Graphene aerogel is the new world's lightest substance

As research into aerogel continues, scientists are discovering ever-lighter variations. First, there was carbon nanotube aerogel, with a density of 4 milligrams per cubic centimetre. Then along came silica aerogel, which weighed in at 1 milligram per cubic centimetre and garnered 15 entries in Guinness World Records. It was ousted by metallic microlattices, at 0.9 milligrams, and then aerographite, at 0.18 milligrams.

Now, a new graphene aerogel created by scientists led by professor Gao Chao at the Zhejiang University has swept past, weighing in at just 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimetre

The original article is from Nature, but only an abstract is viewable online for free, sadly. The full article takes a little bit of money that I'm not willing to spend ($8 for the one article or $199 for a year's subscription). Luckily there is a decent enough report on CNET Australia's blog (the source of the above quote).

Aerogels are odd, weird substances. I have a piece in a plastic container that I've taken out a few times to hold it. Each time it feels like I'm holding a solid and a gas at the same time. It's a contradictory feeling, a real-life discrepant event without a trick. The aerogel that I have - now snapped in two by another ASM master teacher, arggh - is a silica aerogel (available from Educational Innovations, one of our summer camp sponsors) which means it's something in the order of six times more dense than is this new graphene aerogel.

I, of course, want some of the new stuff.

Because it's the newest...

PS - There are other possible sources for the purchasing of silica aerogels - United Nuclear (small pieces in semi-bulk only), ebay (including, as of today, a huge 220cc sample), ThinkGeek, and BuyAeroGel.com.