QUIMIO NIKKO SAN C.

MSE101 - C09 HW #1

NANO-ARCHITECTURE: A CALTECH SCIENTIST CREATES

TINY LATTICES WITH ENORMOUS POTENTIAL

Nano-Architecture

Breakthrough! Materials whose structures can be precisely tailored so they are strong yet
flexible and extremely light.

Why it Matters? Lighter structural materials would be more energy-efficient and versatile.

Key Players: Julia Greer, Caltech, William Carter, HRL Laboratories, Nicholas Fang, MIT, and
Christopher Spadaccini, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Scientist Julia Greer is to enter a realm where the ordinary rules of physical stuff don’t seem
to apply. Greer controls the architecture at a nanoscale to improve the properties that has been the
waterloo of materials that are essential in everyday applications due to their extensive ability and
uses.

For example, ceramic which is used in a lot of ways due to their strength, weight and ability
to withstand extreme temperatures has been hindered by its brittleness so Greer devised a way to
subdue this. Greer created a ceramic that is one of the strongest while being extremely light and
not brittle. In a laboratory test, it has been shown that the cube of material returns quickly to its
original shape after removing the pressure applied on it.

If materials like this are mass-produced, it could change the current limits of properties of
materials because they’d be as strong at a fraction of weight. Other possibilities includes
QUIMIO NIKKO SAN C. MSE101 - C09 HW #1

increasing the energy density of batteries at lighter weight by coating a metal nanolattice with
silicon to increase its crack-resistant toughness, spacing the nanoscale walls in light emitting
materials or thermal insulation to precisely control the flow of light and heat, electrochemistry
and nanostructured ceramic as scaffold for growing bones such as the tiny ones in the ear.