What are the most interesting new materials?

A few days ago, scientists at the University of Oxford, UK, announced that they created the most expensive commercialized material in the world: a particular type of Endohedral fullerene (first discovered in 1985), it is a spherical molecule which consists of 60 carbon atoms (C60) which encloses an internal nitrogen atom (see photo).

Its market value is estimated to oscillate between 145 and 300 million dollars a gram and a spin-off lab called Designer Carbon Materials is now producing it and they recently sold off their first sample for the price of $32,000 for 200 micrograms (1 microgram = one-millionth of a gram), which is about one-fifteenth the weight of a snowflake, or one-third the weight of a human hair.

Among its applications, there is the ability to realize atomic clocks as large as a chip.

"At the moment, atomic clocks are room-sized. This endohedral fullerene would make it work on a chip that could go into your mobile phone," said Lucius Cary, director of the Oxford Technology SEIS fund - which holds a minor stake in Designer Carbon Materials.

"There will be lots of applications for this technology," he added. "The most obvious is in controlling autonomous vehicles. If two cars are coming towards each other on a country lane, knowing where they are to within 2 meters is not enough, but to 1 mm it is enough."

Sources:

The world's most expensive material only costs £200 million a gram