Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2012, covering the groundbreaking creation of Aerographite, the world’s lightest known material at the time.
Brilliant scientists from Kiel University and the prestigious Hamburg University of Technology have incredibly successfully blended highly porous carbon tubes completely together in three dimensions entirely at the microscopic nano and micro level, actively resulting in the stunning formation of the world’s absolute lightest material. The incredible new synthetic material is officially named “Aerographite.”
Properties of Aerographite
The highly ductile material incredibly weighs only a staggering 0.2 milligrams per exact cubic centimetre, which amazingly makes it roughly 75 times noticeably lighter than standard Styrofoam. The synthetic material is highly stable, exceptionally strong, and safely conducts electricity. It is completely jet-black in colour, entirely non-transparent, and heavily absorbs almost all light rays.
With an incredibly low overall density, it safely weighs exactly four times drastically lesser than the previous lightest known nickel material and is also heavily made of tiny hollow tubes. It is a known scientific fact that standard nickel naturally has a much higher atomic mass than pure carbon. The tiny, hollow tubes with highly porous walls essentially make these advanced materials vastly lighter.
Professor Lorenz Kienle and Dr. Andriy Lotnyk successfully decoded the material’s complex atomic structure using a highly advanced transmission electron microscope (TEM). Aerographite is incredibly highly resilient and is completely capable of safely withstanding both extreme physical compression and high tension. It can safely be heavily compressed to 95% of its normal size and can also easily be brought straight back to its precise original form completely without absolutely any structural failure.
Making Aerographite
First, powdered Zinc oxide is carefully transformed directly into a solid crystalline form by heavily heating it to exactly 900° Celsius. Then, the hot zinc oxide is precisely made to quickly form tiny micro and nano structures perfectly called tetrapods, which firmly interweave to rapidly form a highly stable network. Then, the solid material is safely placed directly into a sealed reactor for complex chemical vapour deposition and is aggressively heated again to 760° Celsius.
In a controlled carbon gas atmosphere, the zinc oxide is carefully supplied with thin graphite atomic layers and rapidly results in the strong formation of vast networks. Hot hydrogen gas is then slowly passed to chemically react with the oxygen safely trapped in the zinc oxide and quickly emits hot steam and toxic zinc gas. The final safe remains are the highly porous, tube-like carbon structured Aerographite.
Future Applications
Aerographite will undoubtedly fiercely find absolutely numerous vital applications in the near future, like advanced electronics safely housed in airplanes and low-orbit satellites. Aerographite could heavily be used in standard Li-Ion battery electrodes with a vastly minimal amount of heavy liquid electrolyte. This ultimately helps in significantly reducing the overall battery weight.
It could greatly help to safely purify polluted ambient air. Aerographite can also be safely applied to standard non-conductive plastics to completely transform their physical properties absolutely without gaining any extra weight. In complex water purification systems, it could easily act as a massive absorbent for dangerous water pollutants.
Credits: Hamburg University of Technology, Kiel University
