| dethalternate | Date: Thursday, 24-November-2011, 7:49 PM | Message # 1 |
-- dragon lord--
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A team of engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material.
The substance is made out of tiny hollow metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice - a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between the tubes.
The researchers say the material is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and has "extraordinarily high energy absorption" properties.
Potential uses include next-generation batteries and shock absorbers.
The research was carried out at the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology and is published in the latest 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," said lead author Dr Tobias Schaedler.
Full article/source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15788735
Message edited by dethalternate - Thursday, 24-November-2011, 7:50 PM |
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