Carbyne Could Be the Strongest Element Known to Man
What's This?
Diamonds have another challenger for the hardest element title.
A team of scientists at Rice University in Houston worked out the mathematical formula behind carbyne, a specific arrangement of lowly carbon atoms.
Carbyne is created when carbon atoms are linked together as a chain of sequential double bonds or alternating single and triple bonds. Carbyne is believed to be twice as hard as a carbon sheet and will need more energy to break than a diamond.
Its other distinguishing property is its behavior, which changes according to materials it connects with. For instance, if you add a methylene molecule to the otherwise hard substance, it will become malleable.
Carbyne has been seen in space, in asteroids and interstellar debris, but is hard to replicate in a lab. The longest chain created is a little more than 40 atoms long.
This is still fairly untested and therefore volatile. The math says combustion isn't spontaneous meaning carbyne could interact with air at room temperature safely.
Image: Cornell University, arXiv:1308.2258v1
Topics: carbon, carbyne, chemistry, Dev & Design, Newsy, Tech, Work & Play
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