https://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html

I saw this article and all I could think is how perfect this would be for bikes. Imagine a durable, waterproof, dirtproof, protective layer for absolutely everything on your bike.

Less rust, lest oxidation, easier to clean...

I wonder if you could use it on components like the chain/chainring/shifters/cables/etc...

I know I can't wait.

That reads rather more like a press release than a news article, but it sounds interesting. If it's only 100 nanometers thick, there's no reason you couldn't apply it to cables, chainring, etc. The only problem is that I'm sure it can be worn off by mechanical rubbing and similar physical damage. It'll make things easier to clean, but dings and locations prone to wear will still rust.

Actually, glass is harder than regular steel, it's brittle but harder. If you were to rub steel against glass, glass would win. You can't cut glass with steel tool, you need diamond blade. There are very few metals that are harder than glass, they're either too heavy or too expensive for bike frames. Tungsteen carbide alloy is one of them, if not the only (carbide covered steel), although not by much, not enough to clean-cut glass.

This could provide really tough coating unless it's extremely brittle. It may be to brittle for something like chain where you have crushing forces between the surface of chain and cogs/chainwheels.

It's very cool stuff though

Adam

I was counting on my Conifer Crust (tm) for all that.


crust.jpg

Look out eVent and Gore-tex.

At that scale the meaning of "surface" becomes a little weird. Hell, at the nanoscale lots of things become weird. "Glass is hard but brittle" doesn't necessarily apply.

The article says the coating it flexible. If the silica molecules are bonded more to the surface than to each other, it may be that you'll scrape a larger (say, micrometers: 1000s of nanometers) bit of the object away, glass coating and all.

Flexible and breathable... this is some type of porous glass... cool!

Although glass is never really a solid or a liquid, it is in a flux

When I read stuff like this I think how Sci-Fi becomes reality. Next step: transparent aluminum (Start Trek).

A.