To make a material light enough and strong enough at the same time, besides enhancing the material’s intrinsic properties, one can also adjust the material’s structure.
In this regard, the bones of birds serve as an excellent reference.
Birds have evolved to the extreme for the purpose of flight. Everything from their streamlined shape and feather arrangement to their muscles, internal organs, and bones have been specially adapted.
For example, bird bones are as hollow as possible internally while still having support structures to ensure the entire bone is lightweight and has sufficient strength.
In the original world, humans learned this technique from studying birds and applied it to the construction of aircraft.
Beyond applying this technology to the overall structural design of airplanes, humans developed a new material based on this principle, called foam metal.
This material not only has greater strength than ordinary metal materials but also is lighter in weight, achieving a qualitative difference in performance.
For instance, the most common foam aluminum has a density that is only 0.1 to 0.4 times that of metal aluminum, while its flexural strength is 1.5 times that of ordinary steel, making it quite excellent.
For Perfikot, creating foam aluminum is a simple task, and she can also readily produce the high-performance aluminum alloys used in aerospace industries in the original world.
However, the challenge level for this kind of thing is too low for her, or she can almost effortlessly produce what she desires without dedicating time to research.
Thus, she decided to develop an imaginary material that would be even lighter than foam aluminum in terms of density.
In nature, aluminum is already a lightweight metal, with a low density, and foam aluminum is among the best, but compared to the material Perfikot wants to achieve, there is a qualitative gap. Discover more novels at Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Yet, this is normal. If Perfikot were just satisfied with the performance of foam aluminum, she would merely be using Imaginary Alchemy to bridge a technological gap of less than two hundred years and couldn’t be said to be fully utilizing the capabilities of Imaginary Alchemy.
Moreover, in this era, large-scale production of aluminum is still not simple, as its price remains high.
What truly brought the price of aluminum down from being comparable to gold to less than that of copper and iron was the discovery of aluminum electrolysis technology and the widespread electrification of the Second Industrial Revolution.
Before this, humans had limited means to obtain aluminum, which is why seemingly ludicrous events like Napoleon using aluminum cups and generals having aluminum stars occurred.
To an Alchemist with mastery of Imaginary Alchemy, creating a material lighter than foam aluminum is not difficult.
Perfikot could even make a metal lighter than air if she wanted.
Of course, creating such an extraordinary thing would require even Perfikot to spend a substantial amount of time and effort, and the costs would be astronomical.
Thus, she did not choose an overly aggressive development strategy. Instead, she set a moderately high standard for herself after considering the current situation and her needs.
The metal element in the new material must have a density of only 0.1 times that of aluminum, while its flexural stiffness must be more than twice that of high-carbon steel.
This is not an outrageous requirement; in the original world, there are materials that fit this description.
For example, the legendary and somewhat mythical carbon fiber.
Its density is only 1.5 to 1.8 grams per cubic centimeter, or 1500 to 1800 kilograms per cubic meter, which is only half that of aluminum alloys.
Along with its superior performance and material strength, it has been highly sought after since its advent and applied in various fields.
For Perfikot, this type of material is a target worth challenging.
Of course, she needs metal material, not carbon fiber.
The key reason she doesn’t use carbon fiber is that it is a fiber, not a metallic material.
While it has wide applications, it’s not simple to process or use. For example, commonly seen carbon fiber requires a special adhesive as a base and impregnation glue to bond individual fibers together into a carbon fiber material.
To Perfikot, this is undoubtedly a huge inconvenience in use.
She can accept making foam metal; as long as it’s processed into initial sheets, the rest is the job of engineers and construction workers.
But with carbon fiber, she’d have to manage the entire manufacturing and processing process.
To Perfikot, that seems a bit too troublesome.
Thus, she ultimately decided to use carbon as the base material, using carbon fiber as a template, to develop an imaginary material that could achieve the performance of carbon fiber.
The main reason for choosing carbon is its stable nature, unlike sodium and magnesium among lightweight metals, which are very reactive and easily combine with other elements.
This is why sodium and magnesium, although lighter than aluminum, are not widely used in the materials field.
Perfikot decisively abandoned these lightweight metals, choosing the seemingly unremarkable element carbon as the basis for her new material research.
After all, carbon is stable enough and can form various atomic and molecular structures, exhibiting significantly different properties and performances.
For instance, the famous C60, which is sixty carbon atoms combined in a spherical structure, has only half the density of aluminum yet possesses a very stable atomic structure.
Furthermore, C60 itself has unique chemical reactivity, capable of forming various derivatives through addition reactions.
So what Perfikot aims for is actually C60, but she needs to use Imaginary Alchemy to create this material to obtain a more stable metallic element rather than a specially structured carbon molecule.
If it’s just about C60, Perfikot could achieve it technologically without relying on Imaginary Alchemy.
Ultimately, Perfikot’s goal is to open the Jade Record, not necessarily to research a material.
Material research is just a side pursuit; she simply doesn’t want to waste her precious time and research opportunity without creating a practically valuable imaginary material.
This might be difficult for an ordinary alchemist, but for Perfikot, it’s relatively feasible.
At least before facing difficulties and setbacks, Perfikot doesn’t find it hard, especially when she holds the Philosopher’s Stone and Imaginary Alchemy, two Divine Artifacts. All this seems quite simple.