Nanoscale lattice structures create lightest and strongest materials

MIT Technology Review : Ceramics have now been used to create new nanoscale lattices that result in extremely light materials that are very strong but also return to shape after they are compressed. Julia Greer of Caltech and her colleagues had previously achieved that result with metals, but ceramics had been harder to manipulate on the nanoscale. The researchers developed the new ceramic material by using a technique called two-photon interference lithography to “print” nanoscale polymer cylinders into a lattice configuration. Then they coated the structure with a ceramic and etched away the base polymer, leaving a network of ceramic tubes. The researchers also showed how the thickness of the tube walls determines how the material fails under compression. When the walls are just 10 nm thick, the tubes collapse instead of fracturing under pressure, then they return to shape when the pressure is removed. The high surface area and low weight make them materials of interest for electronics and batteries.