New Research Suggests That Carbyne Can Be Mass Produced

About three years ago, we told you about an incredible material that is not only much stronger than diamond but also quite stronger than graphene as well. Named Carbyne, the material has not yet been synthesised even though it has been studied by researchers for five decades now, but it looks like there’s actually hope to mass produce it someday, at least according to a new research project. What makes Carbyne so special is that it is hypothesised to be the strongest material in the world, 40 times stronger than diamond, actually. The main problem with it is that it is incredibly unstable, and according to German chemist Adolf Von Baeyer, its high reactivity would always cause its immediate destruction.

However, a team of scientists has come up with an ingenious solution that could allow us to mass produce this material in the future. They took a pair of graphene layers, pressed them together and rolled them into thin double-walled carbon nanotubes. These tubes can be wrapped around atoms in order to protect the carbyne chains from immediate destruction while enhancing its overall stability. By creating this chain, the team also broke the record for the largest number of carbon atoms present in a single continuous chain. The entire project was published in a journal named Nature Materials, and it definitely looks promising.