Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Can we make any fibers, threads, wires, glasses, bottles, foils...?

eVBoy - 1-6-2016 at 13:06

Why I have never seen Iron foil, but always see Aluminium foil?
Can cotton, plants, wood, food, graphite be molten? If not, is it because of decomposition point? Then, can we change conditions to somehow avoid decomposition and get it molten?
Can we make sponge, mattress, clothes, wires of for example SiO2 or MgO or NaCl?
Would glass bottle be easy to bend if it was thin enough (like plastic can)?

DraconicAcid - 1-6-2016 at 13:28

You can't melt things like cotton or wood because they will decompose with heat long before they get to that temperature. Changing conditions won't affect this- they are mostly cellulose, which is a polysaccharide. These decompose to give carbon and water vapour.

Graphite can be melted, but only at 3825 oC.

Ionic compounds are too brittle to make foil, wires, or clothes out of.

Iron foil can be made, but it's not very useful. It rusts. Tin foil isn't rare, and lead foil is used for numerous purposes; artists often use silver and gold foil (leaf). Most chemical supply metals will provide most metals as foils of whatever thickness the customer desires. (Well, obviously not sodium or calcium. Not chromium, gallium, germanium, manganese, according to my Alfa Aeser catalogue, but cobalt, cerium, dysprosium, gadolinium, iridium, iron, lithium...)

Wow. Nickel comes as ultrathin foil which is 0.25 micrometres thick. That's like one hundred-thousandth of an inch for the imperialists.

[Edited on 1-6-2016 by DraconicAcid]

NEMO-Chemistry - 1-6-2016 at 13:31

wasnt chain mail made long ago :D, does that count as iron clothing?

BromicAcid - 1-6-2016 at 13:50

Usually you dissolve the cotton and crash it back out in the form you want:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer's_reagent

careysub - 1-6-2016 at 18:32

Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry  
wasnt chain mail made long ago :D, does that count as iron clothing?


No more so than iron plate armor.

It looks like sheet metal becomes "foil" around 25 microns (0.001"):
http://www.lebowcompany.com/foils_list.htm

Steel foil is readily available:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#steel/=12o6xbu

SiO2 fiber and fabric is very well known - it is called fiberglass. Well, it is not pure SiO2, usually about 65%, the rest a mix of other oxides (boron, aluminum, plus several others). Pure quartz fiber (SiO2) also exists, but is more restricted in its use.

[Edited on 2-6-2016 by careysub]

Twospoons - 1-6-2016 at 20:27

Iron and silicon-steel foil is used to make 'tape-wound' cores for transformers. http://www.mkmagnetics.com/products.shtml

Morgan - 2-6-2016 at 04:58

Not quite .001 thickness but close.
http://www.use-enco.com/1/1/214-321-stainless-steel-tool-wra...

I had bought this plain/inexpensive .001 thick steel shim stock from Enco but when the roll arrived it said it contained lead. I wonder if the lead helps in the manufacturing process.
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=406-0288&PMPXNO...

PHILOU Zrealone - 2-6-2016 at 07:11

SiO2 sponge exist as aerogel.

Glass fibers/optical glass fibers are souple and flexible to a certain extand over what rupture is acheived so in principle nothing is against the making of a ultrafine walled bottle that display some flexibility.
If you use nanomaterial technology, you could make a bottle out of glass fibers fabric that would keep water from passing through (hydrophobic).

careysub - 2-6-2016 at 07:33

Quote: Originally posted by Morgan  
I wonder if the lead helps in the manufacturing process.
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=406-0288&PMPXNO...


It does. It improves workability, making the steel "free machining". Lead is added at a level of 0.15-0.35% and forms a nanoparticle dispersion in steel (it does not dissolve). Cutting tools generate heat that melts the lead allows clean cuts and less tool wear.

careysub - 2-6-2016 at 07:34

Quote: Originally posted by PHILOU Zrealone  
SiO2 sponge exist as aerogel.

Glass fibers/optical glass fibers are souple and flexible to a certain extand over what rupture is acheived so in principle nothing is against the making of a ultrafine walled bottle that display some flexibility.
If you use nanomaterial technology, you could make a bottle out of glass fibers fabric that would keep water from passing through (hydrophobic).


Flexible glass sheets has been demonstrated for phone screens. Not sure if it is in any products though.