Materials
Bioweave (Artificial Spider Silk)
Spider silk is made up of alanine and glycine, with lesser amounts of glutamine, leucine, arginine, tyrosine, and serine--serve as silk's primary constituents. The fiber is made up of two alanine-rich proteins embedded in a jellylike polymer. The crystalline structure of one of the proteins is highly ordered and the structure of the other is less ordered. These proteins stick to the glycine-rich polymer, which makes up about 70 percent of the material. Artificial spider dragline silk's strength and elasticity derive from a blend of ordered and disordered components. The silk's amorphous polymer, resembling a "tangle of cooked spaghetti," makes the fiber elastic, while the two types of protein give it toughness. Cloned portions of the genes of the golden orb-weaving spider, Nephila clavipes, are implanted in Escherichia coli bacterium to produce the silk protein in solution. It is then squeezed through a fine tube to make synthetic silk fibers, making a close analog of natural spider silk. In other cases, soy plants are implanted with either parts of or the full dragline silk gene sequence, which allows silk proteins to be harvested in vast quantities and processed into a liquid polymer, and spun in factories. Products include: clothing, body armor, ropes, nets, seatbelts, parachutes, panels and bumpers for automobiles, sutures and bandages, artificial tendons and ligaments, and supports for weakened blood vessels.
Biosynthnetic fabric, based on protein constructed polymers extruded from engineered organisms inertial armor fabric, which is relatively soft and flexible, until it is struck by a fast-moving object, when it becomes rigid.
Metallic Foams
Metallic foams are a cellular structure consisting of a solid metal - frequently aluminum - containing a large volume fraction of gas-filled pores. They can be either closed-cell or open-cell. The defining characteristic of metal foams is a very high porosity: typically 75-95% of the volume consists of void spaces. The strength of foamed metal possesses a power law relationship to its density; i.e. 20% dense material is more than twice as strong as 10% dense material. Metallic foams generally retain the physical properties of their base material - foam made from non-flammable metal will remain non-flammable. Also, they are generally recyclable back to the base material.
Metallic foams have low density with good shear and fracture strength and are ideal for sandwich construction. The resulting structure can be used for energy absorbtion and for lightweight structural applications. Their exceptional ability to absorb large amounts of energy at almost constant pressure make them useful in a wide variety of applications: self-supporting, stiff and super light weight panels for building and transport; impact energy absorption parts for vehicles; lifting and conveying systems; decks and bulkheads; non-flammable ceiling and wall panels with improved thermal and sound insulation; armor; and many other uses.
Other
A wide varietry of other advance metallic, non-metallic, composite and ceramic materials are in use, including: alumino-ceramics, boro-carbon, and aluminide/aluminum borocarbide.
Aerogels are in widespread use. Silica aerogels are used as glass, insulators, and shock paddings among other applications. Electrically conductive carbon aerogels - are used in supercapacitors.
Synthetic diamonds are still on the expensive side. They are produced in eithe gem stone form or in sheet/plate form.
Cellulose compounds are strong and very cheap materials made from grass and wood compounds. They are widely used in architecture and many other applications.
Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes are also starting to be used in a variety of applications.
