This New Nanomaterial Can Withstand Forces 160,000 Times Its Weight

MIT engineers have taken inspiration from architecture to create a new material that combines high stiffness with low weight—by using a repeating geometric structure that's airy, yet remarkably strong.

The new material design has been developed in a collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and uses microlattices with nanoscale features to combine "great stiffness and strength with ultralow density." Essentially, it uses the same principles of lattice work that you find in structures like the

Eiffel Tower to provide strength with the minimum of extraneous material. The research is published in the journal Science.

Usually, stripping away material from a microstructure decreases stiffness and strength, but the researchers have mathematically determined how the geometric structure distributes and directs loads, so that they can trim material away at the nanoscale in places where it won't be missed.

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