Scientists create transparent, thin plastic strong like steel

"It`s as green as you can imagine," he said, adding that the material is also quite cheap to produce.

The plastic could be used to reduce the energy required to separate gasses in chemical factories, improve microtechnology such as microchips or biomedical sensors and even one day produce lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles.

Kotov has already begun developing practical applications for the composite plastic which could become commercialized within a year or two.

"We`re still at the exploratory stage but the machine is now being built in our lab to build piece as big as one meter by one meter," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

Producing a composite material out of nano-sized building blocks that can maintain its strength at such large sizes has long confounded scientists.