NASA已向西弗吉尼亚大学（WVU）的研究人员授予了100,000美元的赠款，以探索国际空间站（ISS）上3D印刷二氧化钛泡沫的使用。
研究将在ISS上的低地轨道上进行，泡沫打算为太阳能电池，电池和辐射屏蔽应用。
To conduct the Titanium dioxide (TiO2) foam research, WVU researchers will collaborate with materials scientists at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
太空电池
根据WVU的说法，多孔TiO2材料具有“great potential for space applications ranging from efficient solar cells to batteries and radiation shielding。” By 3D printing titanium oxide, the researchers will be able to create incredibly thin tubes which increase the speed of transferring energy. In 2014, researchers at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University开发了二氧化钛电池which could recharge up to 70% in two minutes and last twenty years.
NASA may therefore be exploring the use of titanium dioxide foam to replace existing batteries aboard the ISS with longer-lasting alternatives.
3D印刷行业看到了英国Renishaw在今年早些时候开发3D活动。Renishaw目前正在调查金属泡沫的应用。
降解表征
NASA’s project with WVU will subject the titanium dioxide foams, which are 3D printed back on earth, to low-earth orbit conditions in order to evaluate the degradation of the materials. Returning from the ISS, the foams will then be characterized and WVU’s professor of industrial and management systems engineering, Majid Jaridi explains,
This degradation data will give significant early insight into the applicability of the TiO2 foam materials for the identified potential space applications before going forward and exploring their printing characteristics under microgravity conditions,
As Jaridi implies, future research hopes to explore the possibilities of printing the titanium oxide foams in space.
金属泡沫
金属3D打印为生产高级复杂形状铺平了道路。轻巧的结构可能会为其重量和强度特征提供航空航天应用。
While elsewhere,researchers have successfully formed free-standing graphene foam structures多亏了金属3D打印和糖。
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Featured image shows an astronaut undergoing a spacewalk aboard the ISS. Image via NASA.
