new material is incredibly light yet stronger than steel. The new material gets its amazing
strength from its unique geometric configuration.
Credit: Melanie Gonick/MIT
A spongy new super-material could be lighter than the flimsiest plastic yet 10 times stronger than steel.
The new super-material is made up of flecks of graphene squished and fused together into a vast, cobwebby network. The fluffy structure, which looks a bit like a psychedelic sea creature, is almost completely hollow; its density is just 5 percent that of ordinary graphene, the researchers said.
What's more, though the researchers used graphene, the seemingly magical properties of the material do not totally depend on the atoms used: The secret ingredient is the way those atoms are aligned, the scientists said. https://www.livescience.com/57432-stronger-than-steel-material.html
