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Re:New material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1400 K by kortex on Saturday June 12, 2021 @11:46AM (#27485221)
> Sc1.5Al0.5W3O12

That's a lot of Scandium, one of the most expensive elements. Typically ~$120/gram. Not making airplanes out of this stuff any time soon.

Hopefully the research unlocks similar crystal structures using cheaper materials, maybe subbing something like titanium or yttrium. Metallurgical substitution is tricky, since often you need to match both electronic (group analogs) and size (row analogs) characteristics.

Re:New material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1400 K by elcritch on Saturday June 12, 2021 @06:31PM (#27487950)
Even given the cost, I'd wager many applications for sensitive instruments could make use of it.
Re:New material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1400 K by kortex on Sunday June 13, 2021 @12:04AM (#27489654)
Oh totally. There's tons of applications where some small widget needs stupendously low thermal expansion. Atomic force microscopy immediately comes to mind; lots of metrology use cases in general.