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Would a material composed using highly advanced nanotechnology have strange properties purely due to its structure? Does it have to be an alloy?

QAPereo 9y ago
That’s the issue, which really comes down to the word “Alloy” in this case. If you believe there’s a chance that the word alloy was used instead of a more accurate and technical term, then your points definitely stand. If they really meant alloy though? I’d tend to side it’s the article. I mean you can imagine some strange and exotic materials maintained by some kind of alien power source, but lose the power and the material should decay in some fashion. For a purely fictional example see things like degenerate matter held in some kind of sci-fi stasis.
- joering2 9y ago
  Thats a great story, thanks. Edit: /s for clarity
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    Trolling on HN? Good luck with that.
ridgeguy 9y ago
Yes, and it doesn't have to be an alloy. Structure is the basis for 'invisibility cloaks', materials with small-scale structures which confer optical properties not found in the same unstructured bulk materials. [1] Another example of where structure confers strange properties on elements (not alloys) is light emission from indirect-gap materials like silicon. Make silicon particles small enough and you can get light emission that you can't from bulk silicon. See quantum dots [2] and other similar structures. Structure can really change things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_cloaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_cloaking [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot
- QAPereo 9y ago
  One key point is that metamaterials have unusual bulk properties, but they’re still made from the usual materials, alloys, etc.
titzer 9y ago
If it is Earthish temperature, it going to be made of normal atoms (i.e. elements we have identified on the periodic table) and mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography would be common tools that physicists would use to identify its molecular structures. And yes, highly advanced nanotechnology uses regular old atoms, as far as Science can see today.

QAPereo 9y ago

That’s the issue, which really comes down to the word “Alloy” in this case. If you believe there’s a chance that the word alloy was used instead of a more accurate and technical term, then your points definitely stand. If they really meant alloy though? I’d tend to side it’s the article. I mean you can imagine some strange and exotic materials maintained by some kind of alien power source, but lose the power and the material should decay in some fashion. For a purely fictional example see things like degenerate matter held in some kind of sci-fi stasis.

joering2 9y ago
Thats a great story, thanks. Edit: /s for clarity
- QAPereo 9y ago
  Trolling on HN? Good luck with that.

ridgeguy 9y ago

Yes, and it doesn't have to be an alloy. Structure is the basis for 'invisibility cloaks', materials with small-scale structures which confer optical properties not found in the same unstructured bulk materials. [1] Another example of where structure confers strange properties on elements (not alloys) is light emission from indirect-gap materials like silicon. Make silicon particles small enough and you can get light emission that you can't from bulk silicon. See quantum dots [2] and other similar structures. Structure can really change things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_cloaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_cloaking [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

QAPereo 9y ago
One key point is that metamaterials have unusual bulk properties, but they’re still made from the usual materials, alloys, etc.

titzer 9y ago

If it is Earthish temperature, it going to be made of normal atoms (i.e. elements we have identified on the periodic table) and mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography would be common tools that physicists would use to identify its molecular structures. And yes, highly advanced nanotechnology uses regular old atoms, as far as Science can see today.