1. What is the cost potential once its made in volume?
2. What other wall materials are on the horizon, if any?
3. How similar is it to aerogel in mass weight cost & strength to volume?
I assume its more weight efficient by being uniformly organized with less clumping densities which also helps remove macro failures?
Sorry for so many questions, but this is the most exciting thing Ive seen in long time due to its HUGE potential.
The lightest material in the world is almost as light as air.
In fact, it’s made up of 99.99 percent air, weighs 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and can sit on a dandelion without even a hint of strain. The material, developed by researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology has a low density of 0.9 mg/cc, yet is quite strong. It can be compressed beyond 50 percent of its mass and return to its original shape as well as absorb high amounts of energy.
All this is made possible by designing the metallic material in the form of a “micro-lattice” cellular architecture, which basically means that everything is held together on the nanometer, micron and millimeter level. “The trick,” said Tobias Schaedler of HRL, “is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.”
The research team arrived at this approach by looking at the architectural principles applied in the construction in lightweight, yet sturdy buildings found all over the world, explained William Carter, manager of the architected materials group at HRL. “Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency commissioned the development of the unique material for applications in battery electrodes and acoustic, vibration or shock energy absorption.
Details of the research was published in the Nov. 18 issue of Science.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Related:
- Video: China unveils world’s longest sea bridge, but is it?
- Behold! The world’s skinniest house
- World’s smallest motor may have a big impact
- No job’s too small for world’s tiniest 3-d printer [video]
- World’s tallest building is high tech
- World’s biggest touchscreen display [video]
- The world’s longest motorcycle [video]
- Scientists roll out world’s smallest car [video]
More record-breaking tech:
- World’s fastest processor is an overclocked beast [video]
- Robot solves Rubik’s cube in 5 seconds, sets world record [video]
- Video: The world’s most powerful electric car
- Coffee-powered car smashes speed record
- Video: Jetpack flies among the clouds, shatters all sorts of records
- Is this 400-mile electric car battery for real?
