Sunday 20 November 2011

World's Lightest Material - Maybe Your Next WFP?

Your next Waterfed Pole could be made from this. As it stands, it is already very similar.
World’s Lightest Material Developed: Washington, Nov 19 (TruthDive): Scientists claim to have created the world’s lightest solid material so light that even a feathery dandelion can comfortably hold its weight without having its little fluffy seeds mashed. A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the material with a density of 0.9 mg/cc.

The substance is made of tiny hollow metallic tubes – the walls of which are 1,000 times thinner than those of a human hair – arranged into a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between them. It has a unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The secret to its lightness is a cellular architecture fabricated from hollow tubes that supports a material structure that is in reality 99.99 per cent air, according to the research team that built it.

That means the material’s density is less than one-thousandth that of water. And the stuff is pretty resilient as well—researchers said that when squashed to half its height, the material rebounds 98 per cent of the way back. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” lead author Tobias Shandler of HRL said.

Bill Carter, manager of the architected materials group at HRL, said that to understand the structure of the material, it can be compared with either the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay. Like each of them, the material is light and weight-efficient, but on a Nano scale.

The material seen in the picture above is made out of 90 percent nickel. According to Carter, however, it can be made out of other metals as well — the nickel version was just the easiest to make, the report stated. The first time the stress test was carried out and repeated the material became less stiff and strong, but the team says that further compressions made very little difference. “Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale,” said team member Lorenzo Valdevit.

According to the scientists, the material, extraordinarily strong and shock-absorbent, is like a feather. It floats down, and its terminal velocity depends on the density. When dropped from shoulder height, it takes more than 10 seconds to touch the ground.



United States Engineers Reveal World’s “Lightest Material” - A team of engineers from the U.S. claim to have produced the world’s lightest material. The material is composed of tiny hollow metallic tubes that are organized into a micro-lattice – a criss-cross pattern with small open spaces between the tubes. The scientists claim that the material is about 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and boasts “extraordinarily high energy absorption” properties. Some of the possible uses for such a material include a new generation of batteries and shock absorbers.

Producing the “Ultra Light” Material: The research was conducted at the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology and will be published in the newest edition of Science. "The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair," noted lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler. The produced material has a density of around 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Just to compare, the density of silica aerogels – the world’s lightest solid materials – is only as low as 1.0mg per cubic cm.

The metallic micro-lattices have the advantage since they are composed of 99.99% air and 0.01% solids. The engineers say that the material’s strength lies in the ordered nature of its lattice design. Other ultra light substances, including aerogels and metallic foams, have random cellular structures; meaning that they are more flexible, strong and absorb more energy than most of the raw materials that they are composed of. William Carter, manager of architected materials at HRL, drew a likeness between the new material and larger low-density structures. "Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture," he commented.

"We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales." To analyze the power of the metallic micro-lattices the team compressed them until they had only half of their original width. After taking away the load, the substance recovered 98% of its original height and took on its original shape. The first time that the stress test was conducted and repeated the material loss some of its stiffness and strength, but the engineers noted that further compressions didn’t make much of a difference. "Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale," said team member Lorenzo Valdevit."Combine this with the possibility of tailoring the architecture of the micro-lattice and you have a unique cellular material."

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