University of Virginia Scientists Discover Amorphous Steel Material is three times stronger than conventional steel and non-magnetic.

Scientists at the University of Virginia have announced the discovery of a non-magnetic amorphous metal material that is three times stronger than conventional steel and has superior anti-corrosion properties.

An envisioned future variation of the new material, called DARVA-Glass 101, possibly could be used for making ship hulls, lighter automobiles, tall buildings, corrosion-resistant coatings, surgical instruments and recreational equipment. The scientists say they believe that commercial use of the material could be achieved within three to five years.

The material, made up of steel alloys that possess a randomized arrangement of atoms, thus "amorphous steel," was discovered by modifying an earlier version of amorphous steel known as DARVA-Glass 1 reported by the U.Va. researchers at the Fall 2002 meeting of the Materials Research Society. In May of 2004 they reported on DARVA-Glass 101 in the Journal of Materials Research.

"Amorphous steels can potentially revolutionize the steel industry," said Joseph Poon, professor of physics at U.Va. and principal investigator for the team that has discovered the material and is now making alterations of it for possible future use in mass production.

Poon's U.Va. co-investigators are Gary Shiflet, professor of materials science and engineering, and Vijayabarathi Ponnambalam, materials physicist. Their amorphous steel project at U.Va is sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Structural Amorphous Metals Program.

According to Poon, researchers have been trying for years to make amorphous steel in sizes large enough to have practical use. The U.Va researchers have succeeded in producing large-size amorphous steel samples that can be further scaled up. They achieve this by adding a small dose of a rare earth element or yttrium to DARVA-Glass 1. The researchers believe that the large size rare earth or yttrium ...