Laboratory at Oxford University produced the most expensive material on the planet, and its price is more than €130 million per gram. “Designer Carbon Materials” produces so-called endohedral fullerene, or cages that make up carbon atoms containing nitrogen atoms, according to the British Telegraph. This material is used for making small and portable atomic clocks, the most accurate timer in the world, a GPS navigation system in the car can make accurate with an error of only a few millimeters.
“Imagine a miniature atomic clock which you can carry in your phone. It’s a revolution in mobile phones,” said Dr Kyriakos Porfyrakis, scientist and expert on nanomaterials, who works on the production of endohedral fullerenes since 2001.
This material makes the cage of 60 carbon atoms, within which is a nitrogen atom. The first sale of this material recently emerged.
Atomic clocks are now a medium-sized room, and with this technology, they would also be able to settle on one small chip. Also, current GPS systems are not reliable for autonomous cars, because they have a fault within two meters, but this material should improve the GPS error to only one millimeter, which is almost negligible.