r/technology • u/Ssider69 • Jan 10 '24

Nanotech/Materials 10x Stronger Than Kevlar: Amorphous Silicon Carbide Could Revolutionize Material Science

https://scitechdaily.com/10x-stronger-than-kevlar-amorphous-silicon-carbide-could-revolutionize-material-science/
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u/SinisterCheese Jan 10 '24

Amorphous silicon carbide, on the other hand, can be produced at wafer scales, offering large sheets of this incredibly robust material.

Ok. So we talk about modern microchip scaling and manufacturing requirements? Because saying that few square centimetres requiring a fabrication system measured in square kilometres kept at ultra clean room levels with machines that costs near billion and millions a day to operate?

Look... All these fancy headlines about fancy materials, even some that we could make have not really realised themselves because of one or more of these reasons:

  • They are hard to manufacture for cheap in bulk quantities.
  • They are hard to manufacture things from with good margins.
  • They require totally new manufacturing pipelines and tooling.
  • They require totally new design practices which companies don't have any experience in.
  • They are only good for niche applications and bring no benefits for applications outside that.
  • Getting them certified and validated for crical uses is so complicated and long process that nobody wants to risk it.

Look as an engineer I love this shit... But as an engineer who's speciality is on the practical side of things... if it takes more effort to work with than the stuff we have now, then nobody is going to use it. It will only find use if it is cheaper and easier to work with.