Misleading name, on the same level as calling water “non-explosive hydrogen”. That said the material looks promising, as a glass replacement for some applications (the text mentions a few of them, like armoured windows).
(It is not a metal; it’s a ceramic, mostly oxygen with bits and bobs of aluminium and nitrogen. Interesting nonetheless, even if I’m picking on the name.)
How much would a transparent aluminum butt plug cost and would it be safe to use?
considering that sapphire and ruby are different versions of transparent aluminum (really) I would probably cost a ton but be entirely safe to use.
It’s also rather dense and stays quite cool to the touch. It would probably be amazing.
I would probably cost a ton but be entirely safe to use.
I mean my budget isn’t high but if you’re in I’m willing.
3 times as tough as steel and they’re making bulletproof glass out of it…
There’s a low budget pc game about colonizing Mars and this was one of the things in the tech tree
Crazy to see it as a real thing now.
Like OG aluminum, this is going to be crazy expensive at first, but in a century it’ll likely be cheap and we’ll see it replacing glass in the most mundane uses.
We’ll see it replace phone screens pretty quickly tho. A few mm’s of this and we’ll have legitimately unbreakable screens, and even if a scratch happens, you should be able to just buff it out. They’re probably wrap entire phones it honestly. One solid piece that makes repair impossible on your own.
Like OG aluminum, this is going to be crazy expensive at first, but in a century it’ll likely be cheap and we’ll see it replacing glass in the most mundane uses.
I doubt that it’s ever going to be super affordable, or be used in something as common as a phone. The price constraints on aluminum were due to the amount of energy it takes to produce. The transparent aluminum is a bit more complicated.
From the article it appears the fabrication is mold dependent, which always increases production cost. So you have to fabricate a mold for any new component. You then have to then pressurize the powder at 15k pounds per square inch, and then heat aluminum powders at 2000 degrees Celsius for 2 days.
Might be hard to assemble the functional part of a phone inside of a crystal, and you can’t bake the whole thing because silicon isn’t surviving 2000oC for 2 days.
wouldnt that stop the radio waves from reaching the phone, like a faraday cage?
Sounds expensive.
This seems cool.
Also upvoted for the correct spelling of Aluminium
The original discoverer of the element spelled it “aluminum”. The British publisher that published his work changed the spelling. The rest of the world got the right version of the man’s work. The Brits are wrong.
It’s only the US and Canada that use “aluminum” though isn’t it? The rest of the world and most languages have it as “-ium”.
Humphrey Davey actually changed his mind and changed it to “-ium” shortly after discovering it.
Also, IUPAC has “Aluminium” as the primary spelling, though both are acceptable.
The rest of the world got the right version of the man’s work
Which is (or at least should be) “Aluminium” because that’s the internationally agreed IUPAC spelling.
We gave up the cooler spelling of Sulfur to be consistent with IUPAC - if we can do that, then surely giving up on “-num” should be a cakewalk.