Carbyne, a new super-strong “wonder material,” had been developed by scientists in small amounts, but in an unstable form. However, a group of scientists and researchers from the University of Vienna have been able to recently produce Carbyne in bulk amounts.
Carbyne is a material formed from long chains of Carbon atoms that has enormous stiffness and malleable strength. When stretched, its electrical conductivity can alter an extent where it can be widely useful in electronic devices.
Scientists who were extremely keen on learning about Carbyne’s exceptional and unusual properties, first modelled it in a computer simulation. When they were successful in creating Carbyne in real life, they managed to create an extremely unstable 100-atom long string. Recently, the Austrian researchers were able to dramatically improve the process of Carbyne creation with some of the results being 6,400-atoms long strings. This large amount of Carbyne created was comparatively stable due to the innovative process of its construction.
The team of researchers used two rolled sheets of Graphene to create a tiny dual-walled tube. The gap between the Graphene sheets where the Carbyne was synthesized, kept the material protected and stable.
Although the team was successful in creation of stable and longer Carbyne strings, they are invisible to naked eye. The scientists are unsure about Carbyne maintaining its properties inside the Graphene tube and about how much more work will be required to make this remarkable material usable.