People find many different resources in nature and then use them to make shelters, tools, vehicles, rockets, or jewelry. The products you buy, especially those that fall under the category of "technology", are usually judged by how well they are made, how robust they are, and the effect of long-term use on the performance of the item. Physical integrity. If you want something resilient, you need a hard material, and that's what humans have come up with so far.
First, let's quickly explain what we are talking about when we talk about the hardness of a particular material.
To put it simply, we are referring to the strength of a particular material that is subjected to varying degrees of external forces exerting pressure on that material. Superhard materials are measured on a scale called the Vickers hardness test. The unit that indicates how much pressure an item can withstand before it breaks is called a gipascal (GPA). For example, the strongest natural material we know of is diamonds, which have a strength between 70 and 150 GPA. Any material that measures above 40 gpa is considered supermaterial.
The first is materials that are expected to have a huge impact on the aerospace industry and automotive production. However, since its discovery in 2010, it has not been used outside of experimental applications, mainly in space-related tests, which have shown very promising results.
It is 200 times stronger than steel and 1,000 times lighter than paper. Graphene is made from only a layer of carbon atoms arranged in the form of a triangular lattice. It is extremely flexible, and the way its carbon atoms are held together makes it not only extremely strong, but also has good electrical and thermal conductivity. Compared to copper, the ribbon consisting of bonded graphene sheets has only 10% of the mass of copper and has up to twice the thermal conductivity of copper. Although insiders believe that we will eventually see graphene-based technologies used in automobiles, airplanes, and many electronics in the coming years, high-volume production still faces challenges.
Carbon fiber is a type of fiber that mainly contains carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern. These fibers are about 5-10 microns in diameter. The main difference between graphene and carbon fiber is the size of graphene, which is the thickness of a single layer of carbon atoms, which is much smaller in diameter. Carbon fiber is characterized by its high stiffness and low weight, making it an excellent choice for manufacturing parts for military equipment, rockets, and sports cars. Carbon fiber can also withstand very high temperatures and is highly resilient to many different abrasive chemicals.
Another hard material that is suitable for *** and military is Kevlar fiber. In terms of the pulling force it can withstand, Kevlar fiber is five times stronger than steel. That's why it's still used to make bulletproof vests: it's very hard, and it's an ultra-light material.
Despite the rarity and very high value of diamonds, they are still used in many industries. Some special species of blue diamonds work particularly well as insulators and electrical (semi-)conductors.
This synthetic material was first created in the 30s of the 20th century and is very similar to carbon fiber. However, it is much cheaper to manufacture than carbon fiber, which is why it is often used as a method of insulating buildings.
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