Tungsten Oxide Maintains Strength of Steel Against Fouling
While we love ceramics and glass, there’s just no denying it—steel is one of the most important materials to modern living. So this is big—researchers at Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have devised a way to improve the ubiquitous steel by protecting its surface from fouling and corrosion. While there are varying grades of steel today, the surface has remained largely unchanged—meaning that steel is still rather susceptible to corrosion and abrasion. Both disrupt the mechanical stability of steel, among other materials, and have a huge economic impact. According to the Wikipedia page on fouling, “one estimate puts the losses due to fouling of heat exchangers in industrialized nations to be about 0.25% of their GDP. Another analysis estimated (for 2006) the economical loss due to boiler and turbine fouling in China utilities at 4.68 billion dollars, which is about 0.169% of the country’s GDP.” Harvard researchers have de...