Diamond
nanothreads offer the promise of more strength and stiffness than any
existing man-made material thanks to their never-before-seen atomic
structure.
Penn State University
A team of scientists have crafted a thread of carbon atoms
20,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, and it may prove to be
the strongest man-made material in the universe.
Called a
"diamond nanothread," the ultra-thin material has a never-before-seen
structure resembling the hexagonal rings of bonded carbon atoms that
make up diamonds, the hardest known natural mineral on Earth. That makes
these nanothreads potentially stronger and more resilient than the most
advanced carbon nanotubes, which are similar super-durable and
super-light structures composed of rolled up, one atom-thick sheets of
carbon called graphene.
"Because this thread is diamond at
heart, we expect that it will prove to be extraordinarily stiff,
extraordinarily strong, and extraordinarily useful," John Badding, a
chemistry professor at Penn State University who led the project, said in a statement. The work was published on September 21 in the journal Nature Materials.
The creation of a
diamond-like nanomaterial is a first, marking a breakthrough after a
century of unsuccessful attempts to compress carbon-based molecules into
a structure with such strength. The team produced it by using a
pressure device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to compress an
especially large 6-millimeter wide pool of benzene, a molecule composed
of carbon and hydrogen. The benezene molecules first stacked, then bent
and broke apart, only to form again when the team released the pressure
in an entirely different fashion with a diamond configuration and a
bonding structure that formed thin nanothreads.
New
"diammond nanothreads" are constructed as long strands of carbon atoms
that take the triangular pyramid shape of a diamond's atomic structure,
giving it unprecedented strength and stiffness for a nanometerial.
Penn State University
Graphene and carbon nanotubes, which are both based on carbon
atoms but differ in structure, are ushering in stunning advancements in
the fields of nanotechnology and materials science. Isolated from
graphite just 10 years ago, graphene offers the promise of
revolutionizing electronics, energy storage and even medicine because of
its incredibly low weight, its strength and its remarkable
conductivity. Some of these applications include using graphene and
carbon nanotubes to create next-generation touchscreens, solar cells,
batteries and nanocomposities used in tissue engineering.
This new discovery of diamond nanothreads, if they prove to be stronger
than existing materials, could accelerate current and future uses. That
includes more fuel-efficient electric vehicles and even a durable cable
that could send humans to space without the need of rockets.
"One of our wildest dreams for the nanomaterials we are developing is
that they could be used to make the super-strong, lightweight cables
that would make possible the construction of a 'space elevator' which so far has existed only as a science-fiction idea," Badding said.