Supercomputer simulations of super-diamond suggest a path to its creation
Diamond is the strongest material known. However, another form of carbon has been predicted to be even tougher than diamond. The challenge is how to create it on Earth.
Diamond is the strongest material known. However, another form of carbon has been predicted to be even tougher than diamond. The challenge is how to create it on Earth.
Analytical Chemistry
17 hours ago
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169
Sometimes, seeing clearly requires complete black. For astronomy and precision optics, coating devices in black paint can cut down on stray light, enhancing images and boosting performance. For the most advanced telescopes ...
Nanophysics
Mar 12, 2024
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92
National University of Singapore (NUS) chemists have solved a longstanding challenge in the synthesis of congested C(sp3)-rich molecules by developing a new iron-catalyzed reaction that generates two alkyl-alkyl bonds in ...
Analytical Chemistry
Mar 6, 2024
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1
The secrets of photosynthesis have been discovered at the atomic level, shedding important new light on this plant super-power that greened the Earth more than a billion years ago.
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2024
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44
Carbon nanotubes have shown promise for everything from microelectronics to aviation to energy storage. Researchers think this material might one day fulfill the science fiction dream of creating an elevator to space.
Nanomaterials
Feb 29, 2024
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159
To synthesize potential drugs or natural products, you need natural substances in specific mirror-image variants and with a high degree of purity. For the first time, chemists at the University of Bonn have succeeded in producing ...
Biochemistry
Feb 19, 2024
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104
A team of Rice University researchers mapped out how flecks of 2D materials move in liquid ⎯ knowledge that could help scientists assemble macroscopic-scale materials with the same useful properties as their 2D counterparts.
Nanomaterials
Feb 1, 2024
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121
Carbon nanostructures could become easier to design and synthesize thanks to a machine learning method that predicts how they grow on metal surfaces. The new approach, developed by researchers at Japan's Tohoku University ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 31, 2024
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36
In chemistry, structure is everything. Compounds with the same chemical formula can have different properties depending on the arrangement of the molecules they're made of. And compounds with a different chemical formula ...
Nanophysics
Jan 24, 2024
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2
For the first time, scientists have successfully trapped atoms of krypton (Kr), a noble gas, inside a carbon nanotube to form a one-dimensional gas.
Nanophysics
Jan 22, 2024
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60
Carbon (pronounced /ˈkɑrbən/) is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. There are three naturally occurring isotopes, with 12C and 13C being stable, while 14C is radioactive, decaying with a half-life of about 5730 years. Carbon is one of the few elements known since antiquity. The name "carbon" comes from Latin language carbo, coal, and, in some Romance and Slavic languages, the word carbon can refer both to the element and to coal.
There are several allotropes of carbon of which the best known are graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon. The physical properties of carbon vary widely with the allotropic form. For example, diamond is highly transparent, while graphite is opaque and black. Diamond is among the hardest materials known, while graphite is soft enough to form a streak on paper (hence its name, from the Greek word "to write"). Diamond has a very low electrical conductivity, while graphite is a very good conductor. Under normal conditions, diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of all known materials. All the allotropic forms are solids under normal conditions but graphite is the most thermodynamically stable.
All forms of carbon are highly stable, requiring high temperature to react even with oxygen. The most common oxidation state of carbon in inorganic compounds is +4, while +2 is found in carbon monoxide and other transition metal carbonyl complexes. The largest sources of inorganic carbon are limestones, dolomites and carbon dioxide, but significant quantities occur in organic deposits of coal, peat, oil and methane clathrates. Carbon forms more compounds than any other element, with almost ten million pure organic compounds described to date, which in turn are a tiny fraction of such compounds that are theoretically possible under standard conditions.
Carbon is one of the least abundant elements in the Earth's crust, but the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. It is present in all known lifeforms, and in the human body carbon is the second most abundant element by mass (about 18.5%) after oxygen. This abundance, together with the unique diversity of organic compounds and their unusual polymer-forming ability at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth, make this element the chemical basis of all known life.
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