New Diamond Aerogel

Published on 23/05/11

Diamonds are the hardest solid materials we know, and the ghostly space-age materials known as aerogels are the least dense. Looking for a challenge, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory decided to combine these substances and turn out a spongy, translucent version of a girl’s best friend.
The result is a diamond aerogel, definitely the least dense diamond ever and perhaps one of the most valuable aerogels ever. Both aerogels and diamonds have interesting qualities, so a substance that combines their properties could be useful for, say, optics, quantum computing or structural engineering, among other possibilities.