Strong as steel, yet as moldable as plastic ?? Sounds bizarre,
but every material scientists’ dream seems to be coming true! In
a development that can potentially impact society as extensively
as the development of synthetic plastics did over the last
century, scientists at Yale have created a material that boasts
the look, strength and durability of metal and can be molded
into complex shapes as simply and cheaply as plastic. This new
material, developed by the team of scientists at Yale led by Jan
Schroers, has already been practically tested at a number of
levels through the creation of complex shapes, such as metallic
bottles, watch cases, miniature resonators and biomedical
implants, resulting in products that are twice as strong as
typical steel and can be molded in less than a minute. The
crystalline structure found in ordinary metals that makes them
strong also results in them requiring three separate steps for
processing (shaping, joining and finishing). In contrast, these
new alternate metal alloys