Scientists at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have created the strongest, lightest weight silica nanofibres – ‘nanowires’- that are 15 times stronger than steel and can be manufactured in lengths potentially of 1000’s of kilometres.
The research, by ORC Principal Research Fellow Dr Gilberto Brambilla and ORC Director Professor Sir David Payne has already generated extensive interest from many companies around the world.
“With synthetic fibres it is important to have high strength, achieved by production of fibre with extremely low defect rates, and low weight,” said Dr Brambilla. “Usually if you increase the strength of a fibre you have to increase its diameter and thus its weight, but our research has shown that as you decrease the size of silica nanofibres their strength increases, yet they still remain very lightweight. We are the only people who currently have optimised the strength of these fibres.
“Our discovery could change the future of composites and high strength materials across the world and have a huge impact on the marine, aviation and security industries. We want to investigate their potential use in composites and we envisage that this material could be used extensively in the manufacture of products such as aircraft, speedboats and helicopters,” he added.
Professor Payne commented:
“Silica and oxygen, required to produce nanowires, are the two most common elements on the earth’s crust, making it sustainable and cheap to exploit. Furthermore, we can produce silica nanofibres by the tonne, just as we currently do for the optical fibres that power the internet.”
The research findings came about following five years of investigations by Dr Brambilla and Professor Payne using Gilberto’s £500,000 Fellowship funding from the Royal Society.
