Tiny springs made from metallic glass
Fucheng Li et al
Tiny tubes of rusty glass are surprisingly springy, which could show helpful in powering nanorobotic gadgets.
Most metals oxidise when left within the air – when this occurs in iron, it’s known as rusting – which may change their properties, corresponding to making them extra brittle or much less dense.
Yong Yang at City University of Hong Kong and his colleagues discovered that once they oxidised copper and zirconium nanotubes of metallic glass, which…