Scientists discovered how to produce ultra-thin "diamond" nanothreads for the first time. The threads are stronger and stiffer than modern nanotubes and polymers, and could help researchers create impressive structures such as a space elevator.
The core of the nanothreads is a "long, thin strand of carbon atoms" arranged in a diamond-like structure, Penn State University reported.
"It is as if an incredible jeweler has strung together the smallest possible diamonds into a long miniature necklace," said John V. Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State. "Because this thread is diamond at heart, we expect that it will prove to be extraordinarily stiff, extraordinarily strong, and extraordinarily useful."
For a century scientists went through a series of failed attempts to compress separate carbon-containing molecules such as liquid benzene into a diamond-like nanomaterial. Recently the Penn State researchers finally achieved the feat using the high-pressure Paris-Edinburgh device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to compress a six-millimeter-wide amount of benzene. They found by slowly releasing the pressure of the compression at room temperature they could allow the carbon atoms to react with each other and create the diamond-like nanothread.
The research team is the first to coax carbon-containing molecules to form the tetrahedron shape and link end-to-end to create a thread thinner than a human hair. The ability of the atoms to organize themselves at room temperature has left chemists and physicists shocked.
"Considering earlier experiments, we think that, when the benzene molecule breaks under very high pressure, its atoms want to grab onto something else but they can't move around because the pressure removes all the space between them. This benzene then becomes highly reactive so that, when we release the pressure very slowly, an orderly polymerization reaction happens that forms the diamond-core nanothread," Badding said.
Some of the parts of the first diamond nanothreads were imperfect, so the researchers hope to keep improving their methods. The team also hopes to discover how to create higher quantities of the nanothreads so they can be produced at an industrial scale.
The findings could open up the door for the creation of other kinds of molecules based on carbon and hydrogen. The materials could be used to create lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles and super-strong construction material that could even be used to create a science fiction-inspired space elevator.
"The dream is to be able to add other atoms that would be incorporated into the resulting nanothread. By pressurizing whatever liquid we design, we may be able to make an enormous number of different materials," Badding said.
The findings were published Sept. 21 issue of the journal Nature Materials.
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