Top 10 hardest metals in games. What metal is considered the most durable. Hardest metals with the highest density

If strength is commonly understood as the ability of solid bodies to resist destruction and retain the shape of the product, then the following metals can be attributed to heavy-duty and durable metals.

Name titanium was awarded by Martin Klaproth, a German researcher who discovered a new metal not according to his chemical qualities, and in honor of the mythological heroes of the children of the earth - the titans.

The presence of titanium in nature is in 10th place, most of all it is concentrated in minerals. Without this metal, the latest discoveries in the field of rocket, ship and aircraft construction would be impossible. Titanium is used in all areas of industry, in the manufacture of medical implants and body armor with Food Industry and agriculture.

2nd place

Light gray tungsten , literally translated as wolf cream, is the most refractory metal, so it is indispensable in the manufacture of heat-resistant surfaces and products. The filament in a conventional light bulb is made from a tungsten filament.

That metal is used in ballistic missiles, in the manufacture of shells and bullets, in gyroscopic ultra-high-speed rotors.

3rd place

Tantalum it is almost impossible to modify, because it begins to melt at a temperature of 3015 degrees Celsius, and boils at a boiling point of 5300 degrees. To an ordinary person such heat is unimaginable. The bluish-gray metal is the most indispensable in modern medicine; wire and sheets are made from it, which cover damaged bones.

Opened in 1817 molybdenum, gray-steel metal in its pure form is practically not found. The infusibility of this metal is striking, the melting point of which exceeds 2620 degrees. Molybdenum has found the greatest use in the military industry, where gun and armor steels are made.

5th place

Aviation and mechanical engineering, nuclear power and astronautics use niobium, very similar in its properties to tantalum metal. Niobium is practically not affected by any substances, neither salts nor acids, it is difficult to melt, and difficult to oxidize, which is what makes the unique metal so popular.

6th place

The heaviest metal on earth iridium possesses the most persistent anti-corrosion properties, even aqua regia cannot melt it. The addition of iridium to other alloys enhances their ability to resist corrosion.

7th place

Beryllium is one of the rare metals that are mined in the earth. Its unique qualities, such as high thermal conductivity and fire resistance, have made this metal indispensable in the manufacture of nuclear reactors. Beryllium alloys rightfully occupy a leading position in the aerospace and aviation industries.

8th place

Light blue chrome , which is also one of the most durable metals, due to its unique properties, when added to steel alloys, it makes them harder and more corrosion resistant. Chrome parts have a beautiful appearance that does not change over time.

9th place

The Saxons take care of their legends, the name of the hero of one of them, Kobold, was immortalized in the name of the metal - cobalt . Very often, when extracting ore, seekers mistook the gray-pink metal for silver.

Refractory metal, as an additive, increases the heat resistance, hardness and wear resistance of steel. Due to its unique qualities, cobalt is indispensable in machine tools.

Hafnium - a metal of light gray color, unique in its qualities, is mined from zirconium ore. Solid, refractory hafnium has a unique feature, the fact is that its heat-capacity dependence is anomalous and does not fall under any laws of physics.

Hafnium is used in nuclear power and in optics, for the strengthening of various alloys and the manufacture of glass for x-rays, it is difficult to imagine military production without it.

The use of metals in Everyday life began at the dawn of human development, and the first metal was copper, since it is available in nature and can be easily processed. No wonder archaeologists during excavations find various products and household utensils made of this metal. In the process of evolution, people gradually learned to combine various metals, obtaining more and more durable alloys suitable for the manufacture of tools, and later weapons. In our time, experiments continue, thanks to which it is possible to identify the most strong metals in the world.

Titanium opens our rating - a high-strength hard metal that immediately attracted attention. The properties of titanium are: high specific strength; resistance to high temperatures; low density; corrosion resistance; mechanical and chemical resistance

9 Uranus
The most famous element, which is considered one of the strongest metals in the world, and under normal conditions is a weak radioactive metal. In nature, it is found both in a free state and in acidic sedimentary rocks. It is quite heavy, widely distributed throughout the world and has paramagnetic properties, flexibility, malleability, and relative plasticity. Uranium is used in many areas of production.

8 Tungsten

Known as the most refractory metal of all existing, and belongs to the strongest metals in the world. It is a solid transitional element of a brilliant silver-gray color. Possesses the high durability, excellent infusibility, resistance to chemical influences. Due to its properties, it can be forged and drawn into a thin thread. Known as a tungsten filament.

Among the representatives of this group, it is considered a transition metal of high density, silvery-white in color. It occurs in nature in its pure form, but is found in molybdenum and copper raw materials. It features high hardness and density, and has excellent refractoriness. It has increased strength, which is not lost with repeated temperature changes. Rhenium belongs to expensive metals and has a high cost. Used in modern technology and electronics.

A shiny silvery white metal with a slightly bluish tint, belongs to the platinum group and is considered one of the most durable metals in the world. Similar to iridium, it has a high atomic density, high strength and hardness. Since osmium belongs to platinum metals, it has properties similar to iridium: refractoriness, hardness, brittleness, resistance to mechanical stress, as well as to the influence of aggressive environments. Has found wide application in surgery, electron microscopy, chemical industry, rocket technology, electronic equipment.

5 Beryllium
Belongs to the group of metals, and is a light gray element with relative hardness and high toxicity. Due to its unique properties, beryllium is used in various fields of production: nuclear power; aerospace engineering; metallurgy; laser technology; nuclear energy. Due to its high hardness, beryllium is used in the production of alloying alloys and refractory materials.

4 Chrome
Chromium is next in the top ten most durable metals in the world - a hard, high-strength bluish-white metal that is resistant to alkalis and acids. It occurs in nature in its pure form and is widely used in various branches of science, technology and production. Chromium Used to create various alloys that are used in the manufacture of medical and chemical technological equipment. In combination with iron, it forms a ferrochromium alloy, which is used in the manufacture of metal-cutting tools.

Tantalum deserves bronze in the ranking, as it is one of the most durable metals in the world. It is a silvery metal with high hardness and atomic density. Due to the formation of an oxide film on its surface, it has a lead tint. Distinctive properties of tantalum are high strength, refractoriness, resistance to corrosion and aggressive media. The metal is a fairly ductile metal and can be easily machined. Today tantalum is successfully used: in the chemical industry; in the construction of nuclear reactors; in metallurgical production; when creating heat-resistant alloys.

2 Ruthenium

The second line of the ranking of the most durable metals in the world is occupied by ruthenium - a silvery metal belonging to the platinum group. Its feature is the presence in the composition of the muscle tissue of living organisms. Valuable properties of ruthenium are high strength, hardness, refractoriness, chemical resistance, and the ability to form complex compounds. Ruthenium is considered a catalyst for many chemical reactions, acts as a material for the manufacture of electrodes, contacts, and sharp tips.

1 Iridium
The rating of the most durable metals in the world is headed by iridium - a silvery-white, hard and refractory metal that belongs to the platinum group. In nature, a high-strength element is extremely rare, and is often combined with osmium. Due to its natural hardness, it is difficult to machine and highly resistant to chemicals. Iridium reacts with great difficulty to the effects of halogens and sodium peroxide. This metal plays important role in everyday life. It is added to titanium, chromium and tungsten to improve resistance to acidic environments, used in the manufacture of stationery, used in jewelry to create jewelry. The cost of iridium remains high due to its limited presence in nature.

The world around us is still fraught with many mysteries, but even phenomena and substances known to scientists for a long time do not cease to amaze and delight. We admire bright colors, enjoy tastes and use the properties of all kinds of substances that make our life more comfortable, safer and more enjoyable. In search of the most reliable and strong materials, man has made many exciting discoveries, and in front of you is a selection of just 25 such unique compounds!

25. Diamonds

If not everyone, then almost everyone knows this for sure. Diamonds are not only one of the most revered gemstones, but also one of the hardest minerals on Earth. On the Mohs scale (a scale of hardness in which an assessment is given by the reaction of a mineral to scratching), diamond is listed on the 10th line. There are 10 positions in the scale, and the 10th is the last and hardest degree. Diamonds are so hard that they can only be scratched with other diamonds.

24. Trapping webs of the spider species Caaerostris darwini

Photo: pixabay

It's hard to believe, but the network of the spider Caerostris darwini (or Darwin's spider) is stronger than steel and harder than Kevlar. This web was recognized as the hardest biological material in the world, although now it has a potential competitor, but the data has not yet been confirmed. Spider fiber was tested for characteristics such as breaking strain, impact strength, tensile strength and Young's modulus (the property of a material to resist stretching, compression under elastic deformation), and in all these indicators, the web showed itself in an amazing way. In addition, the trapping web of the Darwin spider is incredibly light. For example, if we wrap our planet with Caaerostris darwini fiber, the weight of such a long thread will be only 500 grams. Such long networks do not exist, but the theoretical calculations are simply amazing!

23. Aerographite

Photo: BrokenSphere

This synthetic foam is one of the lightest fibrous materials in the world and is a network of carbon tubes only a few microns in diameter. Aerographite is 75 times lighter than polystyrene, but at the same time much stronger and more ductile. It can be compressed down to 30 times its original size without any harm to its extremely elastic structure. Thanks to this property, airgraphite foam can withstand loads up to 40,000 times its own weight.

22. Palladium metallic glass

Photo: pixabay

A team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology and Berkeley Lab (California Institute of Technology, Berkeley Lab) has developed the new kind metal glass, combining an almost perfect combination of strength and ductility. The reason for the uniqueness of the new material lies in the fact that its chemical structure successfully masks the brittleness of existing glassy materials while maintaining a high endurance threshold, which ultimately significantly increases the fatigue strength of this synthetic structure.

21. Tungsten carbide

Photo: pixabay

Tungsten carbide is an incredibly hard material with high wear resistance. Under certain conditions, this compound is considered very brittle, but under heavy load it shows unique plastic properties, manifesting itself in the form of slip bands. Thanks to all these qualities, tungsten carbide is used in the manufacture of armor-piercing tips and various equipment, including all kinds of cutters, abrasive discs, drills, cutters, drill bits and other cutting tools.

20. Silicon carbide

Photo: Tiia Monto

Silicon carbide is one of the main materials used to make battle tanks. This compound is known for its low cost, outstanding refractoriness, and high hardness, and is therefore often used in the manufacture of equipment or gear that must deflect bullets, cut, or grind other hard materials. Silicon carbide makes excellent abrasives, semiconductors, and even inserts in Jewelry imitating diamonds.

19. Cubic boron nitride

Photo: wikimedia commons

Cubic boron nitride is a superhard material, similar in hardness to diamond, but also has a number of distinctive advantages - high temperature stability and chemical resistance. Cubic boron nitride does not dissolve in iron and nickel even under the influence of high temperatures, while diamond under the same conditions enters into chemical reactions rather quickly. In fact, this is beneficial for its use in industrial grinding tools.

18. Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), Dyneema fiber brand

Photo: Justsail

High modulus polyethylene has extremely high wear resistance, low coefficient of friction and high fracture toughness (low temperature reliability). Today it is considered the strongest fibrous substance in the world. The most amazing thing about this polyethylene is that it is lighter than water and can stop bullets at the same time! Cables and ropes made of Dyneema fibers do not sink in water, do not need lubrication and do not change their properties when wet, which is very important for shipbuilding.

17. Titanium alloys

Photo: Alchemist-hp (pse-mendelejew.de)

Titanium alloys are incredibly ductile and show amazing strength when stretched. In addition, they have high heat resistance and corrosion resistance, which makes them extremely useful in areas such as aircraft, rocketry, shipbuilding, chemical, food and transportation engineering.

16. Liquid metal alloy

Photo: pixabay

Developed in 2003 at the California Institute of Technology, this material is renowned for its strength and durability. The name of the compound is associated with something brittle and liquid, but at room temperature it is actually unusually hard, wear-resistant, not afraid of corrosion and transforms when heated, like thermoplastics. The main areas of application so far are the manufacture of watches, golf clubs and coatings for mobile phones(Vertu, iPhone).

15. Nanocellulose

Photo: pixabay

Nanocellulose is isolated from wood fibers and is a new type of wood material that is even stronger than steel! In addition, nanocellulose is also cheaper. The innovation has great potential and could seriously compete with glass and carbon fiber in the future. The developers believe that this material will soon be in great demand in the production of army armor, super-flexible screens, filters, flexible batteries, absorbent aerogels and biofuels.

14. Teeth of snails of the "sea saucer" type

Photo: pixabay

Earlier, we already told you about the trapping web of Darwin's spider, which was once recognized as the most durable biological material on the planet. However, a recent study showed that the limpet is the most durable biological substance known to science. Yes, these teeth are stronger than the web of Caaerostris darwini. And this is not surprising, because tiny sea creatures feed on algae growing on the surface of harsh rocks, and in order to separate food from rock, these animals have to work hard. Scientists believe that in the future we will be able to use the example of the fibrous structure of the teeth of marine limpets in the engineering industry and begin to build cars, boats, and even aircraft increased strength, inspired by the example of simple snails.

13. Maraging steel

Photo: pixabay

Maraging steel is a high strength and high alloy alloy with excellent ductility and toughness. The material is widely used in rocket science and is used to make all kinds of tools.

12. Osmium

Photo: Periodictableru / www.periodictable.ru

Osmium is an incredibly dense element, and due to its hardness and high melting point, it is difficult to machine. That is why osmium is used where durability and strength are most valued. Osmium alloys are found in electrical contacts, rocketry, military projectiles, surgical implants, and many other applications.

11. Kevlar

Photo: wikimedia commons

Kevlar is a high tenacity fiber found in car tires, brake pads, cables, prosthetic and orthopedic products, body armor, protective clothing fabrics, shipbuilding and parts of unmanned aerial vehicles aircraft. The material has become almost synonymous with strength and is a type of plastic with incredibly high strength and elasticity. The tensile strength of Kevlar is 8 times higher than that of steel wire, and it begins to melt at a temperature of 450℃.

10. Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene of high density, brand of fibers "Spectra" (Spectra)

Photo: Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons

UHMWPE is essentially a very durable plastic. Spectra, the UHMWPE brand, is, in turn, a light fiber of the highest wear resistance, 10 times superior to steel in this indicator. Like Kevlar, spectrum is used in the manufacture of body armor and protective helmets. Along with UHMWPE, dainimo spectrum is popular in the shipbuilding and transport industries.

9. Graphene

Photo: pixabay

Graphene is an allotropic modification of carbon, and its crystal lattice, just one atom thick, is so strong that it is 200 times harder than steel. Graphene looks like cling film, but breaking it is an almost impossible task. To punch through a graphene sheet, you have to stick a pencil into it, on which you will have to balance a load with the weight of an entire school bus. Good luck!

8. Paper out carbon nanotubes

Photo: pixabay

Thanks to nanotechnology, scientists have managed to make paper that is 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Sheets of carbon nanotubes are 10 times lighter than steel, but the most amazing thing is that they are as much as 500 times stronger! Macroscopic nanotube plates are the most promising for the manufacture of supercapacitor electrodes.

7. Metal microgrid

Photo: pixabay

Here is the lightest metal in the world! The metal microgrid is a synthetic porous material that is 100 times lighter than foam. But don't let its appearance fool you, these microgrids are also incredibly strong, making them great potential for use in all sorts of engineering applications. They can be used to make excellent shock absorbers and thermal insulators, and the amazing ability of this metal to shrink and return to its original state allows it to be used to store energy. Metal microgrids are also actively used in the production of various parts for aircraft. American company Boeing.

6. Carbon nanotubes

Photo: User Mstroeck / en.wikipedia

Above, we have already talked about ultra-strong macroscopic carbon nanotube plates. But what kind of material is this? In fact, these are graphene planes rolled into a tube (9th point). The result is an incredibly light, resilient and durable material for a wide range of applications.

5. Airbrush

Photo: wikimedia commons

Also known as graphene airgel, this material is extremely light and strong at the same time. The new type of gel has completely replaced the liquid phase with a gaseous one, and it is characterized by sensational hardness, heat resistance, low density and low thermal conductivity. Incredibly, graphene airgel is 7 times lighter than air! The unique compound is able to regain its original shape even after 90% compression and can absorb up to 900 times the weight of oil used to absorb airbrush. Perhaps in the future this class of materials will help in the fight against environmental disasters such as oil spills.

4. Material without a name, the development of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Photo: pixabay

As you read this, a team of scientists at MIT is working to improve the properties of graphene. The researchers said that they have already managed to convert the two-dimensional structure of this material into three-dimensional. The new graphene substance has not yet received its name, but it is already known that its density is 20 times less than that of steel, and its strength is 10 times higher than that of steel.

3. Carbin

Photo: Smokefoot

Even though it's just linear chains of carbon atoms, carbyne has 2x the tensile strength of graphene and is 3x harder than diamond!

2. Boron nitride wurtzite modification

Photo: pixabay

This newly discovered natural substance is formed during volcanic eruptions and is 18% harder than diamonds. However, it surpasses diamonds in a number of other parameters. Wurtzite boron nitride is one of only 2 natural substances found on Earth that is harder than diamond. The problem is that there are very few such nitrides in nature, and therefore they are not easy to study or apply in practice.

1. Lonsdaleite

Photo: pixabay

Also known as hexagonal diamond, lonsdaleite is made up of carbon atoms, but in this modification, the atoms are arranged slightly differently. Like wurtzite boron nitride, lonsdaleite is a natural substance that is harder than diamond. Moreover, this amazing mineral is harder than diamond by as much as 58%! Like wurtzite boron nitride, this compound is extremely rare. Sometimes lonsdaleite is formed during a collision with the Earth of meteorites, which include graphite.

A common opinion about hardness is diamond or damask steel / damascus steel. If the first mineral surpasses all the simple substances that exist on Earth, which nature has created, then the amazing properties of blades made of rare steel are due to the skill of blacksmiths, gunsmiths, additives from other metals. Many technical alloys used, for example, for the production of superhard cutters in the machine-building industry, the creation of a durable, reliable tool with unique properties, are associated with these additives in the usual symbiosis of iron with carbon, traditionally called steel for short - chromium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, nickel. When readers ask what is the hardest metal in the world, then in response to the pages of sites they are bombarded with a flurry of conflicting information. In this role, according to the authors of various articles, either tungsten or chromium, or iridium with osmium, or titanium with tantalum, appears.

In order to get through the jungle of not always correctly interpreted, albeit accurate facts, it is worth referring to the primary source - the system of elements contained both in the composition and in other space objects, left to mankind by the great Russian chemist and physicist D.I. Mendeleev. He possessed encyclopedic knowledge, made many scientific breakthroughs in knowledge about the structure, composition, interaction of substances, in addition to the famous table based on the fundamental periodic law discovered by him, named after him.

The planets closest to the Sun - Mercury, Venus, Mars, together with our planet, are classified as one - the terrestrial group. There are reasons for this not only among astronomers, physicists and mathematicians, but also among geologists and chemists. The reason for such conclusions for the latter is, among other things, that all of them mainly consist of silicates, i.e. various derivatives of the silicon element, as well as numerous metal compounds from the table of Dmitry Ivanovich.

In particular, our planet for the most part (up to 99%) consists of ten elements:

But a person, in addition to iron and alloys based on it, which is necessary for the survival and development, has always been much more attracted by precious, often respectfully called noble, metals - gold and silver, later - platinum.

With it, according to the scientific classification adopted by chemists, the platinum group includes ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and osmium with iridium. All of them also belong to noble metals. By atomic mass, they are still conditionally divided into two subgroups:

The last two are of particular interest for our pseudo-scientific investigation on the topic of who is the hardest here. This is due to the fact that a large, compared with other elements, atomic mass: 190.23 - for osmium, 192.22 - for iridium, according to the laws of physics, implies a huge specific density, and, consequently, the hardness of these metals.

If dense, heavy gold and lead are soft, ductile substances that are easy to process, then osmium and iridium, discovered at the beginning of the 19th century, turned out to be brittle. Here it is necessary to remember that the measure of this physical property is a diamond, which can be special efforts write on any other hard material of natural or artificial origin, is also extremely fragile, i.e. it's pretty easy to break it down. Although, at first glance, it seems almost impossible.

In addition, osmium and palladium have many more interesting properties:

Very high toughness.
Resistant to corrosion, oxidation even when heated to high temperatures.
Resistant to concentrated acids and other aggressive compounds.

Therefore, along with platinum, including in the form of compounds with it, they are used in the production of catalysts for many chemical processes, high-precision devices, equipment, tools in medical, scientific, military, space industries activities of mankind.

It is osmium and iridium, and scientists after research believe that this property is approximately equally given to them by nature, are the hardest metals in the world.

And everything would be fine, but not very much. The fact is that both their presence in the earth's crust and, accordingly, the world production of these very minerals are negligible:

10 -11% is their content in the solid shell of the planet.
The total amount of pure metal produced per year is within: 4 tons for iridium, 1 ton for osmium.
The price of osmium is approximately equal to the price of gold.

It is clear that these rare-earth, expensive metals, despite their hardness, cannot even be used as a raw material for production to a limited extent; except perhaps as additives in alloys, compounds with other metals to impart unique properties.

Who is for them?

But man would not be himself if he had not found a replacement for iridium with osmium. Since it is inexpedient, too expensive to use them, then attention was not unsuccessfully turned to other metals that have found their application in different situations, industries for the creation of new alloys, composite materials, the production of equipment, machines and mechanisms for both civilian and military use:

Although the hardest metal in the world, or rather, as many as two - iridium and osmium, showed their unique properties only in laboratory conditions, and also as additives in alloys that are negligible in terms of percentage, other compounds should be used to create new materials necessary for man. grateful to nature for this gift. At the same time, there is no doubt that the inquisitive minds of talented scientists and brilliant inventors will come up with new substances with unique properties, as has already happened with the synthesis of fullerenes, which turned out to be harder than diamond, which is already amazing.

Can you imagine what would have happened if our ancestors had not discovered important metals such as silver, gold, copper and iron? Probably, we would still live in huts, using stone as the main tool. It is the strength of the metal that played an important role in shaping our past and now works as the basis on which we build the future.

Some of them are very soft and literally melt in the hands, like. Others are so hard that they cannot be bent, scratched or broken without the use of special equipment.

And if you are wondering which metals are the hardest and most durable in the world, we will answer this question, taking into account various estimates of the relative hardness of materials (Mohs scale, Brinell method), as well as parameters such as:

Young's modulus: takes into account the elasticity of an element in tension, that is, the ability of an object to resist elastic deformation.
Yield Strength: Determines the maximum tensile strength of a material after which it begins to exhibit plastic behavior.
Ultimate Tensile Strength: The ultimate mechanical stress after which a material begins to break.

This metal has three advantages at once: it is strong, dense and very resistant to corrosion. In addition, this element belongs to the group of refractory metals such as tungsten. To melt tantalum, you have to make a fire with a temperature of 3017 °C.

Tantalum is mainly used in the electronics sector to produce long-lasting, heavy-duty capacitors for phones, home computers, cameras, and even electronic devices in cars.

But it is better not to approach this handsome metal man without protective equipment. Because beryllium is highly toxic, and has a carcinogenic and allergic effect. If you inhale air containing dust or vapors of beryllium, the disease berylliosis will occur, affecting the lungs.

However, beryllium is not only harmful, but also beneficial. For example, add just 0.5% beryllium to steel and you get springs that are resilient even when brought to red heat. They withstand billions of load cycles.

Beryllium is used in the aerospace industry to create thermal shields and guidance systems, to create refractory materials. And even the vacuum tube of the Large Hadron Collider is made of beryllium.

This naturally occurring radioactive substance is very widespread in the earth's crust, but concentrated in certain hard rock formations.

One of the hardest metals in the world, it has two commercially significant applications - nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Thus, the end products of the uranium industry are bombs and radioactive waste.

As a pure substance, iron is not as hard as other participants in the rating. But because of minimal cost in mining, it is often combined with other elements to make steel.

Steel is a very strong alloy of iron and other elements such as carbon. It is the most commonly used material in construction, engineering and other industries. And even if you have nothing to do with them, you still use steel every time you cut food with a knife (unless, of course, it is ceramic).

Titanium is practically synonymous with strength. It has an impressive specific strength (30-35 km), which is almost twice as high as that of alloyed steels.

Being a refractory metal, titanium is highly resistant to heat and abrasion, making it one of the most popular alloys. For example, it can be alloyed with iron and carbon.

If you need a very solid and at the same time very light construction, then there is no better metal than titanium. This makes it the number one choice for creating various parts in the aircraft, rocket and shipbuilding industries.

This is very, which, although it occurs in nature in its pure form, usually comes as an "add-on" - an admixture to molybdenite.

If the Iron Man suit were made of rhenium, it could withstand temperatures of 2000°C without losing strength. We will keep silent about what would happen to Iron Man himself inside the suit after such a “fire show”.

Russia is the third country in the world in terms of natural reserves of rhenium. This metal is used in petrochemical industry, electronics and electrical engineering, as well as for the creation of aircraft and rocket engines.

On the Mohs scale, which measures the scratch resistance of chemical elements, chromium is in the top five, behind only boron, diamond and tungsten.

Chromium is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardness. It is easier to handle than the platinum group metals and more common, which is why chromium is a popular element used in alloys such as stainless steel.

And one of the strongest metals on Earth is used in the creation of dietary supplements. Of course, you will not be ingesting pure chromium, but its food compound with other substances (for example, chromium picolinate).

Like its "brother" osmium, iridium belongs to the metals of the platinum group, and according to appearance looks like platinum. It is very hard and tough. In order to melt the iridium, you will have to build a fire at over 2000°C.

Iridium is considered one of, as well as one of the most corrosion-resistant elements.

This "tough nut" in the world of metals belongs to the platinum group and has a high density. In fact, it is the densest natural element on Earth (22.61 g/cm3). For the same reason, osmium does not melt until 3033°C.

When alloyed with other platinum group metals (such as iridium, platinum, and palladium), it can be used in many different applications where hardness and durability are needed. For example, to create containers for storing nuclear waste.

1. Tungsten

The strongest metal found in nature. This rare chemical element is also the most refractory of metals (3422°C).

It was first discovered in the form of an acid (tungsten trioxide) in 1781 by the Swedish chemist Carl Scheele. Further research led two Spanish scientists, Juan José and Fausto d'Elhuyar, to the discovery of acid from the mineral wolframite, from which they subsequently isolated tungsten using charcoal.

In addition to its wide application in incandescent lamps, tungsten's ability to work in extreme heat makes it one of the most attractive elements for the arms industry. During World War II, this metal played an important role in initiating economic and political relations between European countries.

Tungsten is also used to make hard alloys and in the aerospace industry to make rocket nozzles.

Table of tensile strength of metals

Metal	Designation	Tensile strength, MPa
Lead	Pb	18
Tin	sn	20
Cadmium	CD	62
Aluminum	Al	80
	Be	140
Magnesium	mg	170
Copper	Cu	220
Cobalt	co	240
Iron	Fe	250
Niobium	Nb	340
Nickel	Ni	400
	Ti	600
Molybdenum	Mo	700
Zirconium	Zr	950
Tungsten	W	1200

Alloys vs Metals

Alloys are combinations of metals and the main reason for creating them is to make the material stronger. The most important alloy is steel, which is a combination of iron and carbon.

The higher the strength of the alloy, the better. And ordinary steel is not the “champion” here. Alloys based on vanadium steel seem especially promising to metallurgists: several companies produce variants with a tensile strength of up to 5205 MPa.

And the strongest and hardest biocompatible materials at the moment is an alloy of titanium with gold β-Ti3Au.

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