World's Lightest Material Is a Metal 100 Times Lighter Than Styrofoam

[RUSSO]

99.9% air? WOW, it should be cheap then... right?

This is so incredibly cool. Well done to those guys involved with it.

The article talks about compression recovery ability and being used for shock absorption, so I guess it's not rigid. More like a very light foam, but I can be wrong.

A demonstration of the ultra-light, low-density material described by Schaedler et al. recovering from compression, narrated by Brandon Bryn of the Science press package team

A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the world's lightest material -- with a density of 0.9 mg/cc -- about one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam™.

New metal - which is 99.9 percent air - is so light that it can sit atop dandelion fluff without damaging it. (Credit: Dan Little, HRL Laboratories LLC)

Developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the novel material could be used for battery electrodes and acoustic, vibration or shock energy absorption.  William Carter, manager of the architected materials group at HRL, compared the new material to larger, more familiar edifices: "Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117154643.htm

So what molecules where they using or is this structure applicable to different basis materials? They just state that this is metal.

Nice.:cool:

[Pimander]

It looks as though the days of Kevar being the number one choice for body armour are numbered.  They will be able to play with the lattice structure to alter it's properties.  This is a brilliant invention.

[RUSSO]

True.

It seems, indeed, we are becoming some of our scientific fictions.

[stealthyaroura]

Wow just wow! Good old DARPA at it again. the worlds lightest
Pan scourer LOL. The dandylion pic is cool. so it's all in the structure
no mention of the metal? nano tech along the same line as carbon nano tubes but metal, combine the two for some super space faring tech,after
all it's all about keeping weight down to a minimum.