Carbon Tougher Than Diamond
When material scientists get their hands on an advanced 3D-printer they are unstoppable. Their new carbon nanolattices are much harder than diamond yet keeping very low on density.
Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay
- Be also sure to check out my other posts and follow me @kralizec and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Kralizec Gaming Youtube Channel
We love diamonds not only because of their beauty but also for their incredible physical attributes. Not long ago they were the peak of what we could even imagine having. But now material scientists are crossing the borders to the lands of impossible and are developing materials that we haven't even dreamed about.
Why Diamonds?
Jens Bauer from the University of California, Irvine and his colleagues recently designed carbon nanolattices that are harder than diamonds. The material is made from densely packed nanosheets – completely different from previous structures that attempted to create extremely hard materials that mostly used cylindrical beam-based nanolattices.
The newly designed carbon nanostructures are 600 % stronger and 500 % tougher. And just to make sure it all was not just theory they decided to build a bit of the material so they could analyze it with an electron microscope and other technologies at the Irvine Materials Research Institute.
The scientists have already predicted that these nanosheets should be incredibly tough. But, so far, nobody has managed to create such nanostructures so we could experimentally verify the prediction. Bauers team managed to do it using a complex 3D print process called “two-photon lithography direct laser writing”.
During this type of 3D-printing layers of UV-sensitive resin are slowly added. This resin hardens into a solid polymer with the desired nanostructure. The resin hardens at the moment when the polymer molecule is hit by two photons by the 3D printer at the same time. In the end, the whole nanostructure goes through a heat of 900° Celsius for one hour inside of a vacuum. The result is a carbon nanomaterial with a harness at the very edge of what material scientists can imagine.
These nanolattices are very promising for construction –, especially in the aerial and cosmic industry. Experts hope that the high toughness combined with low density could significantly improve our planes and spaceships.
Sources:
- If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other posts!
Hello kralizec!
Congratulations! This post has been randomly Resteemed! For a chance to get more of your content resteemed join the Steem Engine Team