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Scientists Create Buoyant Aluminum

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the unsinkable-beer-can dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://aluminiuminsider.com/researchers-confirm-discovery-floating-aluminium/

Like most common metals, aluminium lacks natural buoyancy. However, with a little rearranging of the metal’s natural molecular structure, one can produce an ultra-light crystalline form of the metal that is actually less dense than water and, as a result, floats upon it.

Research conducted by Utah State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor Alexander Boldyrev and published in the latest issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry C has yielded just such a crystalline form using computational modeling.

“My colleagues’ approach to this challenge was very innovative,” explained Boldyrev. “They started with a known crystal lattice, in this case, a diamond, and substituted every carbon atom with an aluminum tetrahedron.”

Boldyrev’s colleagues, namely Iliya Getmanskii, Vitaliy Koval, Rusian Minyaev, and Vladimir Minkin of Southern Federal University in Rostov-on Don, Russia, confirmed the structure which is metastable and has a density of 0.61 grams per cubic centimeter. By comparison, conventional aluminium possesses a density of 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 26 2017, @10:05AM (6 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @10:05AM (#573011) Journal

    Some lucky bastard is going to get the funding to play around with this and other experiments.

    Which may not be that bad.
    After all, mass collapse from a metastable state is at the very base of lasers.
    E.g. I wonder what catalytic activity such a complex may show during the collapse.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:32PM (5 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:32PM (#573068) Journal

    E.g. I wonder what catalytic activity such a complex may show during the collapse.

    It's not a catalyst, if an irreversible process happens to it. Should be able to power certain kinds of reducing endothermic reactions. Might be reactive enough to strip the oxygen off of carbon dioxide though I imagine there are a bunch of reactive metals that have that property.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:33PM (3 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:33PM (#573090) Journal

      It's not a catalyst, if an irreversible process happens to it.

      Not a catalyst if it is consumed in the reaction.

      Otherwise, catalysts can become inactive [sciencedirect.com] over the reaction time and need to be reactivated

      While catalyst deactivation is inevitable for most processes, some of its immediate, drastic consequences may be avoided, postponed, or even reversed.

      In this case, the aluminium may not be consumed as a substance in the reaction, but may need to be reactivated by "blowing it up" again.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:30PM (2 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @07:30PM (#573424) Journal

        Otherwise, catalysts can become inactive [sciencedirect.com] over the reaction time and need to be reactivated

        The reactivation is the reversal of the process. And it is usually something simple like heating, washing, or mechanically shaking the catalyst.

        In this case, the aluminium may not be consumed as a substance in the reaction, but may need to be reactivated by "blowing it up" again.

        "Blowing it up" isn't going to be a simple process and may involve as much energy as a normal chemical reaction.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:58PM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:58PM (#573533) Journal

          "Blowing it up" isn't going to be a simple process and may involve as much energy as a normal chemical reaction.

          Which may worth doing if the reaction is entirely exotic - i.e. does not happen except in the presence of blown up aluminium.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:16PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:16PM (#573557) Journal
            That still doesn't make it a catalyst.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:20PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @09:20PM (#573516)

      Magnesium will burn in a carbon dioxide atmosphere.