Scientists develop 'wonder material' carbyne in bulk amounts for the first time
Carbyne has been created before, but only in small, unstable amounts
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Scientists have developed a super-strong new 'wonder material' in a stable form for the very first time.
A team of researchers from the University of Vienna, who detailed their findings in the Nature Materials journal, have successfully produced bulk amounts of carbyne in the lab.
Carbyne was first modelled in a computer simulation, by scientists keen to learn more about its unusual properties. The material, made from long chains of carbon atoms, has enormous tensile strength and stiffness. Stretching it can also alter its electrical conductivity, giving it a wide range of uses in electronic devices.
However, even when they manage to create carbyne in real life, scientists (until now) have only ever been able to create an extremely unstable 100-atom long string, at the most.
The Austrian researchers have dramatically improved the process - some of the strings they created were 6,400 atoms long, and could remain stable indefinitely due to the innovative way they were constructed.
The team, using two rolled sheets of graphene, created a tiny double-walled tube. They synthesised the carbyne in the gap between the graphene sheets, which protected the material and kept it stable.
Although the carbyne strings the team has created are longer than ever before, they're still invisible to the naked eye. Much more work will need to be done before the remarkable material becomes usable, and the scientists still don't know whether it will retain its properties while inside the graphene tube.
However, as it says in the study, the team's discovery represents as "elegant forerunner towards the final goal of carbyne's bulk production."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments