Galvorn: The breakthrough material that will transform energy, aeronautics and construction
Galvorn, a 'magic material', is noted for its superior strength to steel and exceptional lightness compared to aluminium, offering the promise of drastically reducing carbon dioxide production.
Materials development company DexMat claims that Galvorn is a "magic material" that outperforms steel in strength and aluminium in lightness while promising to drastically reduce carbon dioxide production. According to DexMat, this revolutionary material will make the use of copper in electrical applications, such as car batteries, obsolete and replace aluminium and steel in construction, automotive and aviation industries.
Galvorn is composed of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), tiny cylinders of carbon molecules that are 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. These tubes have ideal physical properties for various applications: they are strong, flexible, lightweight and excellent conductors of electricity. NTCs are used in electronics, energy, medicine and construction because of these characteristics.
The Galvorn originated from the patents of Rick Smalley, a late Nobel laureate in chemistry, and his collaborator Matteo Pasquali at Rice University, with the support of the US Air Force, the Department of Energy and NASA, among others, as GreenBiz points out.
The name of the material, Galvorn, was taken from the novel "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. In the Elvish language of Eöl, the blacksmith who created the Galvorn in the book, Galvorn means "shiny and black". This reference fascinated the creators of the material and inspired them to give it that name.
According to Shomik Dutta, managing partner of Overture Climate VC, one of DexMat's investment companies, Galvorn has the potential to make vehicles and aircraft more efficient and lighter. It also increases the electrical conductivity in batteries and supercapacitors and improves the performance of wind, solar and storage energy. In construction, incorporating these fibres into the production of concrete and other materials could create more robust and more durable buildings, reducing carbon output in the long term.
DexMat claims that Galvorn could make copper obsolete. According to energy research company BloombergNEF, demand for copper is expected to increase by 4% annually until 2040. The use of aluminium and steel, the world's most widely used metals, also poses problems, as they contribute approximately 10% of global CO2 emissions.
But Galvorn not only stands out for its physical properties, but according to its inventors, it can potentially eliminate three gigatonnes of industrial carbon dioxide emissions per year. DexMat claims that clean energy is used during the manufacture of the material, reducing the impact of steel, aluminium and other metal production.
Galvorn is produced industrially and is already commercialised in several formats, including a mesh that can be used to create composite panels, electrodes and clothing; a fibre for conductive cables, power lines and motor windings; and a film for electromagnetic shielding, batteries and antennas. Its first commercial application, according to DexMat, is in electrothermal wiring for de-icing aircraft wings.
Time will tell if Galvorn works as well as claimed, but its current production and commercialisation show that it is not just a laboratory compound. DexMat is looking to make energy-intensive and CO2-emitting materials obsolete, as they believe the future requires a new material that redefines the possibilities.
References
El nuevo ‘material mágico’ que revolucionará la energía, la aeronáutica y la construcción. | El Confidencial, Retrieved June 11th, 2023 from: https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/novaceno/2023-06-11/galvorn-material-nanotubes-carbono_3662652/
El innovador material que pesa la mitad que el aluminio y es tres veces más resistente que el acero | El Español-Omicrono, Retrieved June 10th, 2023 from: https://www.elespanol.com/omicrono/tecnologia/20230610/innovador-material-mitad-aluminio-veces-resistente-acero/769923081_0.html
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