Metals

Aluminum can develop weak points through repeated, alternating stress, and scientists in Australia may have come up with a solution to this shortcoming by modifying the microstructure of aluminum alloys so that they can heal these themselves.

Diamond is an electrical insulator, but maybe not always. A new study calculated that deforming diamond nano-needles would change their conductivity from an insulator to a semiconductor to a highly conductive metal – and back again at will.

While it's possible to 3D-print plastic or metal items, printing single items made of both is quite difficult. Scientists have developed a method of doing so, however, that may lead to increased production of 3D-printed electronics.

Chromium is used to make tool steel or stainless steel, and it’s thought to have been invented around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Archaeologists have now discovered that Persians were mixing chromium into steel way back in the 11th century.

Scientists in Japan working to stretch the limits of super-elastic materials have made a significant breakthrough, demonstrating a new iron-based alloy that can be deformed and regain its original shape even in extreme temperatures.

Information can be encoded into many patterns, such as ones and zeroes for computers. A new proof of concept has been demonstrated to encode information into artificial molecules, which could enable programmable materials or new types of computers.

A team of engineers at MIT has discovered why steel razor blades go dull even when cutting hair that's 50 times softer than them. Using an electron microscopic, they found that under the right conditions a single hair can chip a blade edge.

When it comes to the 3D printing of metal, a process known as selective laser sintering (SLS) is most commonly used. An upside-down variation on the technique has now been developed, for printing single objects out of different materials.

One small, particularly puzzling group of meteorites appears to have been both solid rock and liquid metal. Now scientists have determined that the parent body had a rocky shell and a liquid metal core, which likely generated a strong magnetic field.

“Strange metals” exhibit some unusual conductive properties and surprisingly, even have things in common with black holes. Now, a new study has characterized them in more detail, and found that strange metals constitute a new state of matter.

Radiation is famously damaging to materials, but now engineers at MIT have been surprised to discover that radiation may actually help certain alloys to self-heal, extending their useful lifetime. This could help inform future power plant designs.

Researchers claim to have developed a new battery that mixes the best of both liquid and solid batteries. The new design is the first all-liquid-metal battery that can operate at room temperature, and it apparently outperforms lithium-ion batteries.