This article was taken from the February 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
This metallic micro-lattice is strong and springy, yet weighs 100 times less than Styrofoam. It was developed by the Architected Materials group at HRL Laboratories, an R&D facility owned by General Motors and Boeing in Malibu, California. Group manager Bill Carter can attest to its amazing lightness: "If you drop a piece from shoulder height, it takes between five and ten seconds to float to the floor."
The material is made up of hollow nickel tubes, each with walls just 100 nanometres thick, so it is 99.9 per cent air. Its lattice structure gives rise to unique mechanical properties, such as almost complete recovery from 50 per cent compression and high levels of energy absorption. The micro-lattice could find use in structural components for cars and planes, thermal insulation, acoustic damping and batteries. "There is conjecture [about applications] but the key is that we've developed a scalable way to make ordered architectural structures at the micro- and nano-scale," says Carter. "Nobody has been able to do super-low-density materials with a lattice structure before, because they didn't have a way to make it."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
