Word of an inexpensive material, lightweight enough to protect satellites against debris in the cold of outer space, cohesive enough to strengthen the walls of pressurized vessels experiencing average conditions on Earth and yet heat-resistant enough to shield instruments against flying debris, raises.
The answer is sweet as sugar.
It is, in fact, very thin layers of confectioners sugar from the grocers, burnt to a state called carbon black, which is the most common material on Earth. The result is a fine layer cake, or more precisely, the organic and inorganic layers of a seashell, each layer helping the next to contain and mitigate shock.
A material that can survive a variety of insults can be used to endure harsh environmental conditions. The answer is believed to be our multi-component, mimicking the structure of a seashell.
The self-assembled coating is lightweight and mechanically strong, but also thermally stable enough to protect instruments in experimental fusion machines against their own generated debris where temperatures may be about 1,500 C.
Rick Spielman, senior scientist and physics professor at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, was credited with leading the initial design of the Z machine.
Helping the nuclear survivability mission.
The coating was the subject of a patent application by Sandia in June of 2021, an invited talk at a power conference in December of 2021, and a technical article in MRS Advances in which the lead author is Xu.
The work was done in anticipation of the increased shielding that will be needed to protect test objects, diagnostics and drivers inside the more powerful pulsed power machines of the future. The Z machine, currently the most powerful producer of X-rays on Earth, will require more debris protection against forces that could compare to numerous sticks of dynamite exploding at close range.
The new shielding should have a positive impact on our nuclear survivability mission. The rest is debris and shock. We want to know if debris is damaging our samples because we want to understand how matter works. We are at the limit where we can protect sample materials from unwanted insult, but more powerful testing machines will require better shielding, and this new technology may enable appropriate protection.
Less specialized uses are still possibilities.
The inexpensive shield is light enough to ride into space as a protective layer on satellites because comparatively little material is needed to achieve the same resilience as heavier but less effective shielding currently in use to protect against collision with space junk.
When ounces are not an issue, thicker shield coating can be used to strengthen the walls of pressurized vessels.
Dramatic cost reduction is anticipated.
The cost to make a 2-inch diameter coating of the new protective material is only 25 cents. The closest match to the thermal and mechanical properties of the new coating is a beryllium wafer, which costs $700 at recent market prices.
The new coating is eco-friendly and can survive temperatures up to 1,000 C. The process of coating is aided by the addition of alcohol. After its use, beryllium creates toxic conditions and must be cleansed of the hazard.
How testing began.
The principle of alternating organic and inorganic layers is important for seashell longevity. Hongyou Fan said that the organic sugar layers burnt to carbon black act like a caulk. In an earlier attempt to mimic the seashell mode, they provided layers of cushion to increase its mechanical strength, as was reported 20 years ago.
Greg Frye-Mason, campaign manager for the Assured survivability and agility with pulsed power campaign, initially had doubts about the carbon insert.
He said that he thought the organic layers would limit applicability since most degrade by 400 to 500 C.
When the carbon-black concept proved to be robust to over 1,000 C, the positive result overcame the biggest risk facing the project.
Seashell-like coating initially tested at Sandia varied between a few to 13 layers. After being heated in pairs, these materials were pressed against each other. The results of the tests showed that the interwoven layers of silica with the burnt sugar, known as carbon black after pyrolysis, are 80% stronger than the rest. The more efficient process had the same mechanical strength.
The coating was supposed to be used to protect diagnostics and test samples from flying debris.
This coating qualifies, according to Frye-Mason.
More information: Guangping Xu et al, Bioinspired synthesis of thermally stable and mechanically strong nanocomposite coatings, MRS Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1557/s43580-022-00245-y Citation: Seashell-inspired sugar shield protects materials in hostile environments (2022, May 3) retrieved 3 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-seashell-inspired-sugar-shield-materials-hostile.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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