Jonathon Harker
Titanium and gold have been melted together to form a metal four time harder than titanium, reports the BBC.
Revealed in the Science Advances journal, the US physicists who discovered the alloy say applications for Ti³Au (titanium-gold) include medical implants such as hip joints, as well as the drilling industry, sporting goods and many other fields.
The alloy was found to be too hard to be ground in a diamond-coasted mortar and pestle. The journal noted that Ti³Au exhibits "reduced coefficient of friction and wear rates". It's all thanks to the "elevated valence electron density, reduced bond length and the pseudogap formation". For more of that, click here.
