From the golden hoop stick to the US team, this material is indispensable

In the Journey to the West, Sun Wukong swept the golden hoop of the thousands of troops; the diamond wolf in the Marvel universe was cold, and the silver claws were shining; The dazzling war armor, these "weapons" are the most iconic business cards of superheroes. However, all the magic weapons of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign soldiers actually have a common name -alloy.

The kitchen knife made of alloy (picture source: Veer gallery)

From the magic weapons of superheroes to the kitchen knife of ordinary people, why do they use alloys instead of pure metal without exception? What are the irreplaceable advantages than pure metal? This also starts from the alloy's life.

1. Witness alloy of historical development

Metal refers to a solid product obtained by a metal with another or several metals or non -metals that has been mixed and cooled after cooling and solidification. From this perspective, alloy is a mixture composed of other metal or non -metallic elements based on a pure metal.

Materials often become a sign of an era, and in addition to ancient stone tools, the use of bronze, iron age, and metal such as aluminum such as aluminum in the past 100 years are inseparable from alloy. Bronze is the earliest alloy in the history of metal smear. It is a alloy composed of tin or lead in pure copper (copper).

In the Xia Dynasty, which is about 5,000 years ago, my country has a record about people's smelting bronze. During the heyday, it was more than 1,600 years in Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and the early Warring States Period. The bronze wares during this period are mainly divided into rituals, weapons and miscellaneous wares. Zeng Houyi bell, Yue Wang Gou Jianjian is a representative of the bronze wares of this period, handed down from the national treasure. Although he had been sleeping for more than 2,000 years, his bell was still angry, and his sword was still ironed like mud.

Zeng Houyi bell (top) and Yue Wang Goujian sword (below) Picture source: Veer gallery

During the transition period, it generally refers to the period from the end of the battle of the country to the end of the Qin and Han dynasties. With the ritual collapse, the ritual system built by bronze wares gradually disintegrate. The great affairs of the country, replaced by sacrifice and Rong, is the appearance of the iron instrument with the appearance of iron in weapons and sacrifice supplies.

Iron wares are alloys composed of metal iron and carbon elements. According to the carbon -containing ratio, they can be divided into raw iron, cooked iron and steel. In fact, in nature, the reserves of iron are much higher than copper. The reason why the bronze was first set aside at the time of coming out is that the temperature required to be ironmaking was high, and it must reach 1500 ° C. People in the bronze period could not meet the requirements of this temperature and craftsmanship.

Han Dynasty Iron Instrument (Picture Source: Zhengzhou Guyi Han Dynasty Railway Site Museum)

2. Where is the alloy better than pure metal?

First of all, in a strict sense, there is no 100%pure metal on the earth. All the metals we have contacted belong to the category of alloy. Because scientifically, it is impossible for metals to have 100%pure, nor can it test whether 100%is pure. Therefore, the so -called "pure gold" and "sterling silver" of the gold and silver market are only close to 100%of the purity. Unless the atoms of non -gold and non -silver are picked out one by one, they can get 100%purity gold and silver. It is impossible to achieve.

However, the current refinement technology can obtain metals with a purity of 99.999%. Its application performance and 100%pure metal have been the same. Metal.

Image source: veer gallery

Secondly, alloy has some unique advantages that pure metals do not have. For example, the hardness of the alloy is generally greater than the hardness of its matrix. The so -called solid -soluble enhancement, such as aluminum alloy hardness is much greater than the hardness of pure aluminum. However, there are also some special cases, such as sodium potassium alloys are liquid, used in the heater in the atomic reactor).

The conductivity and thermal conductivity of the alloy is lower than that of any set of metals. Using the characteristics of alloy, high resistance and high -thermal resistance materials can be made, and materials with special performance can also be made; some alloy corrosion resistance is stronger than any set of metals, such as incorporating 15%chromium and 9 in the iron %Nickel can get corrosive stainless steel.

Third, the "alloy weapons" of various magical powers

The description of the golden hoop stick in the Journey to the West is such "the stick is the nine -turning iron refining, and the old monarch himself. The nine -to -iron iron inside is actually stainless steel. It is a kind of iron carbon alloy, native to Iran, India and other places, and introduced China during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Picture source: film and television drama "Journey to the West"

In the Ming Dynasty, the first -class weapons were prepared with stainless steel. The surface is polished and then treated with corrosive agents. "Laojun's own furnace" refers to the indispensable forging technique that is essential during stainless steel processing, which is the process of gradually hardening steel. And combined with the following sentence "Four Sea and Eight River as a fixed verification", it proves that the golden hoop stick can be placed in fresh water and can be placed in the seawater without corroding and rust, which once again verifies the guess of stainless steel.

The library of Uncle Wolf and the shield of the US team, according to the original description, all come from "Edman alloy", although there is no such alloy on the planet. Among the many war armor of Iron Man, titanium alloy armor occupies the most important position.

Vajra Wolf Right (top) and Captain America Shield (bottom) Picture Source: Movie "Wolverine" and "Captain America"

Titanium alloy is a alloy made from metal such as aluminum and crickets in metal titanium.与强度足够的合金钢比起来，钛合金质量很轻；与密度足够轻的铝合金比起来，钛合金又具有足够高的强度以及耐热性，所以在需要轻质以及高强度的领域，钛Alloy becomes the first choice, such as aerospace. Moreover, titanium alloys have good affinity with the human body, so artificial bones such as prosthetic limbs and dentures are also used. At present, there are only 108 metal elements that humans have discovered, and the arrangement combinations of different metals can form tens of millions of different performance alloys. Therefore, the alloy has a broader design and processing space, and has more possibilities, which can continuously meet the development of human civilization.

Produced: Popular Science China

Production: X-Y Institute of Chemistry and Physics, the Academy of Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

references:

[1] Wu Chengen. Journey to the West [M].

The China Science Popularization Expo is the Science Popular Science Platform of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is sponsored by the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Relying on the high -end scientific resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is committed to spreading cutting -edge scientific knowledge and providing fun science and education services.

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