Skip to main content

Scientists produce world’s lightest material ever


ultralight-aerogel-on-cherry-blossom-300
It’s 100 times lighter than a polystyrene foam coffee cup, and has the capacity to soak up environmental pollutants such as toluene and crude oil.

Scientists from Zhejiang University in China have invented an ultralight carbon aerogel that has broken the record for the world’s lightest material.
An aerogel is a synthetic, porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with a gas. This new aerogel is 100 times lighter than a polystyrene foam coffee cup, and it has a large capacity for soaking up environmental pollutants such as toluene and crude oil. The research was published on February 18, 2013 in the journal Advanced Materials.
The ultralight carbon aerogel was produced when scientists freeze-dried a gel solution of carbon nanotubes and graphene. Because the aerogel contains many pores filled with air, it is exceptionally light and has a density of only 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter. As of 2013, the aerogel is the world’s lightest material ever produced.
ultralight-aerogel-on-cherry-blossom-500
Ultralight carbon aerogel resting on a cherry blossom. Image appears courtesy of Shaoqing Lu,Zhejiang University.
Previous records for the world’s lightest material were held by American scientists in 2011 (0.9 mg/cm3) and German scientists in 2012 (0.18 mg/cm3).
Professor Chao Gao, a scientist affiliated with the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University in China, commented on the findings in a news release. He said:
Carbon aerogel is expected to play an important role in pollution control such as oil spill control, water purification and even air purification.
The scientists compared the absorption capacity of the new ultralight carbon aerogel to several commercially available products and found that the aerogel was seven times better at soaking up organic solvents such as ethanol, crude oil, motor oil, toluene and vegetable oil. Also promising was the freeze-drying process, which was able to produce the aerogel much more efficiently than traditional production methods.
Besides using the ultralight carbon aerogel for environmental remediation purposes, the scientists are hoping to conduct additional research in the future to see how well the aerogel might perform in other engineering applications including energy insulation and sound proofing.
gao-chao-zhejiang-university-500
Professor Gao Chao’s research team in a lab at Zhejiang University. Image appears courtesy of Shaoqing Lu, Zhejiang University.
Co-authors of the study included Haiyan Sun and Zhen Xu. The research was funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Qianjiang Talent Foundation of Zhejiang.
Bottom line: Scientists from Zhejiang University in China have invented an ultralight carbon aerogel that has broken the record for the world’s lightest material. The aerogel has a density of only 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter and a large capacity for soaking up environmental pollutants such as toluene and crude oil. The research was published on February 18, 2013 in the journal Advanced Materials.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where the Swastika Was Found 12,000 Years Before Hitler Made Us Uncomfortable About I

Minoan pottery from Crete. The Minoan civilization flourished from 3,000 to 1,100 B.C. (Agon S. Buchholz/Wikimedia Commons) ) Swastika from a 2nd century A.D. Roman mosaic. (Maciej Szczepańczyk/Wikimedia Commons A srivatsa (swastika) sign at Nata-dera Temple, Japan. (Cindy Drukier/Epoch Times) From the Sican/Lambayeque civilization in Peru, which flourished 750 to 1375 A.D. (Wikimedia Commons) Ancient Macedonian helmet with swastika marks, 350-325 B.C., found at Herculanum. (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris/Wikimedia Commons) A Buddha statue on Lantau Island, Hong Kong with a swastika symbol on the chest. (Shutterstock*) A 3,000-year-old necklace found in the Rasht Province of Iran. (Wikimedia Commons) The aviator Matilde Moisant(1878-1964) wearing a swastika medallion in 1912; the symbol was popular as a good luck charm with early aviators. (Wikimedia Commons) A mandala-like swastika, composed of Hebrew letters and surrounded by a circle and a mystica...
Post a Comment
Read more

There’s a Previously Undiscovered Organ in Your Body, And It Could Explain How Cancer Spreads

Ever heard of the interstitium? No? That’s OK, you’re not alone  —  scientists hadn’t either. Until recently. And, hey, guess what  —  you’ve got one! The interstitium is your newest organ. Scientists identified it for the first time because they are better able to observe living tissues at a microscopic scale, according to a recent study published  in  Scientific Reports , Scientists had long believed that connective tissue surrounding our organs was a thick, compact layer. That’s what they saw when they looked at it in the lab, outside the body, at least. But in a routine endoscopy (exploration of the gastrointestinal tract), a micro camera revealed something unexpected: When observed in a living body, the connective tissue turned out to be “an open, fluid-filled space supported by a lattice made of thick collagen bundles,” pathologist and study author Neil Theise  told  Research Gate . This network of channels is present throughout ...
Post a Comment
Read more

20,000 megawatts under the sea: Oceanic steam engines

Jules Verne mused about getting energy from heat in the ocean  (Image: Marc Pagani/Getty) Jules Verne imagined this limitless power source in Victorian times – now 21st-century engineers say heat trapped in the oceans could provide electricity for the world IF ANY energy source is worthy of the name "steampunk", it is surely ocean thermal energy conversion. Victorian-era science fiction? Check: Jules Verne mused about its potential in  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  in 1870. Mechanical, vaguely 19th-century technology? Check. Compelling candidate for renewable energy in a post-apocalyptic future? Tick that box as well. Claims for it have certainly been grandiose. In theory, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) could provide  4000 times the world's energy needs in any given year , with neither pollution nor greenhouse gases to show for it. In the real world, however, it has long been written off as impractical. This year, a surprising number of pro...
Post a Comment
Read more