One of the biggest discoveries in the last few years has been in the area of new materials. This subject may seem bland to many, but we can’t underestimate the importance of these discoveries. Everything we use is made of some kind of material and if we can make something stronger and lighter it can have an effect on the way we live. Take the space industry for example. If we can invent a very strong yet light material for spacecraft it will not only save on fuel, it will also make the trip safer. Most of us think the diamond is the hardest material known to man, but in 2009 New Scientist ran an article announcing this was no longer true. It seems some man made materials were even harder, but a natural material was found which was a lot harder, 58% harder to be exact. One mineral was wurtzite boron nitride. This material is similar to diamond, but has different atoms. Another mineral is lonsdaleite. It is made from carbon like a diamond, but the carbon atoms are arranged into a different shape. Wurtzite boron nitride is 18% harder than a diamond, but is very rare. Lonsdaleite is 58% harder than a diamond. This means at the time they were measured in 2009 they were the hardest material ever measured.

One amazing material is aerogel. This is a very light porous material in which gas is used to replace the liquid normally found in a gel. It has been called solid air, blue smoke and solid smoke. You can imagine how light it is. It has very low thermal conductivity and is ideal for insulation, especially in areas where light weight is a factor. It was discovered quite a while ago, but only became famous a few years back. Aerogel is over 98% air and yet it is very strong, even impressively so. When one picks up a block of aerogel it feels as if it has no weight. While aerogel is wonderful as an insulator, because air cannot pass through it, it is poor protection against infrared radiation which transfers heat. Aerogel dissolves in water unless it is chemically treated. What is amazing is the fact you can make it from different materials. Some examples of this are silica aerogel, carbon aerogel and metal oxide aerogels. You can see how versatile this makes aerogel and how it opens the door for many different uses. NASA used aerogel in many projects such as using it for insulation on a Mars Rover.

When scientists discovered graphene, they were beside themselves. This material has been said to be the answer to just about every material need. One of its benefits is also one of its problems. It is a material which is only one atom thick and you can’t see it. It has been said more money has been invested in this material than any material before it. Scientists are still trying to think up uses for it. So far it is about 12 years since Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov discovered it and we are still trying to find ways we can use this miracle material. Why all the fuss? Maybe one of the reasons is it is 200 times stronger than steel. It could also be because it is more flexible than rubber. Maybe the reason is it is almost totally transparent. So far it has found uses such as reducing overheating in electronics and a tiny addition in performance in some batteries, but the scientific community wants more. They will get more, but it is slow in coming. As more things are invented, more uses for graphene will be forthcoming.

Ironically the home of graphene, the University of Manchester, may have come up with even a more impressive material than graphene. The material is based on indium selenide (InSe). It is a material which it is believed will contribute to super-fast electronics. It is similar to graphene in that it is super thin and a good semiconductor. The new material has something graphene never had naturally and that is a band gap allowing it to be perfect for electronics. It was found if it was produced in an atmosphere made of argon this shielded it from contamination from the environment. The university has gained experience from creating sheets of graphene and this experience can be used to create this new material.

One of the wonders of this century are new self-healing materials. These are material created in the lab which can automatically repair damage to themselves. While we think these are a modern marvel the idea dates back to the Romans as does so many things. Roman cement had some self-healing properties. The cement formed crystals would hold the cement together when cracks formed. Many self-healing materials are made from polymers and used in plastics, films and rubbers to name a few materials. The material begins a response when damage occurs, transports materials for repair to the damage and then chemically repairs the damage. Self-healing materials have been used in many different applications from bridge construction to fuel tanks for fighter planes.

The world’s oceans and rivers are getting choked with plastic. This plastic will last many hundreds of years in some cases. Everyone knows this is a problem and we have to do something about it. Not only is disposing of plastic a problem, but we are all carrying plastic in our bodies due to using plastic bottles and containers for our drinks and food. There is a new material which could solve this problem called shrilk. It looks like plastic, but it is made from shrimp shells and spider silk. Shrilk is as strong as aluminum, but only weighs about half. The material was developed in 2011 at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University by Javier G. Fernandez. Hopefully shrilk will replace all that plastic, because it is biodegradable. Its use will probably depend on its cost.

We seem to be going full speed ahead in our discoveries of new materials and uses for them. We still have a long way to go however. Will that next discovery be of a material which will be thin and light and yet provide protection against radiation? Could it be we will discover a material which will enable batteries to last forever without needing to be recharged? There are so many things we need to improve and new materials could be the key. Perhaps we will find a material which will allow passengers to survive a crash in a plane or even a speeding car. It is beginning to look like it is only a matter of time before all these things and more come true.