Nano-balloon created by scientists: thinnest ever made

William Atkins
Friday, 12 September 2008 19:19

Science - Energy

American scientists and engineers from Cornell University have created a graphite balloon that is the thinnest balloon ever made. It is only one atom in thickness so probably won’t be used at birthday parties and New Year’s celebrations.


Researchers from Cornell University have created the world’s thinnest balloon out of a single layer of graphite that is only one atom thick.

In the August 2008 paper “Impermeable Atomic Membranes from Graphene Sheet,” within the journal Nano Letters, the authors describe how the thinnest balloon--only one atom thick--was created.

The authors are J. Scott Bunch, Scott S. Verbridge, Jonathan S. Alden, Arend M. van der Zande, Jeevak M. Parpia, Harold G. Craighead, and Paul L. McEuen, all from the Cornell Center for Materials Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.

Any airborne materials, no matter how small they may be in size, cannot penetrate the membrane of the balloon. The membrane, as stated by the authors in the paper’s abstract, is “a unique separation barrier between 2 distinct regions that is only one atom thick.”

The authors call these balloons “graphene-sealed microchambers.”

Graphene is a word derived from the word “graphite” and the suffix “-ene” (used to describe organic compounds involving the “-C=C-“ group). It is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of bonded carbon atoms that have been packed together in a very dense honeycomb crystal lattice structure.

What will these really thin balloons be used for, now that they have been invented? Please read page two.