Tiny Tech #39: A Suit of Alloy
Today from the world of Tiny Tech:
If you enjoy comics or superhero movies, you’ve probably heard of someone who’s just a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” when you take away his metal suit. But our superhero admitted that he liked the name “iron man,” even though the fictional suit was actually made of gold-titanium alloy. Such a material is available in real life, too. Scientists have arc melted a 3-to-1 mixture of titanium and gold to form a new type of titanium-gold alloy that is four times harder than pure titanium because the atoms are closer together.
Our superhero met his fictional demise in a recent movie but we have a suggestion for recycling leftover gold-titanium alloy material, fictional and real. Pure titanium is used in medicine for joint replacements, dental implants, and bone screws because it is strong and can be integrated into existing bone. The new stronger titanium gold alloy could result in longer-lasting medical devices, because it is harder and more wear-resistant than pure titanium while still being biocompatible.
Making new, better materials can be hard work, both in our real universe and in imaginary ones. But for both fictional armor and real bone replacements, the harder the better!
Tiny Tech is made possible by the National Science Foundation and WUFT. To learn more about Tiny Tech, go to tinytechradio.org.
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