This is a picture of what German Scientists say is the lightest material in the world. It is a network of porous carbon tubes that is interwoven at the nano and micro level to make the lightest material in the world. The substance weighs just 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter. It is 75 times lighter than Styrofoam (Thank God, because those Styrofoam cups are exhausting to lift). Scientists of Kiel University (KU) and Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) named their joint creation aerographite.
Researchers describe aerographite as “jet black, remains stable, is electrically conductive, ductile and non-transparent.”
The new material may allow revolutionary uses in electronics, aviation, and satellites to water purification.
Source: MSNBC
Slartibartfast call your office.
Bron,
Unfortunately my colleague hasn’t been able to get the investment needed to do anything more than build small-scale prototypes yet. Being a manufacturing business which is dependent on economies of scale to achieve a viable business model, it’s not exactly a cheap startup… and, somehow, I doubt that this new material can be easily produced in industrial quantities yet. I’m reminded of a conversation that I had with a neighbor who was giving me a tour of the MSU cyclotron (he was part of the team who built it). I was talking about the high-Tc superconductors that I was making in my professorial assistantship and he said that was all well and good, but to come back when I could supply him with 2 miles of ductile wiring…
Jet Black eh? Sound like a work of the Devil.
You are probably right Mike S.! God wouldn’t want us humans to be fooling with anything lighter than styrofoam!
I think God gave up on us when we started using styrofoam. ; )
My nephew showed me how to use emoticons on fb im. but he’s not here to teach me how to use them on the blog. : (
When are they going to make a material out of helium?
It would be lousy to make hats out of,…. but I might buy stock
in a brassiere manufacturer.
The chem nerd inside me is having an orgasm.
“When are they going to make a material out of helium?”
Um… never? None of the noble gasses can be part of a molecule (except possibly under extreme conditions), so you can’t make anything but helium out of helium…
Where did they get that? Is there a patent? Is it made from petroleum?
Slarti:
Well ceramic knives are pretty interesting.
Slarti:
you can make balloon animals with helium.
Yeah, but then they just float away…
bettykath
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies
I definitely need some of this!
‘Because Aerographite is electrically conductive and chemical-resistant, the scientists believe that the material could be used in ultra-lightweight batteries or supercapacitors. The material also has a few other interesting properties that make it hydrophobic, a good insulator, readily absorb visible light, and opaque to X-rays.
So…invisibility cloaks, anyone?’
Continuous Feline Woosty,
Not so much invisible as black (and it will block that perv Superman’s X-ray vision…). So people will be able to see you in your cloak, but you’ll look cool (and isn’t that better anyway?
)
Ceramic. Superconductors. Electricity loses energy through heat.
Gold is the best conductor of electricity. Except for ceramic at very low temperatures.
but you’ll look cool (and isn’t that better anyway? )
———————
absolutely
Except for ceramic at very low temperatures.
———————-
one of my favorite things….just add water and stir…..
It takes more than that. You have to have liquid nitrogen. In a controlled container.
A controlled container? I always just filled my dewar from the big tank in back of the physics building and then poured myself (insulated) mugs of frothy coldness as needed. If you are careful you can hold liquid nitrogen in your hand until it boils off–it feels kind of neat (I believe this is an example of the Leidenfrost effect).
Better be careful. You’ll loose your finger.
It’s raining in Wisconsin right now. Second time today. Might have to mow the yard if this keeps up.
That was long ago in my misspent youth (I’m more worried about the mercury spill that I cleaned up [after I caused it...] back then). Send the rain on over to Michigan–I haven’t had to mow the yard in a month…
It’s still raining, but not as hard. I don’t know which direction it’s going. Look on weather.com.
http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/53402
Here you go. Looks like it might be coming your way.
Matt Johnson,
“Gold is the best conductor of electricity.”
Not at all. Gold is prized for its corrosion resistance, not its conductance. Silver is the most freely conductive metal.
ging,
Sorry, you’re wrong. The best metals for electrical conductivity are gold, silver, copper, aluminum.
Matt Johnson,
“ging,
Sorry, you’re wrong. The best metals for electrical conductivity are gold, silver, copper, aluminum.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity
Scroll down to the first big table.
ging,
You beat me to it, so I’ll just add (lower resistivity is better):
metal resistivity (in Ohm meters at 20°C)
——- ————
silver 1.59e-8
copper 1.68e-8
gold 2.44e-8
aluminium 2.82e-8
and mention that, for the most part, the weather always moves from west to east…
Matt Johnson,
If you don’t trust Wiki, here it is from another source (second sentence). There are many sources that contradict your opinion.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/silver/
ging,
Maybe you should explain what the first big table means. How much gold is used in cell phones and other electronics?
Matt Johnson,
What does the weather have to do with natural metals conductivity?
ging,
You beat me to it. I still don’t believe you.
ging 1, July 18, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Matt Johnson,
What does the weather have to do with natural metals conductivity?
======================================================
The lower the temperature, the higher the conductivity.
Matt Johnson,
“Maybe you should explain what the first big table means. How much gold is used in cell phones and other electronics?”
Maybe you should study the first big table.
“What does the weather have to do with natural metals conductivity?”
Nothing, you just seem hung up on weather.
“You beat me to it. I still don’t believe you.”
Be ignorant then, I really don’t care.
ging,
I’m not going to study the first big table, because I don’t need to study the first big table.
Here’s your most recent weather report.
http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/53402:4:US
BettyKath — You’ve got the idea But you’re forgetting the hyphens — so
for a smile, colon plus hyphen plus right-parenthesis equals:
for a “doubtful,” semicolon plus hyphen plus right-parenthesis:
for a frown, colon plus hyphen plus left-parenthesis:
and so forth. For the green face you go
colon, then the word mrgreen, then another colon:
Once an orchestra conductor was so bad that he was convicted of abusing the entire audience, and he was sentenced to death. This was back in the days of the electric chair for executions. All his appeals failed because the evidence was overwhelming against him; even his lawyer lay on the ground weeping when he was forced to listen to his client’s crimes. So the day of the execution came, and the executioners walked him into the death chamber and hooked him up and threw the switch. BUT HE LIVED! And the law is that if the execution does not work, it cannot be repeated, and the person is discharged of his crime.
But why did that happen, you may ask…
Because he was SUCH A POOR CONDUCTOR!
Who cares about the punctuation.
Matt Johnson,
Tables are hard – especially when the first row contradicts your opinion.
The punctuation I’ll leave to you.
Matt Johnson,
“I’m not going to study the first big table, because I don’t need to study the first big table.”
Yeah, integer math is hard, especially with one row of data.
“Here’s your most recent weather report.
http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/53402:4:US”
Ever hear of Tor? Probably not, as one has to set up some tables.
Matt Johnson,
Which one is “bigger” Matt:
1.59e-8 or 2.44e-8?
Is it the “big hand” or “little hand” that points to the hour of an analog clock?
Why is the “big hand” smaller than the “little hand”?
Matt Johnson,
“Electricity loses energy through heat.”
Electron movement through a conductor (what you call electricity) loses energy through the resistance of a conductor (the lack of free electrons available) and the random kinetic energy of electrons once excited in a conductor.
Heat is the by-product of this interaction, not the cause.
The weather is nice here.
Matt Johnson,
Whether the weather can be weathered is always a question I weather; no matter whether I can weather the weather.
Doesn’t graphite get brittle after heated…..
I know I am late to the party here but carbon nano tubes are very dangerous – worse than asbestos. I’d be very careful before getting too excited about this stuff. It may be another miracle cure that ends up worse than the problem it was intended to solve. A “Crazy Eddy”
Though the article fails to mention this, Obama was the lead designer for this. He built it.
Matt, weather has little to do with practical application of conductivity in metals. The normal range of weather on the surface of the planet is not sufficient to create measurable change. For really serious changes in conductivity due to low temperatures, you need to be looking at temperatures in the neighborhood of 39 kelvins (minus 234 C, minus 389 F) for conventional superconductors. Suggest you do not lick the sample at those temperatures.
I wonder if they will start making Coors-lite beer cans out of the stuff?
ME=Trollbot
Those damn German socialists with their free public universities, how dare they invent stuff all the time! Don’t they know only the private enterprises can create innovation?
Woosty,
I only saw the Rock Horror Picture Show once. In Walnut Creek, CA. Didn’t much care for it. I know Susan Sarandon is cute and everything, but didn’t much care for it. I liked Somewhere in Time better. Jane Seymour. Don’t tell anybody.