The new metal alloy is 100 times more durable than high-strength steel

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratory showed a computer simulation used to predict the unprecedented wear resistance of their platinum alloys, as well as an environmental tribometer used to demonstrate it.

The platinum alloy developed by American researchers is the first metal alloy that belongs to the same category as diamond and sapphire and has wear resistance.

A research team from Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico believes that this material is 100 times more durable than high-strength steel and is the most wear-resistant metal in the world.

"We showed that you can make fundamental changes to some alloys that will achieve a huge improvement in performance on a wide range of actual metal materials," said material scientist Nic Argibay, who reported on Advanced Materials research in a recent paper result. .

Although metals are strong, they wear when rubbed against other metals unless they are equipped with protective barriers or coatings such as motor oil. For electronic products, this coating is usually made of gold or other precious metals, and it will wear out over time.

Argibay said that Sandia’s platinum coatings can save the electronics industry more than $100 million in materials each year and make products more durable and reliable.

"These wear-resistant materials may provide reliability advantages for the range of equipment we are exploring," said Sandia engineer Chris Nordquist who was not involved in the study. "The opportunities for integration and improvement will depend on the device, but this material will provide another tool to address the current reliability limitations of metal microelectronic components."

Although their mixture of 90% platinum and 10% gold is not new, the theory behind it is. Argibay and his co-author Michael Chandross opposed traditional wisdom, which determined that the ability of a metal to withstand friction depends on its hardness. On the contrary, they believe that wear is related to the heat resistance of the metal, and they designed the alloy to take this into account.

"Many traditional alloys were developed to increase the strength of the material by reducing the particle size," said John Curry, Sandia's postdoctoral appointment and the first author of the paper. "Even so, under extreme pressure and temperature, many alloys will become thicker or softer, especially when fatigued. We have seen that with our platinum alloys, the mechanical and thermal stability are excellent, and during sliding , We did not see much change in the microstructure under long-term long-period stress.