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Materials science

When two is better than one

Nature volume 497, pages 448–449 (2013)Cite this article

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Aerogels have many potential applications but usually suffer from poor elasticity. The synergistic assembly of carbon nanotubes and graphene has now allowed multifunctional, ultra-lightweight and super-elastic aerogels to be made.

Solids are normally stronger but heavier than gases because their atoms are bound together more tightly. Writing in Advanced Materials, however, Sun et al.1 describe how they have used two carbon-based nanomaterials — graphene and carbon nanotubes — to make a strong carbon aerogel that is lighter than air, is super-elastic and has a variety of useful properties.

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Figure 1: Synergistically assembled carbon aerogels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wencai Ren and Hui-Ming Cheng are at the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China.,

    Wencai Ren & Hui-Ming Cheng

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  1. Wencai Ren
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  2. Hui-Ming Cheng
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Correspondence to Hui-Ming Cheng.

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Ren, W., Cheng, HM. When two is better than one. Nature 497, 448–449 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/497448a

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