Liquid Benzene Squeezed to Form Diamond Nanothreads

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Liquid Benzene Squeezed to Form Diamond Nanothreads

 The classic Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” may have a new meaning. Scientists announced they have likely discovered the strongest, stiffest diamond-based nanomaterial to date. Its properties suggest it could have important industrial applications, such as in transportation or aerospace manufacturing, and it might revive the idea of building elevators to space.
 
A team led by chemist John Badding of Pennsylvania State University took an approach reminiscent of the way Superman squeezed coal into diamond in comic books. The researchers found that isolated, liquid-state benzene molecules, which consist of rings of carbon atoms, assemble into surprisingly neat and orderly chains after enduring slow, alternating cycles of pressure. The resulting thread, merely three atoms across and thousands of times thinner than a strand of hair, appears to have a zigzagging arrangement of rings of carbon atoms in the shape of a triangular pyramid—a formation similar to diamond’s. Such a structure, which scientists didn’t know was possible until now, could be the strongest and most durable nanomaterial ever made.
 
Badding says that the team’s discovery was serendipitous: “Honestly, it was just an accident.” Thomas Fitzgibbons, a graduate student in Badding’s lab, wanted to study materials made by the organic chemical compound benzene. When isolated, benzene molecules can react in interesting ways to form unique structures. To study these structures using conventional techniques, however, Fitzgibbons needed large quantities of the product. He brought a sample of liquid benzene to a machine called a Paris-Edinburgh device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and put the molecules into a high-pressure cell. In general, when a liquid is squeezed under intense pressure, it transforms into a solid. “It essentially freezes,” Badding says. Once frozen, benzene molecules align into predictable patterns of stacked columns.
 
What happened next is the unusual part. Scientists have generally believed that as compression continues, the benzene molecules eventually yield a sloppy, white powder. “People thought they’d react in a disorganized way and make a mess,” Badding says.
 
But instead of disarray, Fitzgibbons saw order. “That was a shock to us, to say the least,” Badding confesses. The researchers were so surprised, they deployed a battery of techniques to confirm the finding, including x-ray and neutron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and vibrational spectroscopy. Their results were consistent: they saw order.
 
The reason for this unexpected alignment of benzene molecules may lie in the timing of the compression. Scientists generally create benzene materials in small amounts by quick cycles of pressure changes. To make more product, the compression cycles must be slower. “It seems we gave benzene molecules time to arrange into a pattern, particularly nanothreads,” Badding says. This slow compression was key to their discovery.
 
Yury Gogotsi, director of the A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute at Drexel University, says that although the results are indeed exciting, he would like further confirmation and analysis of the material, for example using “much higher-resolution images, which can further shed light on the material’s structure,” Gogotsi says. “Assuming their interpretation is correct, which there’s good reason to believe, I think this discovery is significant.”

alt Before the nanothreads can be used commercially, Badding wants to determine their properties and behavior in different conditions and to understand exactly how the benzene molecules link up. The studies could take years, he says. Then engineers will need to figure out how best to mass-manufacture them and incorporate them into existing industrial infrastructure for various uses. For a start, these threads seem poised to replace carbon fiber, which is weaker and heavier, in commercial products such as bicycle frames, golf clubs and airplane bodies.
 
Even further in the future, the nanothreads could perhaps stretch into space to deliver supplies to the International Space Station or interact with orbiting satellites. Seriously. Futurists have long imagined that a cable anchored on Earth and attached to a satellite in orbit could be the basis for a space elevator, but making a cable long and strong enough to resist the high-altitude winds and to ferry loads safely has proved a challenge. Conventional steel cables would break under their own weight. Diamond nanothreads could in principle be both light enough and tough enough to do the job.
 
Even if this particular nanothread proves incapable of sending supplies or humans into orbit, its discovery could pave the way for better alternatives. This is not the first time scientists have spawned diamond structures by tricking rings of carbon into unique configurations. Diamond-like carbons, also called amorphous carbons, are typically applied as coatings to other materials, such as the protective layer on a stainless steel pan. Gogotsi says that although hitting upon a new structure is surprising and interesting, this research reminds chemists that the discovery of other similar structures is not far off. “This group has shown that it’s another member of the family of diamond structures, and I’m sure that it’s not the last,” Gogotsi says. If so, then someday a space elevator may exist, and there might really be diamonds in the sky.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/liquid-benzene-squeezed-to-form-diamond-nanothreads/

 

News from MRC.ORG.UA

Twenty Third Annual Conference - YUCOMAT 2022 Twelfth World Round Table Conference on Sintering - XII WRTCS 2022 Herceg Novi, August 29 – September 2, 2022

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Our collaborators and partners  presented our joint research at the Yucomat conference - at Symposium on Biomaterials and two collaborative posters at Conference Poster Session.

 
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second MXene COnference 2022, Drexel University, USA

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Researchers from University of Latvia and Materials Research Center, Ukraine are visiting Drexel University due to Horizon-2020-MSCA-RISE NANO2DAY research project.

 
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Sergiy Kyrylenko, Oleksiy Gogotsi, Ivan Baginskiy, Vitalii Balitskyi, Veronika Zahorodna, Yevheniia Husak, Ilya Yanko, Mykolay Pernakov, Anton Roshchupkin, Mykola Lyndin, Bernhard B. Singer, Volodymyr Buranych, Alexander Pogrebnjak, Oksana Sulaieva, Oleksandr Solodovnyk, Yury Gogotsi, Maksym Pogorielov, MXene-Assisted Ablation of Cells with a Pulsed Near-Infrared Laser. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2022, 14, 25, 28683–28696, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c08678

 
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Presenting our collaborative paper on recen advances in MXene research and their potential applications:

Pogorielov M, Smyrnova K, Kyrylenko S, Gogotsi O, Zahorodna V, Pogrebnjak A. MXenes—A New Class of Two-Dimensional Materials: Structure, Properties and Potential Applications. Nanomaterials. 2021; 11(12):3412. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11123412

 
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If you want to help and support the purchase of aid consignments, shipping cost to Ukraine and delivery within Ukraine to the places in nee, please donate

Our volunteersBig thanks to all our friends, partners, volunteers for help and their tireless work! We continue to help our defenders and deliver military equipment, humanitarian aid, tactical medicine and special medical supplies to units of Ukrainian Army, territorial defense and hospitals on the front line!

 
Delivering help to Ukraine from the USA, Europe, and the rest of the world!

3.jpg - 197.81 KbOur organization in Kyiv, Materials Research Center, is well aware of the needs in Ukraine now. Together with our partners, fellow Ukrainian scientists, we have organized a warehouse in Lviv, where we collect cargos and distribute them throughout Ukraine, with detailed reports confirming the delivery to the final destination, including photos of the transfer. We have transportation that can pick cargo in Poland and deliver it through a green corridor for humanitarian cargos at the Polish-Ukrainian border. 
We are ready to respond promptly, as required by the situation in Ukraine. If there are individuals, foundations or volunteer organizations willing to send help to Ukraine from Europe or the United States, we are ready to accept it in our warehouses, make collection or individual parties according to your request and pass them on to those in need. All humanitarian aid, first aid, and protective gear will be delivered to the final destination.
Please contact Dr. Oleksiy Gogotsi, MRC Director: Tel / Viber / WhatsApp / Telegram / Signal: + 380 63 233 2443, Cell phone in the USA: +1 808 203 8092, e-mail: helpukraine@mrc.org.ua
Being currently on a business trip in Philadelphia, the United States, we can meet with you in person, if needed.

 
MRC Ukraine Foundation. Providing of military first aid medicine for the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

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MRC Ukraine Foundation. Providing of military first aid medicine for the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine via volunteers. Specialized military first aid medical supplies were provided by the Special Forces Foundation, Green Berets Humanitarian Fund, USA

 
Delivering military first aid medicine from the Special Forces Foundation Green Beret Humanitarian Fund (GBHF) from the USA to territorial defences, army unit and 2 hospitals

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Delivering military first aid medicine from the Special Forces Foundation Green Beret Humanitarian Fund (GBHF) from the USA via the Kernel Volunteer Group for the Territorial Defense of Kyiv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Voznesensk, as well as some military unit in Kyiv and Ternopil. Also part of medical supplies is transferred to hospitals in Krasnopillia in Sumy region and Voznesensk in Mykolaiv region

 

 
MRC Ukraine Foundation. Transfer of military first aid medicine at our hub in Lviv

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MRC Ukraine Foundation. Transfer of military first aid medicine at our hub in Lviv from the American Green Beret Humanitarian Fund for some military units.

 
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Registration is now open for the upcoming MXene Certificate Course, February 7-11, 2022 from Professor Yury Gogotsi and his team, Drexel University, USA

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