World's lightest material auctioned for $1.6 million

Beijing: The world's lightest solid material - carbon aerogel - created by Chinese scientists has fetched a staggering $1.6 million at an auction.

With a density of just 0.16 milligrams per cubic centimeter, a sixth of air's density, the carbon aerogel was developed by scientists at Zhejiang University last year.

The carbon aerogel fetched 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) at an auction for scientific achievements in Zhejiang province on Tuesday, ecns.cn reported.

Professor Gao Chao's research team freeze-dried solutions of carbon nanotubes and graphene to remove moisture and retain integrity to produce the aerogel.

Despite its fragile appearance, carbon aerogel is excellent in elasticity. It can bounce back when compressed.

In addition, it's one of the materials with biggest oil absorption capacity.

Current oil absorbing products can usually absorb organic solvent of about 10 times of their own weight. The carbon aerogel can absorb up to 900 times their own weight.