I am a Materials Girl

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A few weeks ago I was in Northern Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. In our time up north, I went to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which displays thousands of aviation and space artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Discovery and a Concorde, in two large hangars. Seeing the shuttle up close led me to have more questions about how these massive spacecrafts are built and why. As I looked at the tiles on the underside of the shuttle—distressed with varying colors—I found myself wondering what had happened to the ship and the purpose of these clearly used tiles.

Those weathered tiles were part of Discovery’s Thermal Protection System (TPS), one of the most critical engineering features of the entire shuttle. Each tile was made from a lightweight silica-based ceramic designed to withstand temperatures exceeding 2,300°F (1,260°C) during reentry, while keeping the aluminum structure beneath cool enough to touch. No two tiles were exactly alike; each was custom-shaped and hand-installed. The discoloration and scarring I noticed were evidence of repeated trips through Earth’s atmosphere. In fact, Discovery—the most-flown shuttle in NASA’s fleet—completed 39 missions, including the return to flight after the Columbia disaster, meaning its tiles tell a visual history of stress, heat, and repair. Every darkened edge and mismatched square represents the brutal physics of reentry and the remarkable materials engineering that allowed astronauts to come home safely every time.

Tiles of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

References

Jenkins, D. R. (n.d.). tps. Www.nasa.gov. https://www.nasa.gov/history/sts1/pages/tps.html

One of our most recent projects in Materials Girls was making catapults from wood, plastic, and tape. The amount of tape we used was absurd. It got me thinking: is there a more sustainable adhesive we could have used? There are so many complex materials in the world beyond what we know from the periodic table. While the elements themselves are fixed, the ways we combine and engineer them are nearly limitless. I recently discovered the material Galvorn, and it definitely has the potential both scientists and I are looking for.

Scientists are buzzing about Galvorn, a new carbon-based material developed by Houston-based DexMat that is being hailed as “magical” for its extraordinary properties: it’s stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, and as conductive as copper. Backed by over $20 million in funding from the U.S. Air Force, DOE, NASA, and other major agencies, Galvorn is produced through a high-tech carbon-splitting process and can be formed into tape, yarn, mesh, or thread. Inspired by the elven metal described in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, the real-world version is designed to solve very human problems: reducing reliance on copper, cutting carbon emissions, and enabling cleaner manufacturing. Experts say its potential climate impact is “dizzying,” with applications ranging from lighter vehicles and wind turbine blades to stronger infrastructure, high-conductivity batteries, and even de-icing airplane wings. Because it is made from carbon and manufactured with electricity—often renewable—Galvorn can lock carbon away long-term while displacing heavier, more polluting materials. DexMat’s goal is nothing short of transforming global infrastructure as the world moves toward electrification, with some investors calling Galvorn one of the most impactful materials they’ve ever encountered.

Galvorn proves that the next era of technology may depend on creative engineering rather than rare, expensive metals. It’s still early, but if DexMat succeeds, this material could become a cornerstone of sustainable design for decades to come.

References

Kazmer, Rick. “Scientists discover ‘magical’ material that’s stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum — and its potential is dizzying.” Yahoo! Tech, 2 December 2025, https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/scientists-discover-magical-material-stronger-100000581.html.

Just yesterday I was in my AP Bio class conducting an osmosis lab. Part of this required us to cover the solutions we created with a lid, but our teacher didn’t have enough for each student. As a result she gave us a roll of “tape” and told us to stretch it out. It was way too small to cover the entire mouth of the beaker—it’s safe to say I had my doubts. My partner and I took the tape, stretched it out, and it worked perfectly. In this very moment, I found myself asking: “What material is this?”

Parafilm

Parafilm is a flexible, thermoplastic sealing film made from a blend of polyolefins and paraffin wax. This combination gives it a unique balance of strength, elasticity, and self-adhesion, allowing it to stretch up to twice its length without tearing and form airtight seals around irregular surfaces. In materials terms, Parafilm is valued for its semi-crystalline polymer structure, which provides both flexibility and durability. Its low permeability to water vapor and many gases makes it ideal for preventing evaporation or contamination in laboratory settings. Additionally, it is chemically inert and resistant to mild acids, bases, and aqueous solutions, preserving the integrity of materials it touches. From a materials science perspective, Parafilm is an excellent example of how blending a soft, low-melting component like wax with a tougher polymer matrix can yield a material that combines elasticity, adhesion, and environmental resistance.

References

Gopal, N., et al. “Towards the Development of Flexible Carbon Nanotube–Parafilm Nanocomposites and Their Application as Bioelectrodes.” RSC Advances, vol. 11, no. 54, 2021, pp. 34193–34205, pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ra/d1ra01840j, https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ra01840j.

“Parafilm M.” Agarscientific.com, 2025, www.agarscientific.com/parafilm-174.

I often Google materials science to stay up to date with current research findings and promises of future innovations. There are hundreds of academic papers published every day, with millions published every year. The point is: there is still so much to learn. At my NextEra internship we talked a decent bit about 3D printers and the various types of printers that exist. Plastic, resin, metal, and wax are a few materials that can be printed by a 3D printer. This article titled, “Scientists grow metal instead of 3D printing it — and it’s 20x stronger,” on Science Daily by Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) states there’s an even better alternative. I had already thought 3D printers that create metal were impressive, but to think that there is something better! This is why I love science as a whole: it is always changing and there is no one answer to any problem.

Scientists at EPFL have developed a new way to make metals and ceramics by “growing” them inside 3D-printed hydrogels instead of printing the metals directly. The process involves printing a simple water-based gel, soaking it in metal salts to form nanoparticles, and repeating this several times before heating to remove the gel which leaves behind a dense, high-strength metal structure. This method produces materials up to 20 times stronger and with much less shrinkage than previous techniques. Because the metal is added after printing, the same gel framework can be used to create various materials like iron, copper, or ceramics, offering a cheaper and more versatile approach for building strong, lightweight components for energy, sensor, and biomedical devices. This breakthrough could revolutionize manufacturing by enabling faster, more efficient production of durable materials used in clean energy systems, medical implants, and advanced electronics.

Right now, the new EPFL method is slower than directly 3D-printing metals because it requires multiple soaking and heating steps (called “growth cycles”) to build up metal density. However, it’s more effective in producing stronger, denser, and less warped materials, which means better performance and less waste in the long run. The researchers are currently working on automating the process with robots to make it faster and scalable. So while it’s not more time-efficient yet, it’s material- and quality-efficient, offering a huge advantage for high-precision applications like energy devices or medical implants.

References

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. “Scientists grow metal instead of 3D printing it — and it’s 20x stronger.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 October 2025. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251009033209.htm.

I was conducting some research on various materials, and was blown away by this particular material: aerogels. Aerogels are ultralight, porous materials made by removing the liquid from a gel and replacing it with gas/air without collapsing the gel’s solid structure. NASA described it best saying, “Picture preparing a bowl full of a sweet, gelatin dessert. The gelatin powder is mixed with hot water, and then the mixture is cooled in a refrigerator until it sets. It is now a gel. If that wiggly gel were placed in an oven and all of the moisture dried out of it, all that would be left would be a pile of powder. But imagine if the dried gelatin maintained its shape, even after the liquid had been removed. The structure of the gel would remain, but it would be extremely light due to low density. This is precisely how aerogels are made” (NASA).

Aerogels are some of the lightest solids known to mankind. Aerogels are formed by combining a polymer with a solvent to create a gel, then carefully removing the liquid and replacing it with air. The result is an extremely porous, low-density solid that feels firm to the touch. They are often referred to by the nickname “frozen smoke” coming from aerogels’ ghostly appearance and weightless feel. Despite looking fragile, they can support over a thousand times their weight. This translucent material is among the most effective thermal insulators known. These were first invented in the 1930s, however NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has invented groundbreaking methods of creating new types of aerogels. NASA has taken aerogels further than anyone imagined, discovering endless possibilities for this incredible material.

References

NASA. “Aerogels: Thinner, Lighter, Stronger – NASA.” NASA, NASA, 28 July 2011, www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/aerogels-thinner-lighter-stronger/.