A small rod of glassy carbon.
Posted on 10/13/2011 10:58:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
Carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe and takes on a wide variety of forms, called allotropes, including diamond and graphite. Scientists at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory are part of a team that has discovered a new form of carbon, which is capable of withstanding extreme pressure stresses that were previously observed only in diamond. This breakthrough discovery will be published in Physical Review Letters.
The team was led by Stanford's Wendy L. Mao and her graduate student Yu Lin and includes Carnegie's Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, Li Zhang, Paul Chow, Yuming Xiao, Maria Baldini, and Jinfu Shu. The experiment started with a form of carbon called glassy carbon, which was first synthesized in the 1950s, and was found to combine desirable properties of glasses and ceramics with those of graphite. The team created the new carbon allotrope by compressing glassy carbon to above 400,000 times normal atmospheric pressure.
This new carbon form was capable of withstanding 1.3 million times normal atmospheric pressure in one direction while confined under a pressure of 600,000 times atmospheric levels in other directions. No substance other than diamond has been observed to withstand this type of pressure stress, indicating that the new carbon allotrope must indeed be very strong.
However, unlike diamond and other crystalline forms of carbon, the structure of this new material is not organized in repeating atomic units. It is an amorphous material, meaning that its structure lacks the long-range order of crystals. This amorphous, superhard carbon allotrope would have a potential advantage over diamond if its hardness turns out to be isotropic—that is, having hardness that is equally strong in all directions. In contrast, diamond's hardness is highly dependent upon the direction in which the crystal is oriented.
"These findings open up possibilities for potential applications, including super hard anvils for high-pressure research and could lead to new classes of ultradense and strong materials," said Russell Hemley, director of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory.
A small rod of glassy carbon.
/mark
Depending how much it weighs, I can see this being used to protect soldiers or other kinds of shirlding if it can be produced in mass quantities.
” The team was led by Stanford’s Wendy L. Mao and her graduate student Yu Lin and includes Carnegie’s Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, Li Zhang, Paul Chow, Yuming Xiao, Maria Baldini, and Jinfu Shu “
Stanford?? Or a Chinese Farming Village??
Read that in a book one time, can't think of the author or title.
5.56mm
Aurthur Clarke wrote some books about that, actually it was to a higher orbit than that, but as I recall, they used a type of “string diamond” to do it.. this sounds a lot like that.
I’m sure they are all good Americans...........
And you thought I didn’t know that??? /s/
I am sure you can find plenty of Dick and Jane types names at the Occupy Wall Street protest. Perhaps instead of telling 2 entire generations that the most important thing is some ethereal "happiness" we should have stressed things like, financial security, responsibility and honor.
bflr
“Friday” by Robert Heinlein. He called them “Beanstalks”.
Arthur C Clark, “The Fountains of Paradise” is credited with the notion, though variants are older. Google “space elevator”. A very long rope tethered to the earth, long enough that its center of gravity is beyond geostationary orbit, will remain vertical. The rope must be strong enough, stronger than current materials allow yet physics/chemistry indicates suitable materials are indeed possible. Efforts are underway to encourage the technology needed to build a space elevator.
That’s nothing. Check Obama’s skull.
Well thats nice, but when can I buy my +6 Grandmaster Armor already? Dragons aint gonna off themselves!
The Chinese also don't have the punishing EPA regs that we do. They dont give a damn about smog, spotted owls, or lake pollution. Macau is friendlier to business than the U.S. is, but at the end of the day they are still COMMUNISTS and quite proud of it. A friend who lived in China asked many there what they thought on 9/11. The overwhelming response was "they finally got a bloody nose and they deserved it!".
Will do no good against dragons. Carbon burns............
Sounds like a candidate for engine blocks, bearings, races, etc.
Be still my gas-powered heart!
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