Scientists use 'smallest possible diamonds' to form ultra-thin nanothreads

"Diamond nanothreads" promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness greater than that of today's strongest nanotubes and polymers. The core of the nanothreads is a long, thin strand of carbon atoms arranged just like the fundamental unit of a diamond's structure - zig-zag "cyclohexane" rings of six carbon atoms bound together, in which each carbon is surrounded by others in the strong triangular-pyramid shape of a tetrahedron. The threads, made for the first time by a team led by John V. Badding of Penn State, have a structure that has never been seen before. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. For the first time, scientists have discovered how to produce ultra-thin "diamond nanothreads" that promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness greater than that of today's strongest nanotubes and polymers. A paper describing this discovery by a research team led by John V. Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, was published in the Sept. 21 issue of.