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Swiss team carrying out research into ideal nanoglass on the ISS

The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) will soon be investigating samples of a super material on the ISS together with researchers from Neuchâtel and Ulm: metallic glass. The GX Group, a high-tech company from La-Chaux-de-Fonds, is also involved in this project.

Empa researcher Antonia Neels heads the Centre for X-ray Analysis. She is an expert in metallic glass and will analyse the samples from the ISS.
Empa researcher Antonia Neels heads the Centre for X-ray Analysis. She is an expert in metallic glass and will analyse the samples from the ISS. Image credit: Empa

A group of Swiss and international scientists will soon be conducting research into the super material of nanostructured metallic glass on the International Space Station (ISS). These corrosion-resistant alloys of palladium, nickel, copper and phosphorus are as hard as quartz glass yet simultaneously highly elastic. Small individual pieces can be produced using 3D printing, although larger ones are not yet feasible.

The group of researchers have prepared the samples and registered them with the European Space Agency (ESA) for space flight, further details of which can be found in a press release issued by Empa. This special alloy is supplied by the PX Group, a high-tech firm based in La-Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel. 

The team includes researchers from the Neuchâtel-based PX Group Chair – Laboratory of Thermomechanical Metallurgy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and from the Institute of Functional Nanosystems at the University of Ulm. For the melting tests performed on the ISS, the latter has developed what is known as an Electromagnetic Levitator (EML), in which the glowing droplets of metallic nanoglass float.

To achieve the desired crystal structure, this heated material must be rapidly cooled, up to one hundred times faster than window glass. Antonia Neels, who heads up the Center for X-ray Analytics at Empa, has been investigating nanoglass samples for 15 years. She will also analyze the sample from the ISS. However, she explains in the press release how the “closer we look at the samples, the more questions arise”.

The researchers intend to use the detailed data from the space flight to generate a computer simulation of the melt. This should provide information about suitable temperatures, viscosity and surface tension for the ideal material structure of the nanoglass. From this, a manufacturing method is to be developed that, it is hoped, would allow this coveted material to be produced in a defined form.

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