"Heavy" Metal

Multidisciplinary team of researchers develop world’s lightest material

A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the world’s lightest material – with a density of 0.9 mg/cc – about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam™. Their findings appear in the Nov. 18 issue of Science.

The new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The researchers were able to make a material that consists of 99.99 percent air by designing the 0.01 percent solid at the nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler of HRL.

How strong is this stuff?

The material’s architecture allows unprecedented mechanical behavior for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 percent strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption.

They are thinking small on this. Lighter than styrofoam yet 15 times stronger than aluminum? They say use it for batteries to make them lighter or acoustic material. HAH! This is what will allow a true revolution in construction and building of just about anything. This is our discovery of Bronze. It could be a game changer. Right now costs are prohibitive, but if there is money to be made, that will change.