2) BUCKYPAPER

 Buckypaper is well-known since the late 20th-century that there's a form of carbon that's even harder than diamonds: carbon nanotubes. By binding carbon together into a hexagonal shape, it can hold a rigid cylindrical-shaped structure which is more stable than any other structure known to humankind. If you take an aggregate of carbon nanotubes and create a macroscopic sheet of them, you can create a thin sheet of them: buckypaper.

Each individual nanotube is only between 2 and 4 nanometers across, but each one is incredibly strong and tough. It's only 10% the weight of steel but has has hundreds of times the strength. It's fireproof, extremely thermally conductive, possesses tremendous electromagnetic shielding properties, and could lead to materials science, electronics, military and even biological applications. But buckypaper cannot be made of 100% nanotubes, which is perhaps what keeps it out of the top spot on this list.


Freestanding paper made of carbon nanotubes, a.k.a. buckypaper, will prevent the passage of... [+] particles 50 nanometers and larger. It has unique physical, chemical, electrical and mechanical properties. Although it can be folded or cut with scissors, it's incredibly strong. With perfect purity, it's estimated it could reach up to 500 times the strength of a comparable volume of steel. This image shows NanoLab's buckypaper under a scanning electron microscope.

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