Behold, 9 wonder materials for the world of tomorrow

24 Nov 2017

Image: science photo/Shutterstock

The technology of the future is set to be lighter, more flexible and incredibly durable. But which wonder materials will get us there?

From science fiction to comic books, there have been plenty of wonder materials that promise the impossible. One example is adamantium, which is supposedly indestructible.

But, in the real world, we are already seeing materials that promise above and beyond what is commonly available today, whether they are multiple times stronger than steel, or so well insulated that they can be thousands of degrees Celsius but still OK to touch.

One of the most well-known wonder materials is graphene, which measures just one atom thick, is incredibly flexible and is a phenomenal conductor.

Earlier this year, graphene was used by a team from MIT to create a new material that is the lightest and strongest known to date.

It has also been shown to be incredibly useful in the production of clean fuels, such as in the case of a team from Rice University in the US, which harnessed the power of nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) to use it as a catalyst in electrochemical reactions.

So, aside from graphene, what else is being developed out there in the field of materials science that promises to change every aspect of our lives?

To help find an answer, Futurism has put together this infographic to highlight just nine materials – including graphene – that promise to have a big, big future.

Supermaterials

Infographic: Futurism

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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