Chapter 389 Research Direction of New Materials
If you want to make a material light enough and strong enough at the same time, in addition to working on the performance of the material itself, you can also adjust the structure of the material.
At this point, the skeleton of a flying bird is a good reference object.
In order to fly, birds have almost reached the extreme in evolution. Whether it is the streamlined body shape, the arrangement of feathers, or even the muscles, internal organs and bones, they have all been specially specialized.
For example, the bones of birds are as hollow as possible inside, and at the same time have a supporting structure, so that the entire bone is light enough but also strong enough.
In the original world, humans learned this technology through the study of birds and applied it to the manufacture of aircraft.
In addition to applying this technology to the overall structural design of aircraft, humans have also developed a new type of material based on this principle, called foam metal.
This material not only has higher strength than ordinary metal materials, but also has a lighter weight. There is a qualitative gap in performance.
Take the most common aluminum foam as an example. Its density is only 0.1 to 0.4 times that of metallic aluminum, but its bending resistance is 1.5 times that of ordinary steel, which can be said to be very outstanding.
For Purficott, it is very simple to make aluminum foam. She can even make high-performance aluminum alloys used in the world's aerospace industry.
But for Purficott, the challenge is too low, or she can make what she wants without spending any time on dedicated research.
So she decided to develop a fantasy material that was even lighter in density than aluminum foam.
In nature, aluminum is already a light metal, and its density itself is already very low. Aluminum foam is one of the best, but compared with the material Perficott wants to obtain, it is still There is a qualitative difference.
But this is normal. If Purficott is only satisfied with the performance of aluminum foam, then she is just using fantasy alchemy to smooth out the technological gap of less than two hundred years, and it cannot be regarded as a success. The real performance of fantasy alchemy is revealed.
And another point is that in this era, large-scale production of aluminum is still not a simple matter, and the price of this thing is still very expensive.
What really caused the price of aluminum to fall from being comparable to gold to being inferior to copper and iron was mainly the discovery of electrolytic aluminum technology and the popularization of electrification in the second industrial revolution.
Before this, humans had limited means of obtaining aluminum, which is why Napoleon used an aluminum cup and the generals’ stars were all made of aluminum, which sounds outrageous.
For an alchemist who masters the art of fantasy alchemy, it is not difficult to create a material that is lighter than aluminum foam.
Perfect can even create metal lighter than air if she wishes.
Of course, even Purficott would have to spend a lot of time and energy to create such a weird thing, and the cost would also be explosive.
Therefore, Purficott did not choose an overly radical R&D strategy. Instead, after considering the current situation and his own needs, he set a standard that was not too high.
The density of the metal element of the new material must be only 0.1 times that of metal aluminum, and the bending stiffness must be more than twice that of high carbon steel.
This is not a particularly outrageous request. There is even such material in the original world.
For example, carbon fiber is said to be so popular that it is even somewhat demonized.
Its density is only 1.5-1.8 grams per cubic centimeter, that is, 1500 to 1800 kilograms per cubic meter, and it is only made of aluminum alloy.
Coupled with its superior performance and material strength, it has been greatly sought after since its emergence and has been applied to various fields. For Purficott, this material is a worthy challenge.
Of course, she needs metal materials, not carbon fiber.
The most critical factor in not using carbon fiber is that carbon fiber itself is a fiber, not a metal material.
Although it has a wide range of applications, it is not simple to process and use. For example, the processing of common carbon fibers requires the use of special viscose as base glue and impregnating glue, so that a piece of fiber can be processed The fibers are bonded together to form a carbon fiber material.
For Purficott, this undoubtedly greatly increased the trouble of use.
She can still accept it as foam metal. Anyway, as long as it is processed into the initial plate, the rest is the work of engineers and construction workers.
But for carbon fiber, she has to deal with a whole set of manufacturing and processing techniques.
Perfect thinks this is too much trouble.
So her final choice was to use carbon as the base material, and on this basis, use carbon fiber as a template to develop a fantasy material that can achieve the performance of carbon fiber materials.
The main reason for choosing carbon is that carbon is stable in nature. Unlike sodium and magnesium among light metals, it is very reactive and can easily react with other elements.
This is also the reason why among light metals, sodium and magnesium are obviously lighter than aluminum, but have not been widely used in the field of materials.
So Perficott decisively abandoned these light metals and chose carbon, a seemingly inconspicuous element, as the basis for his research on new materials.
After all, carbon is stable enough, and it can form a variety of atomic and molecular structures, thereby exhibiting completely different properties and properties.
For example, the famous carbon 60 is sixty carbon atoms combined in a spherical structure, thus having an atomic structure that is only half the density of aluminum but very stable.
Not only that, carbon 60 itself also has special chemical activity and can undergo addition reactions to generate various derivatives.
So the target Purficott is aiming for is actually carbon 60, but she needs to use fantasy alchemy to create this material, and what she obtains is a more stable metal element rather than a special structure. Carbon molecules.
If you just want carbon 60, then Purficott can completely use technological means to achieve it, and there is no need to use fantasy alchemy.
After all, Purficott’s purpose is to open the Jade Record, not to study a material.
The research on materials is just incidental. She just doesn't want to waste her precious time and a research project, and wants to make a fantasy material with practical value.
This may be difficult for ordinary alchemists, but for Purficott, it is relatively easy to achieve.
At least before she encountered difficulties and setbacks, Purficott thought it was not difficult, especially when she held the two great artifacts of the Philosopher's Stone and Fantasy Alchemy. Very simple.
(End of this chapter)