Nanocrystals appreciated in waste

2002/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak

An unexpected discovery by a group of researchers at Purdu University will allow the use of nanocrystals to harden materials without an excessive economic cost.

The discovery has been fortuitous, since the work of the research team was not to achieve it, but to melt it in order to recycle the chips. But, fortunately, they realized that the residues they generate contain precious nanocrystals.

It was known that nanocrystals are effective in hardening materials, increasing strength and prolonging material survival, but, despite being an effective system, up to now it was too expensive for industrial use. The production of a nanocrystal pound cost $100.

For its part, the team of researchers has announced that obtaining nanocrystals from the fusion of the chips is 100 times cheaper, so it should be thought that nanocrystals can be used more and more in the industry.

The research team has explained and detailed this work in this month's Journal of Materials Research.