October_2021_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 | O C T O B E R 2 0 2 1 7 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS BRIEFS Aleris, Cleveland, offers a new 7017 aluminum alloy in North America for commercial plate and defense uses. After extensive review and testing, the U.S. Army Research Lab issued MIL-DTL-32505 for use in armor applications. 7017 offers high strength, good weldability, and corrosion resistance. It is currently use d in Europe and Asia on combat vehicl es to achieve superior ballistic protection. aleris.com. According to the researchers, the model makes it possible to significant- ly reduce the conservatism of strength calculations in the design and cus- tomization of structures—minimizing subsequent manufacturing costs while fulfilling necessary safety and quality requirements. The results indicate that mathematical models of the behavior of composite materials are applicable to virtual tests of structures instead of expensive full-scale tests. www. skoltech.ru/en. LITHIUM BATTERY RESEARCH Scientists from South Dakota State University, Brookings, along with collaborators from the University of Texas at Arlington, will work to deter- mine how lithium metal improves bat- tery performance through a three-year, nearly $450,000 National Science Foun- dation grant. Understanding how a new material helps increase the stability as well as the storage capacity of lithium- ion batteries can help researchers bet- ter develop high-performance energy storage devices. This fundamental sci- entific knowledge will provide guide- lines for researchers using this mater- ial to develop next-generation batteries to power electric cars and store renew- able energy. Electriccars, for instance, nowhave a range of around 300 miles. However, according to the researchers, if they can develop high-performance stor- age devices that are the same weight but can store more energy, the range could be expanded up to 600 miles. By adding carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms to hard-to-evaporate metals like tungsten and platinum, researchers e i- ciently transformed the elements into thin films. Courtesy of Bharat Jalan MBE Lab, University of Minnesota. THIN FILM EFFICIENCY Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Sci- ence and Engineering, Minneapolis, de- veloped and patented a new technology that enables more efficient manufac- turing of a “stubborn” group of metals and metal oxides into thin films. Many metals and their compounds must be made into thin films before they can be used in technological products like electronics, displays, fuel cells, or cat- alytic applications. “Stubborn” met- als, however—which include elements like platinum, iridium, ruthenium, and tungsten, among others—are very dif- ficult to convert into thin films because they require extremely high tempera- tures to evaporate. Now, the cheaper, safer, and sim- pler production technology can evap- orate these metals at significantly low- er temperatures—fewer than 200°C instead of several thousands. By de- signing and adding organic ligands to A team of international researchers across several institutions synthesized a new carbon that is reportedly the hardest and strongest amorphous material created to date. They subjected fullerenes to very high temperatures and pressures and produced what they call AM-III carbon, a type of glass with crystals in it. The material is yellowish, has no defined structure, and is very strong—scoring 113 gigapascals on the Vickers har ness test, higher than some diamonds and approximately 10 times as hard as steel. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwab140. BRIEF the metals, the researchers were able to substantially increase the materials’ vapor pressures. Not only is their new technique simpler, but it also makes higher quality materials that are easily scalable. cse.umn.edu . CERTIFYING STRUCTURES One of the most significant scien- tific and engineering problems in the design of promising structures is the lack of verified mathematical mod- els describing the behavior of poly- mer composite materials in complex products. Now, a collaborative group of researchers led by Skoltech, Rus- sia, created and tested the model of a thermoplastic composite material chaotically reinforced by short glass fi- bers. They demonstrated the effective- ness and applicability of this model on strength calculations of promising com- posite valves and safety devices for por- table tanks for road, rail, and maritime transportation of chemical substances. Material model for the design of pressure vessel service equipment made from polymer composites. Courtesy of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology.