A Missouri University of Science and Technology researcher and his colleagues have created a lightweight but very strong structural metal that could improve energy efficiency in aerospace, automobile, defense, mobile electronics and biomedical applications.

The findings of Dr. Lianyi Chen, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and materials science and engineering at Missouri S&T, were published Dec. 24 in the latest issue of Nature, International Weekly Journal of Science.

Working at the University of California-Los Angeles, Chen and his colleagues used magnesium because it is a light metal with two-thirds the density of aluminum, it’s abundant on Earth and is biocompatible. They found a way to mix silicon carbide nanoparticles into a molten magnesium-zinc alloy that uniformly dispersed and stabilized the nanoparticles, making a super-strong and lightweight metal.