Ultralight material

Ultralight materials are very light substances.Less than 10 mg/cm3 They include silica aerogels, carbon nanotube aerogels, metallic foams, polymeric foams, and metallic microlattices. The density of air is about 1.275 mg/cm3, which means that the air in the pores greatly lowers the density of the material.

The lightest material ever made was invented in 2011. It is made out of a microscopic micro-lattice of hollow tubes – a criss-cross diagonal pattern with open spaces between the tubes. The researchers say the material is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and is very strong.World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers. BBC Technology News:  The material is low density: it has a density of 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimetre. Silica aerogels, the world's lightest solid materials, are only as low as 1.0 mg per cubic cm. The metallic micro-lattices are 99.99% air and only 0.01% solid. The metal used is nickel.

"The trick is to fabricate [make] a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair", said Tobias Schaedler.

The material is not just light: it has some elastic properties. When it is squashed, the little tubes are also squashed, but when the pressure is removed, they rebound.rebound = return to original shape A sample squashed to half its height rebounds 98% when the pressure is lifted. That makes the material similar in some ways to elastomers: they are materials used to cushion against shock.

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Category:Materials