

MIT grad students achieve long-sought stable nanocrystalline metals - Swizec
http://www.kurzweilai.net/mit-grad-students-achieve-long-sought-stable-nanocrystalline-metals

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cal2
Not entirely sure if this is legal (I'll take it down if it's not), but here's
the full article (PDF warning): <http://db.tt/ws6QSyVa>

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sp332
Sorry but the copyright does say _Copyright 2012 by the American Association
for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved._ And the license at the
top says "personal non-commercial use only" which I think this violates... I'm
not a lawyer though.

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throwaway1979
Thank you for saying "MIT grad students achieve" instead of "MIT achieves"!

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pyre

      > remained stable for a full week at a temperature of
      > 1,100 degrees Celsius
    

This statement is too ambiguous to me. Did it break down after a week, or did
they just stop testing after a week?

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ScottBurson
Apparently the latter. I glanced at the PDF and saw no mention of grain growth
after that point. Apparently, a week is plenty of time for the processing such
an alloy would normally undergo.

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davedx
Could the metals made with this process then be woven into cables, to make
(perhaps) an orbital tether / space elevator? Or are carbon nanotubes still
the best option in that area?

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pyre
It would depend on the types of stress that the material is good at
withstanding. As far as I know, an orbital tether / space elevator would
mostly need to be resistant to tensile stress.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(mechanics)>

