BAM (material)
Encyclopedia
BAM is a ceramic
alloy
created from an alloy of boron
, aluminium
and magnesium
(AlMgB14) and titanium boride
(TiB2). It is one of the hardest known materials, after diamond
and cubic boron nitride. It is also the slipperiest solid known, with a coefficient of friction of 0.02; for comparison, Teflon products have coefficients of friction (dynamic) of approximately 0.04.
The material was discovered in the course of other investigations by Bruce Cook and Iowa State University
professor Alan Russell in 1999 at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory
.
"Its hardness was discovered by accident. We had a terrible time cutting it, grinding it, or polishing it," said Russell.
The BAM material is amenable to application as a hard, wear-resistant coating, using pulsed laser deposition
or magnetron sputtering. Applying a thin coating to moving parts of machinery that would reduce friction and increase wear resistance could have a significant effect in boosting efficiency. Cutting tools could also be improved by such a coating.
BAM is licensed to Newtech Ceramics, an Iowa
-based startup company located in Des Moines
.
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
created from an alloy of boron
Boron
Boron is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a metalloid. Because boron is not produced by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the solar system and the Earth's crust. However, boron is concentrated on Earth by the...
, aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
and magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
(AlMgB14) and titanium boride
Titanium boride
Titanium diboride is an extremely hard ceramic compound composed of titanium and boron which has excellent resistance to mechanical erosion...
(TiB2). It is one of the hardest known materials, after diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
and cubic boron nitride. It is also the slipperiest solid known, with a coefficient of friction of 0.02; for comparison, Teflon products have coefficients of friction (dynamic) of approximately 0.04.
The material was discovered in the course of other investigations by Bruce Cook and Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
professor Alan Russell in 1999 at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory
Ames Laboratory
Ames Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa. The Laboratory conducts research into various areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup...
.
"Its hardness was discovered by accident. We had a terrible time cutting it, grinding it, or polishing it," said Russell.
The BAM material is amenable to application as a hard, wear-resistant coating, using pulsed laser deposition
Pulsed laser deposition
Pulsed laser deposition is a thin film deposition technique where a high power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited...
or magnetron sputtering. Applying a thin coating to moving parts of machinery that would reduce friction and increase wear resistance could have a significant effect in boosting efficiency. Cutting tools could also be improved by such a coating.
BAM is licensed to Newtech Ceramics, an Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
-based startup company located in Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
.
See also
- Aluminium magnesium borideAluminium magnesium borideAluminium magnesium boride , also known as BAM, is a chemical compound of aluminium, magnesium and boron, and is a ceramic alloy that is highly resistive to wear with a low coefficient of sliding friction...
- Superhard materialsSuperhard materialsA superhard material is a material with a hardness value exceeding 40 GPa when measured by the Vickers hardness test. They are highly incompressible solids with high electron density and high bond covalency...