American battery-component startups such as Sila Nano and Group14 have developed composite materials that embed molecules of silicon into a web of carbon molecules.
The gigantic wind turbine blade is a thin-shell structure made by composite materials – fiber-reinforced plastic, or fiberglass, that is light weight and of high strength.
It is a man-made composite material that changes the conventional properties of light and electromagnetic waves by designing and reorganizing the fine structure of the material.
The other new technology on the rise is recycled and composite materials for the car chassis - like BMW’s i3 - whose passenger compartment is completely made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, making it much lighter.
Instead of the steel core in the traditional conductors, composite materials with lower thermal expansion, such as a ceramic fiber composite or a glass carbon fiber composite, are used to replace steel and reduce sag.
Initially, graphene research into materials over the past decade has been composite materials, coating materials, membranes, for example, but we're seeing a big shift into construction materials.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
There's a large area off to the side where SpaceX builds all of its electronics, another area for creating specialized composite materials, and another for making the bus-sized fairings that wrap around the satellites.