New material: the lightest material invented

Researcher from HRL Laboratories Limited liability Company , USA and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, USA and Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, California Institute of technology, Pasadena, USA have collaborated to invention the lightest material which called “ Ultralight Metallic Microlattices”.

The material was categorized as ultralight if the density <10 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Some application of these material are thermal insulation for cellular, battery electrodes, catalyst support, and acoustic, vibration, or shock energy damping.

These material fabricated by starting template formed by self-propagating photopolymer wave guide prototyping, coating the template by electroless nickel plating. The researches claim that the density of material was 0.9 milligram per cubic centimeter even Styrofoam is 100 times heavier than it is describe  Science 18 November 2011.

The material as seen in the picture above is made of 90 % nickel. The researcher informed that the material, extraordinarily strong and shock-absorbent, is like feather floats down, and its terminal velocity depends on the density. When dropped for shoulder high it takes 10 seconds to touch the ground.