People began to use metal back in ancient times. The most accessible metal in nature and amenable to processing is copper. Copper products in the form of household utensils are found by archaeologists during excavations of ancient settlements. As technological progress grew, man learned to make alloys from various metals, which were useful to him in the manufacture of household items and weapons. This is how the strongest metal in the world appeared.
This unusually beautiful silver-white metal was discovered almost simultaneously at the end of the 18th century by two scientists - the Englishman W. Gregory and the German M. Klaproth. According to one version, titanium received its name in honor of the characters of ancient Greek myths, the mighty Titans, according to another - from Titania, the fairy queen from German mythology - because of its lightness. However, no use was found for it then.
Then in 1925, physicists in Holland were able to isolate pure titanium and discovered its many benefits. These are high indicators of manufacturability, specific strength and resistance to corrosion, very high strength at high temperatures. It also has high anti-corrosion resistance. These fantastic performance immediately attracted engineers and designers.
In 1940, the scientist Krol obtained pure titanium using the magnesium-thermal method, and since then this method has been the main one. The strongest metal on earth is mined in many places in the world - Russia, Ukraine, China, South Africa and others.
Titanium is twice as strong as iron in mechanical terms, and six times stronger than aluminum. Titanium alloys are currently the strongest in the world, and therefore have found application in the military (submarine, missile construction), shipbuilding and aviation industries (on supersonic aircraft).
This metal is also incredibly malleable, so it can be made into any shape - sheets, pipes, wire, tape. Titanium is widely used for the manufacture of medical prostheses (and it is biologically ideally compatible with the tissues of the human body), jewelry, sports equipment, etc.
It is also used in chemical production due to its anti-corrosion properties; this metal does not corrode in an aggressive environment. So, for testing purposes, a titanium plate was placed in sea water, and after 10 years it did not even rust!
Due to its high electrical resistance and non-magnetizing properties, it is widely used in radio electronics, for example, in structural parts of mobile phones. The use of titanium in the field of dentistry is very promising; its ability to fuse with human bone tissue is especially important, which gives strength and solidity in prosthetics. It is widely used in the manufacture of medical instruments.
The natural oxidizing properties of uranium were used in antiquity (1st century BC) in the production of yellow glaze in ceramic products. One of the most well-known durable metals in world practice, it is weakly radioactive and is used in the production of nuclear fuel. The 20th century was even called the “age of Uranus.” This metal has paramagnetic properties.
Uranium is 2.5 times heavier than iron, forms many chemical compounds; its alloys with elements such as tin, lead, aluminum, mercury, and iron are used in production.
This is not only the strongest metal in the world, but also a very rare one, which is not even mined anywhere, but was obtained chemically back in 1781 in Sweden. The most temperature-resistant metal in the world. Due to its high refractoriness, it lends itself well to forging, and it can be pulled into a thin thread.
Its most famous application is tungsten filament in light bulbs. Widely used for the production of special instruments (incisors, cutters, surgical) and in jewelry production. Due to its property of not transmitting radioactive rays, it is used to produce containers for storing nuclear waste. Tungsten deposits in Russia are located in Altai, Chukotka, and the North Caucasus.
It got its name in Germany (Rhine River), where it was discovered in 1925; the metal itself is white. It is mined both in its pure form (Kuril Islands) and during the extraction of molybdenum and copper raw materials, but in very small quantities.
The strongest metal on earth is very hard and dense and melts well. Strength is high and does not depend on temperature changes, the disadvantage is high cost, toxic to humans. Used in electronics and aviation industries.
The heaviest element, for example, a kilogram of osmium, looks like a ball that easily fits in your hand. It belongs to the platinum group of metals and is several times more expensive than gold. It got its name because of the bad smell during a chemical reaction carried out by the English scientist S. Tennant in 1803.
Externally it looks very beautiful: shiny silver crystals with a blue and cyan tint. It is usually used as an additive to other metals in industry (high-strength ceramic-metal cutters, medical knife blades). Its non-magnetic and durable properties are used in the manufacture of high-precision instruments.
It was obtained by chemist Paul Lebeau at the end of the 19th century. At first, this metal was nicknamed “sweet” because of its candy taste. Then it turned out that it has other attractive and original properties, for example, it does not want to enter into any chemical reactions with other elements with rare exceptions (halogen).
The strongest metal in the world is at the same time hard, brittle, light, and also highly toxic. Its exceptional strength (for example, a wire with a diameter of 1 mm can support the weight of a person) is used in laser and space technology, and nuclear energy.
We can go on and on about very strong metals, but technical progress is moving forward. Scientists from California recently announced to the world the emergence of a “liquid metal” (from the word “liquid”), which is stronger than titanium. In addition, it turned out to be super lightweight, flexible and highly durable. Therefore, scientists will have to create and develop ways to use the new metal, and in the future, perhaps, make many more discoveries.
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Metals accompany humanity almost all of its conscious life. This began, of course, with copper, since it is the most amenable to processing material and available in nature.
Evolution helped people develop significantly technically and over time they began to invent alloys that became stronger and stronger. In our time, experiments continue, and new durable alloys appear every year. Let's consider the best of them.
Titanium is a high-strength material that is in high demand in many industries. The most common area of application is aviation. This is due to the successful combination of low mass and high strength. Also, the properties of titanium are high specific strength, resistance to physical influences, temperatures and corrosion.
One of the most durable elements. Under natural conditions, it is a weak radioactive metal. It can be found in a free state, is very heavy and is widely distributed everywhere due to its paramagnetic properties. Uranium is flexible, has high malleability and relative ductility.
The most refractory metal currently known. It has a silver-gray color and is a so-called transitional element. The properties of tungsten allow it to resist chemical attack and be forgeable. The most famous area of application is used in incandescent lamps.
Silver-white metal. It can be found in nature in its pure form, but there is also molybdenum raw material in which it is also found. A distinctive feature of rhenium is its refractoriness. It belongs to expensive metals, so its cost is also off the charts. The main area of application is electronics.
Osmium is a silvery-white metal that has a slight blue tint. It belongs to the platinum group and has an unusually strong similarity to iridium in such properties as refractoriness, hardness and brittleness.
This metal is an element that has a light gray tint and is highly toxic. Having such unusual properties, the material has found wide application in the field of nuclear energy and laser technology. The high strength of beryllium allows it to be used in the manufacture of alloying alloys.
The bluish-white tint makes chrome stand out from the crowd. It is resistant to alkalis and acids. In nature it can be found in its pure form. Chromium is often used to create various alloys, which are later used in the fields of medicine and chemical equipment.
It is worth noting that ferrochrome is an alloy of chromium and iron. It is used in the manufacture of metal cutting tools.
It is a silvery metal with high hardness and density. A lead tint on metal is formed due to the appearance of an oxide film on the surface. The metal lends itself well to processing.
Today, tantalum is successfully used in the construction of nuclear reactors and metallurgical production.
A silvery metal that belongs to the platinum group. It has an unusual composition: it contains muscle tissue of living organisms. Another distinctive fact is that ruthenium is used as a catalyst for many chemical reactions.
This metal ranks first in our rating. It has a silvery white color. Iridium also belongs to the platinum group and has the highest hardness of the above metals. In the modern world it is used very often. It is mainly added to other metals to improve their resistance to acidic environments. The metal itself is very expensive, since it is very poorly distributed in nature.
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A common belief about hardness is diamond or damask steel/damascus steel. If the first mineral is superior to all simple substances existing on Earth that nature has created, then the amazing properties of blades made of rare steel are due to the skill of swordsmiths and additives from other metals. Many technical alloys, used, for example, for the production of super-hard cutters in the engineering industry, creating durable, reliable tools with unique properties, are associated with these additives in the usual symbiosis of iron and carbon, in short, traditionally called steel - chromium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel. When readers ask what the hardest metal in the world is, they are bombarded with a barrage of conflicting information on the pages of websites. In this role, according to the authors of various articles, either tungsten or chromium, or iridium with osmium, or titanium with tantalum.
In order to get through the jungle of not always correctly interpreted, albeit accurate facts, it is worth turning to the original source - the system of elements contained both in the composition and in other cosmic objects, left to humanity by the great Russian chemist and physicist D.I. Mendeleev. He had encyclopedic knowledge, made many scientific breakthroughs in knowledge about the structure, composition, and interaction of substances, in addition to the famous table based on the fundamental periodic law he discovered, named after him.
The planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Mars, together with our planet, are classified as one - the terrestrial group. There are reasons for this not only among astronomers, physicists and mathematicians, but also among geologists and chemists. The reason for such conclusions among the latter is, among other things, the fact that they all mainly consist of silicates, i.e. various derivatives of the element silicon, as well as numerous metal compounds from Dmitry Ivanovich’s table.
In particular, our planet mostly (up to 99%) consists of ten elements:
But man, in addition to the iron and alloys based on it necessary for survival and development, has always been much more attracted to precious metals, often respectfully called noble metals - gold and silver, and later platinum.
According to the scientific classification adopted by chemists, the platinum group includes ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and osmium with iridium. All of them also belong to noble metals. Based on their atomic mass, they are conventionally divided into two subgroups:
The last two are of particular interest for our pseudo-scientific investigation on the topic of who is the hardest here. This is due to the fact that the large atomic mass compared to other elements: 190.23 for osmium, 192.22 for iridium, according to the laws of physics, implies a huge specific density, and, consequently, the hardness of these metals.
If dense, heavy gold and lead are soft, plastic substances that are easy to process, then osmium and iridium, discovered at the beginning of the 19th century, turned out to be fragile. Here it is necessary to remember that the measure of this physical property is that a diamond, which can be used to inscribe on any other hard material of natural or artificial origin without much effort, is also extremely fragile, i.e. It's fairly easy to break. Although, at first glance, this seems almost impossible.
In addition, osmium and palladium have many more interesting properties:
Therefore, along with platinum, including in the form of compounds with it, they are used in the production of catalysts for many chemical processes, high-precision devices, equipment, tools in the medical, scientific, military, and space sectors of human activity.
It is osmium and iridium, and scientists after research believe that this property is approximately equally given to them by nature, are the hardest metals in the world.
And everything would be fine, but not very good. The fact is that both their presence in the earth’s crust and, accordingly, the global production of these very minerals are negligible:
It is clear that these rare earth, expensive metals, despite their hardness, cannot even be used to a limited extent as raw materials for production; perhaps as additives to alloys, compounds with other metals to impart unique properties.
But a person would not be himself if he had not found a replacement for iridium with osmium. Since it is inappropriate and too expensive to use them, then attention was not without success turned to other metals that have found their application in different situations and industries for the creation of new alloys, composite materials, production of equipment, machines and mechanisms for both civil and military use:
Although the hardest metal in the world, or rather two of them - iridium and osmium, have shown their unique properties only in laboratory conditions, and also as negligible percentage additives to alloys, other compounds for creating new materials necessary for humans should be grateful to nature and for this gift. At the same time, there is no doubt that the inquisitive minds of talented scientists and brilliant inventors will come up with new substances with unique properties, as has already happened with the synthesis of fullerenes, which turned out to be harder than diamond, which is already surprising.
American engineers from Sandia National Laboratories claim that they have managed to create the strongest metal alloy, which is a hundred times more wear-resistant than the highest-strength steel. The well-known combination of platinum and gold, but made in a new way, became the first alloy, which in its properties. In addition, the new material naturally produces lubrication, the cost of which would normally be too high.
It is interesting that experiments with platinum and gold have been carried out previously, but until now such alloys have not been tested for strength with sufficient care. The fact is that in the traditional view, a material’s resistance to wear depends on its hardness, and this combination of metals cannot boast of this indicator.
However, in the new work, John Curry and his colleagues developed a fundamentally new approach. They created an alloy containing the usual 90% platinum and 10% gold, which reacts to heat in a certain way, which allows it not to deform during friction for a long time. This was achieved by changing the energy of the grain boundaries of the material through segregation (this process is associated with changes in the properties, composition and structure of the surface layers of atoms).
Experts used computer simulations to study possible microstructures at the level of individual atoms with different combinations of starting materials. Based on this analysis, they selected temperature-resistant alloys for real testing.
“In the development of many traditional alloys, increasing the strength of the material was achieved by reducing the grain size,” says Curry in. “Yet under extreme stress and temperature, many of them will expand or soften, especially when fatigue accumulates. But in the case of our alloy, we We see excellent mechanical and thermal stability without significant microstructure change over very long periods of cyclic frictional stress."
According to the study's authors, if the new alloy were used to make tires for drifting competitions, in which racers skid through turns and wear out the tires very quickly, a car on such wheels could circle the Earth 500 times along the equator.
During the tests, another surprising feature of the new material was revealed. During friction, a black film spontaneously formed on its surface, which turned out to be a diamond-like modification of carbon. This artificial coating, which is both smooth like graphite and hard like diamond, usually acts as a very effective lubricant, but its production requires complex high-temperature vacuum chambers.
“We believe that the stability and high wear resistance allows carbon-containing molecules from the environment to stick to the alloy, degrade as it slides, and ultimately form diamond-like carbon,” Curry explains.
Thus, this spontaneous generation of lubricant not only extends the life of the material, but can also provide an alternative way to produce it.
Many lovers of interesting facts are interested in the question, which metal is the hardest? And it won’t be easy to answer this question offhand. Of course, any chemistry teacher will easily say correctly, without even thinking. But among ordinary citizens who last studied chemistry at school, not many will be able to give the answer correctly and quickly. This is due to the fact that since childhood everyone has been accustomed to making various toys from wire and has well remembered that copper and aluminum are soft and bend well, but steel, on the contrary, is not so easy to give the desired shape. A person deals with the three named metals most often, so he doesn’t even consider the other candidates. But steel, of course, is not the hardest metal in the world. To be fair, it is worth noting that this is not a metal at all in the chemical sense, but a compound of iron and carbon.
The hardest metal is titanium. Pure titanium was first obtained in 1925. This discovery created a sensation in scientific circles. Industrialists immediately drew attention to the new material and appreciated the benefits of its use. According to the official version, the hardest metal on Earth got its name in honor of the indestructible Titans, who, according to ancient Greek mythology, were the founders of the world.
According to scientists, the total world reserves of titanium today are about 730 million tons. At the current rate of extraction of fossil raw materials, there will be enough for another 150 years. Titanium ranks 10th in natural reserves among all known metals. The world's largest titanium producer is the Russian company VSMPO-Avisma, which satisfies up to 35% of global needs. The company is engaged in the full processing cycle from ore mining to the manufacture of various products. It occupies about 90% of the Russian titanium production market. About 70% of finished products are exported.
Titanium is a light, silver-colored metal with a melting point of 1670 degrees Celsius. It exhibits high chemical activity only when heated; under normal conditions it does not react with most chemical elements and compounds. It is not found in nature in its pure form. Common in the form of rutile (titanium dioxide) and ilmenite (a complex substance consisting of titanium dioxide and ferrous oxide) ores. Pure titanium is isolated by sintering the ore with chlorine and then displacing the more active metal (usually magnesium) from the resulting tetrachloride.
The hardest metal has a fairly wide range of applications in many industries. Amorphously arranged atoms provide titanium with the highest level of tensile and torsional strength, good impact resistance, and high magnetic qualities. The metal is used to make air transport bodies and missiles. It copes well with the enormous loads that cars experience at great heights. Titanium is also used in the production of hulls for submarines, as it can withstand high pressure at great depths.
In the medical industry, metal is used in the manufacture of dentures and dental implants, as well as surgical instruments. The element is added as an alloying additive to some grades of steel, which gives them increased strength and resistance to corrosion. Titanium is well suited for casting as it produces perfectly smooth surfaces. It is also used to make jewelry and decorative items. Titanium compounds are also actively used. Dioxide is used to make paints, whitewash, and is added to paper and plastic.
Organic titanium salts are used as a hardening catalyst in paint and varnish production. Various tools and attachments for processing and drilling other metals are made from titanium carbide. In precision engineering, titanium aluminide is used to produce wear-resistant elements that have a high safety margin.
The hardest metal alloy was obtained by American scientists in 2011. Its composition included palladium, silicon, phosphorus, germanium and silver. The new material was called "metallic glass". It combines the hardness of glass and the plasticity of metal. The latter prevents cracks from spreading, as happens with standard glass. Naturally, the material was not put into widespread production, since its components, especially palladium, are rare metals and are very expensive.
At the moment, the efforts of scientists are aimed at searching for alternative components that would preserve the properties obtained, but significantly reduce the cost of production. However, some parts for the aerospace industry are already being produced from the resulting alloy. If alternative elements can be introduced into the structure and the material becomes widespread, then it is quite possible that it will become one of the most popular alloys of the future.
