New slippery but hard material

[Mr Skeptic]

From newscientist:

 

A superhard substance that is more slippery than Teflon could protect mechanical parts from wear and tear, and boost energy efficiency by reducing friction.

 

The "ceramic alloy" is created by combining a metal alloy of boron, aluminium and magnesium (AlMgB14) with titanium boride (TiB2). It is the hardest material after diamond and cubic boron nitride.

...

BAM is much slipperier than Teflon, with a coefficient of friction of .02 compared to .05. Lubricated steel has a friction coefficient of 0.16.

...

Bruce Cook, lead investigator on the Ames Lab project, estimates that merely coating rotors with the material could save US industry alone 330 trillion kilojoules (9 billion kilowatt hours) every year by 2030 - about $179 million a year.

 

It also seems that the material's hardness and slipperiness was unexpected from its crystal structure. This seems like it would be a very useful material, though it might not be usable in cooking due to the boron.

[Flashman]

Interesting stuff, maybe NASA can use it in the joints of their solar panel arms

 

Wonder how many million miles you could get out of a car engine coated with it....

[insane_alien]

if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?

[YT2095]

though it might not be usable in cooking due to the boron.

 

maybe not for Cooking per se, but as a knife blade it might be ideal, you can already get ceramic blades, but non-stick as well? that would be Great!

[hermanntrude]

if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?

 

 

 

hehehe awesome

[Ophiolite]

if you have to surfaces of this in contact would it be called a BAM-BAM interface?

A basic principle of tribology is that you do not make two surfaces of the same material if they are in moving contact,