Lightest Material on Earth Created - Ultra-Light Metallic Micro-Lattice
Scientists have created the lightest material on Earth. In fact it’s so light that it can sit on top of a dandelion without crushing the seeds.
The scientists from University of California (UC) Irvine, HRL Laboratories and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) detail their creation in a peer-reviewed paper in the Science Magazine, of the Nov. 18th issue.
It’s called “ultra-light metallic micro-lattice” and consists of 99.99 percent air. The structure is of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers; in comparison, a human hair is 1,000 times thinner.
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What could possibly be the use of such a thing? According to Lorenzo Valdevit, UCI's principal investigator on the project: “Impact protection, uses in the aerospace industry, acoustic dampening and maybe some battery applications.”
When asked what would happen if one threw it in the air and waited for it to fall on the floor, Bill Carter stated: “It’s sort of like a feather -- it floats down, and its terminal velocity depends on the density.”
“It takes more than 10 seconds, for instance, for the lightest material we’ve made to fall if you drop it from shoulder height.”
