Aerographite made by scientists at Hamburg and Kiel universities, is 75 times lighter than polystyrene and four times lighter than the previous record holder for the world's lightest material.
The jet-black, carbon-based material is causing a stir in scientific circles across the world, wrote Die Welt newspaper on Tuesday.
“Our work is causing great discussions in the scientific community. Aerographite weights four times less than world-record-holder up to now,” co-author Matthias Mecklenburg, a PhD student at the Hamburg University of Technology told the paper.
Weighing just 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimetre, Aerographite is also water repellent, conducts electricity and, unlike many other light materials, is able to withstand high pressures.
“Other materials become weaker and less stable when exposed to such stress. Also, the newly constructed material absorbs light rays almost completely. One could say it creates the blackest black,” said Hamburg Professor Karl Schulte.
“It is able to be compressed up to 95 percent and be pulled back to its original form without any damage,” Professor Rainer Adelung of Kiel University told the paper.
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