DailyDirt: The Promises Of Graphene

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Materials made of carbon are amazingly useful. We've pointed out various cool things that graphene can do before, but the list really seems to go on and on (even though there are less than a handful of products on the market that actually incorporate graphene). Still, graphene could improve a lot of things, and material science often takes decades to really establish a market for a specific material. Check out these links... and maybe in 30 years or so, we'll finally get to see some of these things.

• Graphene, like many other "miracle materials" before it, was predicted to create amazing advances in a wide range of products due to its unique chemical and physical properties. The material was discovered in 2004 from super thin layers of graphite, and now there are thousands of graphene-related patents. However, it may still be a while before widespread commercial applications are a reality. stuck to adhesive tape. [url]
• If only graphene could be produced in large-scale amounts, we'd have all kinds of crazy strong stuff -- like really lightweight bulletproof vests. Lab experiments show that graphene is better than Kevlar, but the catch is that no one has been able to make cheap graphene in large quantities. /sad trombone [url]
• Carbon nanotubes have exhibited an interesting ability to generate electricity via a thermopower wave phenonmenon. Igniting a combustible substance at one end of a carbon nanotube thread with a laser can push electrons around, and graphene could be another material that this phenomenon works with that's even more efficient. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: carbon nanotubes, graphene, kevlar, materials, nanotechnology, science, stronger than steel, thermopower wave

DailyDirt: The Strongest Natural Materials

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mother Nature is actually really good at making some impressively strong and tough materials. Kevlar and steel are pretty strong and useful, but there are a few natural materials that are stronger. Spider silk has been a synthetic target for decades, but being able to create just the spider silk protein isn't enough to make super strong fibers. Spiders actually produce different kinds of silk for different purposes with different mechanical properties, and the process of spinning spider silk isn't easy to duplicate without using spiders. If we're going to use less "plastic" in the future, we might need to figure out how to re-create some unique natural materials.

• The strongest natural material was previously thought to be spider silk, but the teeth of a type of mollusk (a limpet) is apparently stronger -- with a very high tensile strength that exceeds spider silk and Kevlar. Limpet teeth consist of protein packed with nanofibers of a mineral called goethite, and this composite material has a unique ability to maintain its strength regardless of its size -- usually larger structures tend to break more easily than smaller ones because they contain more flaws. [url]
• Tough seashells and corals are made of calcium carbonate, and it's been a mystery how this material forms -- but a piece of the puzzle has been found. Calcium carbonate can take the form of calcite or aragonite (and usually crystallizes into aragonite in seawater), but when the concentration of magnesium is reduced or eliminated, only calcite will form. If researchers can generalize the ability to predict crystal structure formation, it could have practical applications for a variety of material science problems. [url]
• Spider silk is often cited as being "stronger than steel" with possible applications for bulletproof vests or other amazing things. The problem is actually making spider silk on a large scale -- which means making the silk without growing a massive number of spiders. Various methods have been tried, such as using genetically modified bacteria, goats, silkworms, and alfalfa to produce strong silk fibers, but so far, we haven't quite been able to reproduce desirable spider silk fibers without using spiders. (There is at least one commercial use of spider silk, but it's used as a powder, not a fiber, for cosmetics.) [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bioinspiration, biomimicry, calcium carbonate, coral, gmo, goethite, kevlar, limpet teeth, materials, science, seashells, silk, spider silk, spiders, stronger than steel

DailyDirt: Doing Whatever A Spider Can...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

For years, researchers have been looking at spider silk's properties to try to re-create it into supermaterials tougher than Kevlar or steel. We're still learning a lot about how spider silk is made and what its structures are, so it'll probably be a few more decades before everyone is wearing clothes made from spider silk. In the meantime, here are a few interesting articles on spider silk.

• Spider webs are amazing tough and resistant to damage. Webs can retain their original strength even if 10% of the web's spokes are cut. [url]
• The most stretchable spider silk ever tested belongs to the cave spider, Meta menardi. The silk strands from the stalks of this spider's egg sacs can stretch up to 7.5 times their original length. [url]
• Spiders don't actually produce much silk in their lifetimes, but silkworms are routinely used to produce commercial amounts of silk. So how about genetically modifying some silkworms to produce spider silk? Scientists are already trying to do this, but it's not so easy. [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: fabric, kevlar, material, silkworms, spider silk, steel