If someone had asked you what the strongest material is in the world, one would not be surprised if you only answered “diamond.” Did you know that some of the toughest materials can either be found in your backyard? Some are even durable enough to withstand a drill of a diamond core bit, which is considered as one of the toughest drill bits to get through any material.
To give you more ideas, here’s a list of some of the toughest materials:
Diamonds
Diamonds are a given, but here’s why they’re included in drill bits in the first place. Did you know that only another diamond can tear it or scratch its surface? This material is considered the hardest material on the planet. They are scratch-proof unless you use another diamond to do some damage.
Mohs hardness is the scale used to measure the hardness of a material, and a diamond falls under a solid 10. For comparison, Quartz is a thousand times lower in microhardness compared to a diamond.
Kevlar
Tougher and more durable than steel, Kevlar is best known to be used on bulletproof vests. Your bike tire (if you’re an avid biker and you have a legitimate mountain bike) could have it, as well as sails on racing boats. If steel was durable, Kevlar has unbelievably five times more strength.
Kevlar molecules are very much tightly tethered and are parallel, which makes it bulletproof and almost impenetrable. Even airplanes are crafted with Kevlar to withstand extreme atmospheric pressure and weather conditions.
Graphene
When you talk about aerospace dynamics and automobiles, graphene tops the list. It’s considered to be the toughest material on the planet known to man due to its whopping strength against steel by 200 times more. It looks like a honeycomb and has a combination of the following elements: carbon nanotubes, coal, and graphite, and of course: carbon.
Thicker materials don’t necessarily mean they’re stronger. In fact, graphene is the thinnest material to date and is nowhere near flimsy or weak.
Spider Webs
When we mentioned that some of the toughest materials in the world could be found in your backyard, we were not joking. Spider webs are considered some of the strongest natural materials on the planet. Though very thin to the naked eye, it’s merely half Kevlar’s strength, plus it’s almost as durable as steel with high quality. One of the reasons why spider webs are so tough is because it’s used to catch prey, as well as protect their offspring, especially after giving birth.
The largest spider web ever made can be found in Madagascar, which is Darwin’s bark spider, a newly discovered species. It can create a spider web as large as 25 meters, which is roughly half the size of the 47-meter tall Chicago Water Tower.
Diamonds aren’t just the strongest elements on the planet. There are other materials used in the aerospace industry, as well as everyday tools that we use but do not consider the durability and strength of what we have in our hands.