Remember Scotty and Transparent Aluminum? – Metal Glass Becomes a Reality

September 20, 2015 – Star Trek IV The Voyage Home featured humpback whales and a scene in which Scotty and Dr. McCoy offered a company in San Francisco the secret to transparent aluminum, a material not yet invented at the time. Dr. McCoy questioned whether the disclosure would alter the future. Well the future has caught up with the science fiction.

In this case the amorphous glassy structures being created contain three or more metals including magnesium, copper and yttrium. The work is being done by researchers at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, New South Wales, Australia.  In a study published in Nature Communications on September 15, 2015, the research team describes the progress being made in understanding how to make metallic glass with strength three times greater than titanium while remaining lightweight.

What distinguishes metal glass from ordinary metals? It is the organization of atoms. In a crystalline metal atoms are highly structured. In metal glass the atoms are irregular and highly disordered. This contributes to the strength and malleability of the material which can be moulded and shaped and even blown behaving like a glass but with the shatter-proof strength of a metal.

The breakthrough by the New South Wales team is the creation of a cookbook for making 200 varieties of metal glass. In the press release announcing the publication of their findings it mentions metal glass from titanium, magnesium, silver, copper and zinc. No transparent aluminum although I’m sure somewhere in the recipes Scotty’s formula lurks.

What does metal glass bring to materials science? A material three times stronger than an equivalent metal while being far lighter. As malleable as chewing gum and therefore easily moulded metal glass will become a material of choice for automobiles, airplanes, and buildings here on Earth, and for spaceships and robotics operating beyond Earth. The Martian rover planned for 2020 will incorporate metallic glass alloys in its structure, the first time the material will be used for an extra-terrestrial purpose.