Materials Questions
Jan. 20th, 2008 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerOkay, assume a method for manipulating individual molecules to build objects. Start out with things the size of a toaster and move up as the technology develops. What sorts of materials could be made practical by this technology?
For example, perfect whiskers have long been laboratory curiosities, but making large objects of such perfect materials has been impractical. Perfect iron has appeared in many SF stories, practically since the first perfect whiskers were described in print. Iron is plentiful, and perfect iron would be strong, tough, elastic and resistant to corrosion. It would be heavy, though.
A diamond window would be strong and scratch resistant, but brittle. Would reinforcing it with buckytubes create a transparent material with the strength and hardness of diamond and the resilience of buckytubes? Or would the two forms of carbon interfere with each other to create carbon mush?
I have a table of material strengths (An older version can be found at: http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/JOHT/joht10strength.htm ). This includes values for several perfect materials. However, while I have training in materials science I lack the skill to extrapolate on the characteristics of perfect composites.
So, any references available which folks can point me to? Back-of-the-envelope speculation?
For example, perfect whiskers have long been laboratory curiosities, but making large objects of such perfect materials has been impractical. Perfect iron has appeared in many SF stories, practically since the first perfect whiskers were described in print. Iron is plentiful, and perfect iron would be strong, tough, elastic and resistant to corrosion. It would be heavy, though.
A diamond window would be strong and scratch resistant, but brittle. Would reinforcing it with buckytubes create a transparent material with the strength and hardness of diamond and the resilience of buckytubes? Or would the two forms of carbon interfere with each other to create carbon mush?
I have a table of material strengths (An older version can be found at: http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/JOHT/joht10strength.htm ). This includes values for several perfect materials. However, while I have training in materials science I lack the skill to extrapolate on the characteristics of perfect composites.
So, any references available which folks can point me to? Back-of-the-envelope speculation?
