Boeing has unveiled microlattice, the lightest metal ever made. At 99.99% air, it’s light enough to balance on top of a dandelion, while the structure makes it strong. It’s basically a 3D open-cellular polymer structure made up of interconnected hollow tubes, each with a wall 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Practical applications include: battery electrodes, catalyst supports, and acoustic, vibration or shock energy damping. Continue reading for two more videos and information.
“One of the main applications that we’ve been looking into is structural components in aerospace. The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. We are building on our breakthrough invention of ultralight metallic microlattices and will mature this technology to be applied in the next generation of space vehicles,” said Sophia Yang, Research Scientist of Architected Materials at HRL Labs who worked with Boeing on the project.
