January_AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 8 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS Allegheny Technologies Inc., Pittsburgh, and an affiliate com- pany of Tsingshan Group, Chi- na—the world’s largest stainless steel producer—will form a 50-50 joint venture to manufacture and sell 60 in.-wide stainless sheet in North America. Regulatory and antitrust clearances are expected early this year, with first ship- ments planned around the same time. atimetals.com , www.tssgroup.com.cn/en. Nucor Corp., Washington, will build a full-range merchant bar quality mill at its existing bar steel mill in Bourbonnais, Ill. The new mill, which will take approximate- ly two years to complete, will have an annual capacity of 500,000 tons and is expected to cost $180 million. nucor.com . Newly established Boeing HorizonX Ventures, Chicago, is making its first investment in advanced materials technology with aluminum alloy developer Gamma Alloys, Valencia, Calif. Gamma focuses on advanced metal-matrix composites for the aerospace and automotive industries, among others, and specializes in custom engineering where traditional materials only provide limited solutions. boeing.com , gammaalloys.com . BRIEFS BIOHACKED BACTERIA MAKE A RARE RECOVERY Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Calif., developed a new method to recover rare earth el- ements from low-grade feedstock us- ing bioengineered bacteria. The team tested the biosorption capabilities of bacteria with functionalized cell sur- faces on leachates from metal-mine tailings and rare earth deposits. Results show that engineered bacteria are su- perior to the non-engineered control in multiple measures, including adsorp- tion efficiency and selectivity for rare earths. Microbial mediated surface ad- sorption is a promising approach to rare earth recovery. Microorganisms have a significant capacity to adsorb metal due to factors such as high surface area per unit weight and fast and reversible adsorption capability. Further, because cells can withstand multiple adsorp- tion-desorption cycles without fre- quent regeneration, operation costs are lowered. Another boon is that biosorp- tion is more environmentally friendly than traditional extraction techniques. The new findings could make it feasi- ble to recover rare earth metals from sources such as mine tailings, geother- mal brines, and coal byproducts, diver- sifying the supply chain for materials critical to clean energy applications. llnl.gov. STRENGTH UNDER RAPID FIRE Researchers from the U.S. Army and MIT, Cambridge, discovered that when a class of manmade rubbers is bombarded by projectiles, the mate- rials become significantly stiffer when struck at very high speeds. Using a pulsed laser device to shoot microme- ter-sized silica bullets at targets made of poly(urethane urea) elastomers, or PUUs, the team found that when the targets are deformed at strain rates on the order of 108/s, they exhibit hyper- elastic behavior, and every composition Schematic illustration of the laser- inducedmicro-particle impact test. Courtesy of U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Europium, a rare earth element with the same relative hardness as lead, is used to create fluorescent lightbulbs. The element has no proven substitutes. Courtesy of Ames Laboratory.