If you thought graphene was going to be the next do-everything material, we’ve got news for you: Multi-Use Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) has just taken its place. Developed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this wonder material can do everything you might expect a wonder material to do – and more.

So far, TiO2’s uses include producing clean water, producing clean energy, generate hydrogen, kill bacteria, be formed into flexible solar cells, and even extend the useful lifespan of batteries. What’s more is that the materials used to make TiO2 are cheap and readily available, making its possibilities nearly endless.

TiO2 is made by forming titanium dioxide crystals into nanofibers, then forming those nanofibers into flexible membranes. The scientists who developed the material are hoping that it can help with two of the world’s biggest problems: a lack of clean drinking water and the need for clean, renewable energy. The seriously amazing substance needs some more research and work, but so far it looks to be extremely promising in the race for solving these problems.

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Imagine a world in which you can jump into a puddle without fear of your feet getting wet, or have a whole glass of wine thrown in your face with no annoying stains to deal with later. A two-part superhydrophobic coating called Ultra Ever-Dry will make that world a reality – just as soon as you can afford it.

Nearly any kind of liquid will just slide right off of an object that is treated with the coating. Water, oil, cement, mud – it all practically jumps right off of treated surfaces. This awesome quality means that it can be used not only to keep things dry, but to prevent corrosion and icing as well as keeping surfaces bacteria-free.

The amazing polymer is wickedly effective, as you can see in the above video. Because the company isn’t forthcoming with the formulation of their product, it isn’t clear exactly what the two-part product is made of. But this isn’t just a concept – it’s an actual product that you can buy right now, today.

…If you have at least $149 to spare, that is. Ultra Ever-Dry is sold as a bottom coat and a top coat which have to be used together in order for the product to work. The coating is supposed to last six to seven years on a surface that isn’t rubbed or touched constantly – a time frame which might even make the rather stiff price tag look reasonable.

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Human skin is pretty dang amazing. It protects our insides from the outside, can heal itself after a lot of trauma, and even lets us feel the world around us. It’s so complex that creating an artificial version has been virtually impossible. But a team from Stanford’s chemical engineering department has become the first in the world to create a self-healing material that is also pressure sensitive – and, for good measure, it’s also conductive like a metal. The material is made of two ingredients that allow it to perform its amazing feats. First, a plastic consisting of long molecule chains that are joined together by hydrogen bonds. The molecules can be separated easily, but when they are put back together they re-form their bonds easily.

Nickel nanoparticles make up the other part of the recipe. The nickel increases the mechanical strength of the material while making it conductive, which is important for making the material pressure-sensitive. Amazingly, the polymer can be sliced with a scalpel and then pressed back together, and within seconds it will heal itself to around 75 percent of its original strength. After 30 minutes, the restored strength is almost 100 percent. The slicing and healing can take place over and over in the same location with no significant loss of function. As for the future of the material, the researchers expect it to be useful in next-generation prostheses. It could even be used as a protective coating for electronics, provided the researchers are able to make it stretchy and transparent.

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Up until recently, aerogel was known as the world’s least dense material. With a density of just 1 mg/cm³, aerogel is nearly all air but incredibly strong. Now, a group of researchers at two German universities have created an even less dense material called aerographite. The material, made of a network of hollow carbon tubes, boasts a density of less than 0.2  mg/cm³, making it nearly all air.

Seen here in electron microscope images, aerographite is barely there at all. It looks like it would snap under any type of pressure, but it can be compressed by a factor of a thousand before popping right back, unharmed. It conducts electricity and can support more than 40,000 times its own weight. The applications for this crazy material include ultra-lightweight batteries and who knows what else – give a bunch of scientists a wonder material and they’re bound to do something pretty cool with it.

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Despite moving toward a paper-free society, we still use paper fairly often in our daily lives. And to be honest, paper isn’t that great. It’s easily ruined by something as simple as a coffee spill and can spread disease by virtue of its tendency to transmit bacteria and other nasty things. But if we could apply new technology to the very old material, perhaps it could be revitalized. The Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, Italy has created a nanoparticle coating that could be applied to individual paper molecules to make paper antibacterial, waterproof, magnetic and even fluorescent.

The process works by creating an itty-bitty “shell” around each fiber of the paper. The new properties of the paper depend on which nanoparticles are used: silver for antibacterial and iron oxide for magnetic, for example. After the polymer is applied to the paper fibers, the paper continues to act like normal paper. You can write and print on it, fold it up, even recycle it just like always. The antibacterial paper could be an incredible advancement for food packaging, and other enhancements could help create more secure currency or protect important documents.

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