Limited Ability to Design and Scalably Synthesize Macroscale Materials
While many promising materials have been discovered in the lab, current synthesis methods are often too expensive to produce these materials in sufficient quantities. Some examples of novel materials that would be highly enabling include:
• Low activation, thermally conductive materials that are resistant to radiation damage are needed to enable fusion reactors (the first wall material is currently a limitation), spacecraft, etc.
• Materials that emit at the transparency window of the atmosphere (that were easy to apply like paint) to drastically diminish solar earth heating (example)
• Hyper-efficient thermoelectrics that could directly turn heat into electricity.
• Materials that autonomously heal to improve our infrastructure and prevent system failures due to material defects.
• Materials that have the insulating properties and high melting points of ceramics but the formability and ductility of metals for jet engines and atmospheric reentry vehicles.
Foundational Capabilities (3)
Next generation, high performance protein-based fibers created through new spinning processes that can align and control the molecular assembly of the final fiber, taking advantage of protein’s unique capabilities.
Carbon fiber could potentially replace steel in many situations and sequester atmospheric carbon instead of creating it if we could make enough of it cheaply enough.
Arbitrarily long carbon nanotubes would enable tethers with tensile strength near the limits of physics which unlock things like space elevators.Scaling the production of conductive carbon materials could potentially replace copper.