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06-26-2004, 02:53 PM
<font size=3>New amorphous steel is twice as strong</font>
By Charles Choi
United Press International
New York, NY, Jun. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have made amorphous steel, which has molecular bonds that resemble those of a liquid more than a metal, and a hardness and strength more than double the best ultra-high-strength conventional steels.
The new steel could find use in everything from submarine hulls to skyscrapers, experts told United Press International.
Steel is a metal alloy composed mostly of iron, with varying amounts of carbon and other elements, such as titanium. Its molecular structure is crystalline, containing orderly rows and formations of atoms.
In amorphous substances, the atoms are highly disordered. One example is window glass, which is more akin to an extremely viscous, immobilized liquid than a solid. Another amorphous substance is water ice, the most dominant form of water in the universe, which condenses from water vapor onto cold surfaces, such as interstellar dust, and forms the deep-space wanderers known as comets.
Amorphous materials possess "a non-crystalline structure, in which the atoms arrange randomly, thus no crystallographic defects" form, Zhou Ping Lu, a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, told UPI. This is why they can be so strong, he added.
Compared with crystalline counterparts, amorphous materials usually show superior mechanical and temperature properties and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, amorphous materials can cost about $100 a pound, "much more expensive than the crystalline materials," Lu said.
More on this Story (http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040623-041703-9887r.htm)
By Charles Choi
United Press International
New York, NY, Jun. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have made amorphous steel, which has molecular bonds that resemble those of a liquid more than a metal, and a hardness and strength more than double the best ultra-high-strength conventional steels.
The new steel could find use in everything from submarine hulls to skyscrapers, experts told United Press International.
Steel is a metal alloy composed mostly of iron, with varying amounts of carbon and other elements, such as titanium. Its molecular structure is crystalline, containing orderly rows and formations of atoms.
In amorphous substances, the atoms are highly disordered. One example is window glass, which is more akin to an extremely viscous, immobilized liquid than a solid. Another amorphous substance is water ice, the most dominant form of water in the universe, which condenses from water vapor onto cold surfaces, such as interstellar dust, and forms the deep-space wanderers known as comets.
Amorphous materials possess "a non-crystalline structure, in which the atoms arrange randomly, thus no crystallographic defects" form, Zhou Ping Lu, a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, told UPI. This is why they can be so strong, he added.
Compared with crystalline counterparts, amorphous materials usually show superior mechanical and temperature properties and corrosion resistance. On the other hand, amorphous materials can cost about $100 a pound, "much more expensive than the crystalline materials," Lu said.
More on this Story (http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040623-041703-9887r.htm)