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forgetcows t1_j0h9cm1 wrote

So while I don’t have access to the journal article, this is likely what is called a High Entropy Alloy, or HEA. Basically how they work is that when enough metals are mixed in together in roughly equal quantities, no single element is the solute for the other element’s to dissolve into (how traditional metal alloys work). This causes the atomic lattice, how the atoms are stacked together, to alternate between Cr, Co, and Ni. This irregularity makes it really challenging for flaws (dislocations) to move through the material and thus makes it really difficult for the material to deform. In normal alloys, the dislocation movement is usually slowed and the material strengthened (higher max stress) by adding barriers to dislocation movement, such as grain boundary’s or additional dislocations to get tangled up in. Unfortunately while these make the material stronger, they usually decrease the toughness (roughly stress*strain) because once these barriers are hit there isn’t much more deformation (strain) to be had before the material fractures. Because HEA’s already have a higher energy cost to move dislocations, they are able to reach a higher stress before these other factors kick in to reduce the fracture strain, resulting in a much higher toughness.

While this makes HEA’s really cool in a variety of applications, they are really difficult to manufacture and need a REALLY high temperature and REALLY clean furnace to smelt. This limits the size of the ingots that can be produced, and so it is still a ways off for HEAs to be practical in many situations. This is just my estimate from what the post has and my limited understanding of HEAs, so if any material scientists want to jump in and ream me please do.

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DahManWhoCannahType t1_j0jun89 wrote

Once we have our ingot of an HEA, what sort of applications and manufacturing methods are suitable for HEAs? For example, forging, machining, wire-pulling, tube-making, etc.

PS: thanks for your informative post.

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reidzen t1_j0gh85a wrote

CrCoNi sounds like the toughest guy on the block to begin with.

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toyotascion29 t1_j0gks7e wrote

If you live in the same neighborhood as Musk’s son

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MarcTullyCicero t1_j0gwf2i wrote

But don’t say what neighborhood that is, or Musk will send his Special Antiassassinator Operatives after you.

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ReD_94 t1_j0i68j6 wrote

Immediately thought of Mirko CroCop

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silashoulder t1_j0gp1yt wrote

Sir Coney sounds like a total pussy.

/literary humor.

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tonymmorley OP t1_j0fsikh wrote

"An alloy made of almost equal amounts of chromium, cobalt and nickel resists fracturing even at incredibly cold temperatures, which could make it useful for building spacecraft" — Toughest material ever is an alloy of chromium, cobalt and nickel 🧊

Now, presuming you don't have mad bank to flex on a New Scientist subscription, and seeing as how I can't jump the paywall effectively, here's another alternative source.

This Alloy Is The Toughest Known Material on Earth, And It Gets Tougher in The Cold

> "An alloy of chromium, cobalt, and nickel has just given us the highest fracture toughness ever measured in a material on Earth.
It has exceptionally high strength and ductility, leading to what a team of scientists has called "outstanding damage tolerance".
Moreover – and counterintuitively – these properties increase as the material gets colder, suggesting some interesting potential for applications in extreme cryogenic environments."

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WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0g05ji wrote

Hmm cobalt, this is not coming cheap, SpaceX's starship made of steel certainly much cheaper.

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psychodelephant t1_j0g0lbq wrote

As soon as the electric rockets start rolling off the line, they’ll need cobalt. /s

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WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0g1sfh wrote

Yeah, lol. When you're already in space electricity driven engines do work, like Ion thruster, but for breaking away from Earth's gravity we still need to figure out some new physics, not totally impossible.

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Clatuu1337 t1_j0h6owe wrote

I think in the future larger ships will be constructed outside of Earth's atmosphere. People will use smaller ones to transition to the surface, or maybe like space elevators.

I also think eventually we won't rely on combustion to reach the atmosphere. My thoughts were centrifugal force or some kind of magnetic accelerator.

That being said, I am in no way an expert. Just some dude on reddit.

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WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0hast9 wrote

> I also think eventually we won't rely on combustion to reach the atmosphere. My thoughts were centrifugal force or some kind of magnetic accelerator.

I like the space elevator (easy on the Moon and even Mars) for Earth there's also laser launcher/accelerator, also doubles as wicked laser gun.

source: trust me bro, just another dude on reddit

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RedCascadian t1_j0hbfne wrote

Aliens: So how did you get your ship so fast without warpsrive?

Humans: "oh we set off nukes behind ourselves and ride the explosion."

Aliens: "the fuck? How did you nit destroy your planet already?"

Humans: "oh no, we get to the explosion ships by shooting a smaller ship with lasers to send it to orbit, or we just hurl it through a giant rail gun into orbit.

Aliens: O_O

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curtial t1_j0hf50u wrote

Humans are Space Orcs: Confirmed.

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WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0hhrqb wrote

yeah, lol, and here's just the thing to launch humans from a giant rail gun (slightly tweaked Julius Verne original idea btw):

"A protein found in human cells has been repurposed to make a material that reforms when it is struck by a projectile, capturing the object intact"

"When something hits the gel, the energy unfolds the modified talin switches rather than being converted to heat, as is the case with existing materials, says Goult. Silica gels filled with air, or aerogels, have previously been used to capture small objects in space, but these heat up on impact, potentially damaging both themselves and the captured material."

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350814-biogel-armour-can-stop-a-supersonic-projectile-in-its-tracks/

Perfect airbag to cushion the 20 G's hitting your meatbag, lol

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ADhomin_em t1_j0gwrv5 wrote

EM drive confirmed?!

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Strange_Bedfellow t1_j0h6u55 wrote

We already use low-power ion engines and such. They're great in space, since there's nothing to slow you down.

Getting the ion engine into space is the tricky part.

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Ok_Kale_2509 t1_j0jhgdh wrote

So I wonder if it continues to get tougher no matter how cold. If so that's pretty amazing for space.

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Dragonlicker69 t1_j0fyit9 wrote

So found a material that is less brittle at low Kelvin. The applications will be phenomenal but it needs a name, CrCoNi just isn't catchy enough lol

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zanisnot t1_j0h7st9 wrote

Phonetically “cur cō nē” sounds pretty good to me

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Dragonlicker69 t1_j0h82zv wrote

Can spell it Curconi so it's similar to the molecular name and pronounced like that

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LordofLustria t1_j0jmjy7 wrote

I hope they call it mithril so that it can finally be a real metal

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jfVigor t1_j0jgpnu wrote

...just call it Adamantium

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Gubekochi t1_j0joyo1 wrote

That should be a title we give to whatever is currently the strongest material.

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kliblovespie t1_j0go86p wrote

Tritanium! Star Trek moves one step closer to reality

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LanceCriminalGalen t1_j0hw268 wrote

ChuckNorrisium. Getting ready to roundhouse NASA to Mars and beyond.

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Radchild2277 t1_j0gq7fh wrote

Let's call it Coltan. Then let's build a deathbot out of it and send it back in time.

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Gubekochi t1_j0jp1s1 wrote

Roko's basilisk is pleased with this idea.

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Newb1e1 t1_j0hn1xr wrote

I find it remarkably cool that this high entropy alloy (and yes it is an HEA) is so much tougher than everything else known. In tests at 20 kelvin, the CrCoNi displayed a toughness of 500 megapascals square root meters. Aluminium used in aircraft would only be about 35, and the best steels are around 100. And the amount of novel alloys you could get just by fractionally adjusting the percentage of each element is phenomenal. There's just so much potential out there

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BottasHeimfe t1_j0js8k9 wrote

while this material might be rather resistant at colder temperatures, how does it handle heat? space isn't simply cold, it's cold and hot at the same time. at least around the Earth.

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FuturologyBot t1_j0fuk0b wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/tonymmorley:

"An alloy made of almost equal amounts of chromium, cobalt and nickel resists fracturing even at incredibly cold temperatures, which could make it useful for building spacecraft" — Toughest material ever is an alloy of chromium, cobalt and nickel 🧊

Now, presuming you don't have mad bank to flex on a New Scientist subscription, and seeing as how I can't jump the paywall effectively, here's another alternative source.

This Alloy Is The Toughest Known Material on Earth, And It Gets Tougher in The Cold

> "An alloy of chromium, cobalt, and nickel has just given us the highest fracture toughness ever measured in a material on Earth.
It has exceptionally high strength and ductility, leading to what a team of scientists has called "outstanding damage tolerance".
Moreover – and counterintuitively – these properties increase as the material gets colder, suggesting some interesting potential for applications in extreme cryogenic environments."

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zna8el/toughest_material_ever_is_an_alloy_of_chromium/j0fsikh/

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fapalicius t1_j0gqx4k wrote

Ever is a too strong word to claim, I'm surewe wil find even stronger materials

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AnimalFarmKeeper t1_j0j6ow2 wrote

Not clear if this has superior toughness across a range of temperatures, or merely is superior to prior art when it comes to the cryogenic end of the spectrum.

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wagner56 t1_j0kpnjm wrote

Ductility is the ability of a material to sustain a large permanent deformation under a tensile load up to the point of fracture, or the relative ability of a material to be stretched plastically at room temperature without fracturing. Ductility can be measured by the amount of permanent deformation indicated by the stress-strain curve.

Many definitions of 'tough' are not this.

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