures, as well as a strong impact.

In practice, a bulletproof vest made of 1 cm thick airgel would be able to protect the wearer from the explosion of a whole kilogram of dynamite. But the list called "light materials" does not end there. Chinese scientists have managed to create a material so light that it can be placed on flower petals.

Fluff that can support an elephant

Thumbelina compared to this substance, which was called graphene, is just a "fat cow". Graphene is only twice as heavy as the simplest chemical element hydrogen and less dense than helium. However, despite such lightness and airiness, this material is extremely durable.

One sheet of thickness plastic bag able to bear the weight of an elephant. It takes three million sheets of graphene to make a stack 1 mm thick. In addition, graphene has simply fantastic absorption properties - up to 900 times its own weight in oil equivalent.

And this " smart material” absorbs oil, not water, which in turn makes it extremely promising in cleaning the planet from oil slicks. In addition to all of the above, graphene is so flexible that it can safely be stretched by 20%. However, experiments to create new ultralight materials continue.

Practice shows that even more incredible discoveries await humanity in the near future. Perhaps very soon, scientific minds will present to the judgment of contemporaries substances consisting of 9.9% of air alone.