Chemists have calculated that chains of double or triple-bonded carbon atoms, known as carbyne, should be stronger and stiffer than any known material.
The sixth element, carbon, has given us an amazing abundance of
extraordinary materials. Once there was simply carbon, graphite and
diamond. But in recent years chemists have added buckyballs, nanotubes
and any number of exotic shapes created out of graphene, the molecular
equivalent of chickenwire.
So it’s hard to believe that carbon has
any more surprises up its sleeve. And yet today, Mingjie Liu and pals
at Rice University in Houston calculate the properties of another form
of carbon that is stronger, stiffer and more exotic than anything
chemists have seen before.
The new material is called carbyne. It
is a chain of carbon atoms that are linked either by alternate triple
and single bonds or by consecutive double bonds.
Carbyne is
something of a mystery. Astronomers believe they have detected its
signature in interstellar space but chemists have been bickering for
decades over whether they had ever created this stuff on Earth. A couple
of years ago, however, they synthesised carbyne chains up to 44 atoms
long in solution.
For the rest of the story: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/518301/new-form-of-carbon-is-stronger-than-graphene-and-diamond/
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