World’s lightest material for pollution control

Poised to play an important role in pollution control such as oil spill control, water purification and air purification, Scientists at Zhejiang University led by Professor Gao Chao have developed the world’s lightest substance Carbon Aerogel with a density only one sixth of that of the air.

Carbon Aerogel has a density of only 0.16 mg/cubic centimetre breaking the previous record of the world’s lightest material held by Graphite Aerogel developed by German scientists last year. The graphite aerogel was with a density of 0.18 mg/cubic centimetre. Aerogel is a material produced with semi-solid gel dried and solvent removed. Carbon Aerogel is highly elastic and can bounce back when compressed. In addition, it’s one of the materials with biggest oil absorption capacity.

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