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Engineers Create World's Lightest Material

Posted by Soulskill on from the less-filling-tastes-great dept.

ackthpt writes "A team of engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material. Made from a lattice of hollow metallic tubes, the material is less dense than aerogels and metallic foams, yet retains strength due to the small size of the lattice structure (abstract). The material's density is 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Among other things, it's potentially useful for insulation, battery electrodes, and sound dampening."

24 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. So... by Kaenneth · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Series of Tubes, eh?

    1. Re:So... by Bob-taro · · Score: 5, Funny

      A Series of Tubes, eh?

      Jen: "It's so light!"

      Moss: "Of course, Jen. The internet doesn't weigh anything!"

      --
      Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
  2. Unlikely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    0.9mg/cm^3 is 0.9kg/m^3, i.e. lighter than air (1.2kg/m^3). I call shenanigans.

    1. Re:Unlikely by Tatarize · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're obviously going to have tared the measuring against air. Making it .9mg above the weight of the air. But, if there is no air, it would weight .9.

      --

      It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    2. Re:Unlikely by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Some Aerogels can already float in air, but most of those are incredibly fragile.

    3. Re:Unlikely by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If that is the case, then aerogel wins
      aerogel is 1.9mg/cm^3 in a normal atmosphere, only 0.7mg above the weight of the air.

      Can someone settle the discrepency beside speculating like we are?

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    4. Re:Unlikely by Zerth · · Score: 5, Informative

      on Cnet it specifically states that the .9mg/cm^3 is without air.

      http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57327382-264/breakthrough-material-is-barely-more-than-air/?part=rss&subj=crave&tag=title

    5. Re:Unlikely by Jeng · · Score: 5, Informative

      I normally don't link videos, but in this case it makes sense.

      I think this is what he is talking about.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoCAxS4vqwQ

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    6. Re:Unlikely by Zerth · · Score: 4, Informative

      The trick is to purge the CO2 with helium or hydrogen after you've finished the supercritical drying.

    7. Re:Unlikely by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The lightest Aerogel when evacuated has a density of ~1mg/cm^3

      It is porous, and when air is allowed into its structure to goes up to 1.9mg/cm^3.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel

      It doesn't have the strength to resist 1 atmosphere of pressure when sealed. But helium can be used to equalize the pressure and the material will float in air.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoCAxS4vqwQ

    8. Re:Unlikely by sam0vi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is just my guess, but that is probably its density in a vacuum. When exposed to atmosphere, air goes through the cavities, filling then up, thus increasing its density. Something like calculating the density of a sponge in an underwater environment. My 2 cents.

      --
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    9. Re:Unlikely by camperdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So they aren't measuring the volume properly. They are measuring the bounding box, and not doing an Archimedes-style immerse-it-in-a-fluid-and-measure-the-displacement volume measurement. If they did that, I'm sure the density would be the same as the metal from which it is made.

      But if you're going to cheat, and measure the volume of the envelope, then I'm sure I've got a lighter than air tent. And what about all those air supported sports domes? Zepplins and hot air balloons? Been there. Done that.

      --
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    10. Re:Unlikely by ukemike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      0.9mg/cm^3 is 0.9kg/m^3, i.e. lighter than air (1.2kg/m^3). I call shenanigans.

      Yes, and if you wrapped an impermeable skin around it and evacuated the air using the lattice material as a support for the skin then it probably would float (assuming that the skin didn't tip the balance of the stuff into being too dense and assuming the material was strong enough to resist collapse from the atmospheric pressure). BUT it is a lattice material and the spaces in between the hollow metallic tubes are typically, brace yourself... full of air! So on it's own it does not float.

      It's amazing to me that the parent got modded insightful. Sure he can google the density of air, but clearly he couldn't reason his way out of a paper bag.

      --
      -- QED
    11. Re:Unlikely by necro81 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The AC beat me to it. I was going to post that this stuff should float in a normal Earth atmosphere. If true, this would be an amazing breakthrough, but my skeptic's glasses are on right now.

      Well, no: the material itself if still made of metal, and the metal has a density greater than atmosphere, and the atmosphere pervades through it (it's an open cell lattice). In order for it to float in air, you would need to enclose it (i.e., put a skin around it) and remove the air from the interior volume. The material needs to displace the air. The same could be said for boats: they float on water only when the hull has the water removed. Once the water gets inside the hull, you face the fact that the boat is made of metal and will sink. The buoyancy in air or water is based on displacing the fluid by something of lesser density. For a floating boat, replacing water with air. For a chunk of this foam, replacing air with helium, vacuum, etc.

  3. Hello, Computer... by milbournosphere · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, I guess Scotty and the rest of the crew finally got here. Watch the sky for Klingon warbirds and flying whales!

    1. Re:Hello, Computer... by impaledsunset · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Um, Scotty gave us transparent aluminium, i.e. the thinnest transparent material. Not the lightest material. Light and thin aren't the same thing yet, at least not before a few coordinate system transformations.

  4. This is getting ridiculous... by Tastecicles · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and slightly convenient, too.

    Week before it was the blackest material ever.
    Last week it was the slipperiest.
    This week it's the lightest.

    What's on for next week? Heaviest? Densest? Whitest? Most beige?

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    1. Re:This is getting ridiculous... by P-niiice · · Score: 5, Funny

      sleepiest, dopiest, bashfulest

    2. Re:This is getting ridiculous... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      We've already found the densest thing in the universe. A slashdot thread argument between unity100 and roman_mir about the role of government in the market.

    3. Re:This is getting ridiculous... by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      All of which would be interesting. Some of us like science and engineering.

      --
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  5. Re:I like it but by Jeng · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Due to its expense I can't see this being used as a drywall replacement. Drywall is used to due to how cheap it is, not because it is the best at its job.

    If it was used in the same fashion as drywall then the actual lattice would be covered by a paper layer and then acoustic mud, just like drywall.

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  6. But is it easier to make? by squidflakes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem with aerogels is that they can be very finicky during production, and unless you make them hydrophobic (or is it hydrophillic?) they can start to dissolve from as little as a single drop of sweat.

    Some friends and I got some lab equipment during a "Lost Our Grant" sale, which included a high-pressure autoclave. We thought making aerogel would be a hoot, but damn is that stuff difficult to produce. It is relatively cheap, but during the supercritical drying phase, you'd best not bump the autoclave, and you better have mixed everything right. That stuff is like the comedy souffle of the future.

    Anyway, the novelty wears off after you've played with the stuff for 20 minutes. The novelty of watching the cat bat it around takes about an hour.

    1. Re:But is it easier to make? by Jeng · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Someone linked a cnet article with more information including how it is produced.

      From reading it it sounds like it will be easier to produce, but I really don't know a damn thing on this subject.

      What's your take?
      http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57327382-264/breakthrough-material-is-barely-more-than-air/?part=rss&subj=crave&tag=title

      The lattice is constructed through several steps, Carter said. First, lasers beam ultraviolet light into a reservoir of a resin that forms polymer fibers when the light hits it. The fibers follow the path the light takes, and using multiple beams creates multiple interconnected fibers.

      Next, the rest of the resin is washed away, the polymer fibers are coated with a very thin layer of nickel, and the polymer fibers are then dissolved, leaving only the metal lattice.

      The dimensions of the lattice can be adjusted by changing the properties of a perforated mask through which the ultraviolet line is beamed, the paper said.

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  7. Re:I like it but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What?! Your comment does not compute. Thats like saying NASA just built this new rocket, I bet it would work great to heat my house with it!

    Drywall's sole purpose is to be a flat surface (ie: a wall) for painting and as a fire resistant to give occupants of buildings slightly more time to get out. Hence the reason they often use double or triple layers of drywall between shared walls. It offers virtually no insulation value whatsoever, which is why its paired with actual insulation on exterior walls.

    This material doesn't share [b]any[/b] of those properties in a practical sense. Its obviously porous and would be impractical to paint, not to mention it would probably cost thousands of times more than drywall and be much more difficult to work with.