The world’s lightest metal material is 100 times lighter than foam

This “the lightest material in the world” has a density of only 0.9 mg/cm3, which is 100 times lighter than polystyrene foam.

With a unique "micro-lattice" porous structure, the composition is also about 99.99% air and 0.01% solids even at nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. The new ultra-light material is a circular hollow tube micro-frame structure, which is divided into three levels of nanometers, micrometers and millimeters. First, a prototype of a self-accelerating photopolymer waveguide model is used to make a prototype, and then an electroless nickel coating is applied, and then the template is etched away. The resulting metal micro-streme structure has a density greater than or equal to 0.9 mg/cm 3 . It is fully recovered after being compressed more than 50%. Its energy absorption performance is similar to that of the artificial rubber, and it is lighter than the ultra-light aerogel and carbon nanotube foam.