The University of Pennsylvania produces 1000 times thinner than paper and is durable

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have just created a super-thin, ultra-light and ultra-durable material. This is a nano-scale sheet of material, 1000 times thinner than a paper but can maintain its original shape after being bent, twisted by external forces.

Fabrication of new materials is 1000 times thinner than paper

A material with similar properties that we all know is graphene. It is just as thin as a molecule, amazing stiffness and excellent electrical and thermal conductivity. However, graphene has no original shape and the two-dimensional material like graphene needs to be combined with an external support component such as a base or a frame to prevent the graphene from twisting itself so that it cannot useful. And of course when adding these reinforcement components, graphene will be heavier, losing its super-light properties.

Therefore, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a material that can maintain its original shape after being bent or distorted by the hand without the need for supporting structures . Their approach is to design a wavy material with a honeycomb-like shape to create a three-dimensional structure for the material at the nano-scale.

This is a sheet of nano-scale material, 1000 times thinner than a sheet of paper.

This platform is made of aluminum oxide deposited with only one single atomic layer, which makes the material reach a thickness of 25 to 100 nanometers but has a very high level. Igor Bargatin, the leader of the research team, said: "Aluminum oxide is actually a kind of ceramic - something that is very easily broken. However, when deposited on a special structural substrate, the material can be return to the original state after being bent, twisted, distorted similar to a plastic sheet ".

Potential new materials can address a wide range of limitations in the use of thin , flat, low-strength sheet materials , which tend to deform and adhere to surfaces that are difficult to remove. In addition, conventional materials are easily ripped apart or cracks appear along the material. The honeycomb structure on the new material ensures that if a crack appears on the aluminum oxide plate, it is limited to a small area by vertical partitions.

With this invention, the Pennsylvania team helped solve structural engineering problems in areas where weight is the key to everything, such as aviation. A concrete example is the material that can be used to create wings for insect-simulating flying robots.

Bargatin said: "Insect wings are only a few microns thin and cannot be thinner because they are made by cells. The thinnest man-made wing material I know is Mylar - made by settling depositing a Mylar film on a frame with a thickness of about 1/2 micron Our plate is 10 times thinner and no frame needed, resulting in a weight of less than 1/10 g per m ² ".