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Techno Trends

The big ideas that are changing everything

Super-Strong, Super-Light Material

In conventional materials science, the rule has always been that the stronger the material, the greater its weight and density, so very strong materials, like ceramics, are not useful in applications where weight is a consideration because their structural and mechanical properties make them prone to shattering under certain types of force. Recently, however, researchers discovered that the structure of a ceramic “lattice” can be altered very precisely at the nanoscale level. The result is a material that is one of the strongest, yet lightest, substances ever made.

Using a technique called two-photon interference lithography, a 3-D laser printer is used to create a polymer lattice structure. The lattice is coated with a ceramic, and the polymer is etched out to leave behind crisscrossed trusses of hollow ceramic tubes that are extremely strong, but light as a feather. By altering the thickness of the tubes, the researchers were also able to control its failure mode. For example, thicker walls caused it to shatter, but when the walls were made thinner (on the order of 10 nanometers) the material would buckle under a load, and then recover its shape when the load was removed.

In addition to being used as structural materials, their high surface area and light weight could make nanostructure ceramics very useful for creating fast-charging batteries, capable of storing large amounts of power in a small, convenient package.

For information: Julie Greer, California Institute of Technology, Steele 221, MC 309-81, Pasadena, CA 91125; phone: 626-395-4127; email: jrgreer@caltech.edu; Web site: www.caltech.edu or http://www.jrgreer.caltech.edu/home.php

Daniel Burrus' Top Twenty Technology-Driven Trends for 2014