Materials called 'holy grail' are 40 times harder than diamonds

Scientists at the University of Vienna in Austria have made the world's most rigid material, called carbyne, with the most advanced technology.

The carbyne chain is formed inside two-layer graphene nanotubes. Photo: University of Vienna.

According to the International Business Times, this is the first time that carbyne has been successfully synthesized and persists in a stable form, with 40 times the hardness of diamonds and twice as much as graphene.

Carbyne is the name for a structure of one-way chain carbon atoms . The existence of carbonyne was predicted in 1885 but in practice it is not sustainable and is often referred to only in simulated studies.

In a study published today in the journal Nature Materials, a stable chain of 6,400 carbons was created by scientists at Vienna University inside a two-layer graphene tube. The technique for developing carbyne chains inside graphene tubes is a breakthrough technique that helps protect and develop the carbohydrate chain.

The team's discovery could pave the way for mass production of the carbyne metaphor, which is considered the " holy grail " in the material world. "Our results establish a new technique that produces large numbers of long and stable carbyne chains containing more than 6,000 carbon atoms ," said Lei Shi, lead author of the study.

The 6,400-carbornne chain is so small that it can not be seen with the naked eye. However, the incredible stiffness ratio of carbyne can create a new future for construction and engineering. The excellent conductivity of carbyne can also change the appearance of microelectronic devices in the future.