Have you ever heard of Buckypaper, a material 500 times stronger than steel and ten times lighter? What about Lonsdaleite, a material formed when meteorites hit Earth?
Below are the 10 strongest materials known to man:
10. Spiders’ Silk
Darwin bark spiders’ silk is considered the toughest biological substance. It is 10 times stronger than Kevlar. A strand long enough to circle the Earth would weigh less than 500 grams!
9. Silicon Carbide
This material forms the basis of armor used in battle tanks. Highly effective – not one British Challenger tank was destroyed in Operation Desert Storm.
8. Nanospheres / Nano-Kevlar
Self-assembling nanospheres are the stiffest organized material ever created. It is said that they could lead to the development of printable body armor.
7. Diamond
The hardest material on Earth. It has unrivaled resistance to scratching.
6. Wurtzite Boron Nitride
This material is created during volcanic eruptions and is theoretically 18% harder than diamond. However, large enough quantities don’t exist to test this theory.
5. Lonsdaleite
Formed when meteorites containing graphite hit Earth. Simulations show it to be 58% harder than diamond, but, again, it’s too rare to test.
4. Dyneema
High-performance polythene marketed as the strongest fiber in the world. Lighter than water, it can stop bullets and is 15 times stronger than steel.
3. Metallic Glass
Palladium microalloy glass has the best combination of toughness and strength. It’s thought to be the most durable material on the planet.
2. Buckypaper
Nanotechnology material made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than human hair. It’s 500 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter.
1. Graphene
One-atom-thick sheets of carbon are 200 times stronger than steel. It would take an elephant balancing on a pencil to break a sheet as thin as Saran wrap.
How Do Transmet Rapidly Solidified Metals Compare?
Transmet’s rapidly solidified Aluminum and Zinc products range in hardness from 25 to 102 Knoop for Aluminum and 68 to 91 Knoop for Zinc.
See the chart below to compare this to other blast media on the Mohs scale and visit our Product Applications Page to learn more.
