New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed | MIT News Office

New ultrastiff, ultralight material developed | MIT News Office: The actual production of such materials is made possible by a high-precision 3-D printing process called projection microstereolithography...

“We found that for a material as light and sparse as aerogel [a kind of glass foam], we see a mechanical stiffness that’s comparable to that of solid rubber, and 400 times stronger than a counterpart of similar density. Such samples can easily withstand a load of more than 160,000 times their own weight,” says Fang...

Ethereal aerographite is lightest stuff ever made

Ethereal aerographite is lightest stuff ever made:Now there is aerographite, which easily smashes the previous record. With a density of less than 0.2 mg/cm³, it is barely there at all. Researchers at the Hamburg University of Technology and the University of Kiel, both in Germany, made it from a network of hollow carbon tubes grown at nano and micro scales. As the electron microscope picture above shows, it is mostly empty space, though if you held a clump in your hand, it would look like a black sponge.

Its sparse nature means aerographite can be compressed by a factor of a thousand, only to spring back to its original size. The material can also support 35 times more weight than the same mass of aerogel. Aerographite's ability to conduct electricity means it might also find a use as part of an ultra-lightweight battery.

World's lightest material developed

World's lightest material developed: "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.
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.
"Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale..."

Nanotubes help cloak objects in a mirage - New Scientist - New Scientist

Nanotubes help cloak objects in a mirage: Ali Aliev and colleagues at the University of Texas in Dallas embedded a sheet of carbon nanotubes into aerogel, a foam-like material. When electrically heated, the nanotubes bent light waves to create a mirage, effectively cloaking the sheet and anything behind it.

Aliev says the mirage forms because the nanotubes transfer heat to the surrounding air more efficiently than regular metals, allowing a steeper temperature gradient to form near the device's surface.

New Diamond Aerogel is the Airiest Diamond Ever Made | Popular Science

New Diamond Aerogel is the Airiest Diamond Ever Made | Popular Science: To make a diamond aerogel, Peter J. Pauzauskie and colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory started with an amorphous carbon aerogel precursor and placed it in a diamond anvil cell, which is used to subject items to prodigious pressures. The team injected neon to prevent the aerogel from collapsing under the pressure, and subjected the substance to 21, 22.5 and 25.5 gigapascals...
The resulting aerogel, confirmed through electron and X-ray spectromicroscopy, had a diffuse yet solid nanodiamond matrix. It’s transparent and pliable like plastic, and it even sparkles like the big ones, the researchers said. The aerogel possessed a bright and stable photoluminescence, which its precursor material did not.

New 'frozen smoke' may improve robotic surgery, energy storage

New 'frozen smoke' may improve robotic surgery, energy storage: Zhai's team worked with UCF professors Saiful Khondaker, Sudipta Seal and Quanfang Chen to create multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) aerogel. Carbon nanotubes are so small that thousands fit on a single strand of human hair. And using the nanotubes instead of silica (major material in sand), the foundation for traditional aerogel, increases the materials' practical use.
For the first time, even the tiniest pressure change can be detected and tracked. Strips of MWCNT aerogel could be used in robotic fingers and hands to make them super sensitive and give them the ability to distinguish between holding a power saw or a scalpel – a distinction necessary for use in surgery.

New 'frozen smoke' material: One ounce could carpet three football fields

New 'frozen smoke' material: One ounce could carpet three football fields: "Scientists are reporting the development of a new, ultra-light form of 'frozen smoke' -- renowned as the world's lightest solid material -- with amazing strength and an incredibly large surface area...

The MCNT aerogels also are excellent conductors of electricity, making them ideal for sensing applications, such as sensing as little as 0.003527 ounce of a material resting in the palm of one hand, the report indicates.