For long, scientists considered that graphene and carbon nanotubes are the strongest materials in the world. Now, however, scientists have explored the properties of carbyne and realized that it is even stronger than graphene and carbon nanotubes.
Carbyne has been known for a while now but scientists didn’t know much about this particular form of carbon. Carbyne itself comprises of a single layer of atoms which is indefinitely long. These atoms are joined together through sequential double bonds or alternating single and triple bonds.
In the past, carbyne has been found in the meteorites but recently, researchers at Rice University decided to discern the properties of carbyne through a mathematical approach. Thanks to this research, they were able to find out that carbyne is incredibly strong. In fact, it is nearly twice as strong as graphene and carbon nanotubes.
Moreover, despite being incredibly strong, carbyne is quite flexible, which makes it ideal for a number of applications. Carbyne can’t exactly be stretched but its overall structure can be curved into an arc or a circle, a property which can be used for different microelectromechanical systems.
One important application of carbyne could be that it can be used in creating batteries which can provide very high amounts of energy while occupying very little space. This is possible because carbyne is only one atom thick and its incredibly high surface area allows it to pack a huge amount of energy.
These extra-ordinary properties of carbyne have been unveiled only now, so we can hope that it can be put to different uses in the coming days.
Courtesy: Extreme Tech
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