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Another Form of Carbon: Magnetic Nanofoam

Posted by timothy on from the foamy-goodness dept.

mhh5 writes "Researchers publishing in Nature have discovered yet another form of carbon. Apparently, this stuff is temporarily magnetic after it is made (at temperatures of ~10,000 C) and is a spongy solid. So that's five (give or take one?) allotropes for carbon: amorphous, graphite, diamond, fullerenes, and nanofoam. Collect them all!"

9 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Injecting into my bloodstream? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is really cool--another form of carbon.

    But the linked article discusses injecting this into people's bloodstream for imaging purposes.

    I know that nothing of the sort would happen until after extensive testing, but the thought of it makes me cringe. Injecting it into my bloodstream is bad enough, but doing that and then subjecting it to a strong magnetic field--which it is extremely responsive to--seems especially troublesome.

    I'm not saying that it wouldn't be useful. I'm just saying it makes me concerned.

    1. Re:Injecting into my bloodstream? by ebrandsberg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Can I guess you are opposed to MRI's too? My grandfather, a veteran of WW II couldn't have MRI's because in gaining his two purple hearts, he also got shrapnel lodged in his skull, which because it could become dislodged in an MRI, he couldn't have. About a year ago, he had some hemoraging in his brain, and they had to basically go in blind to releave the preasure. Oddly enough, he outlived his brain surgeon, who died of a heart attack soon thereafter, although he followed himself in October. Such is life...

    2. Re:Injecting into my bloodstream? by Saragon42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not worried about having magnetic substances injected into my bloodstream - I get enough EM radiation from my PC's monitor, not to mention sunlight. What I'm curious about is the article's discussion of heating the molecules once they're inside my body. I know one of the researchers mentioned that this carbon nanofoam is a piss-poor conductor of heat, but I'm still a bit wary of that.

      Also, it's been a few years since high-school chemistry - why would this nanofoam lose its magnetic properties after a few hours, rather than immediately upon cooldown? That just strikes me as weird. (Fascinating and cool, but weird.)

      --
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  2. Nanotubes by isn't+my+name · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So that's five (give or take one?) allotropes for carbon: amorphous, graphite, diamond, fullerenes, and nanofoam. Collect them all!"

    Don't nanotubes make at least six? Or are you considering that a weird fullerene form?

  3. supercapacitors? by GigsVT · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know they're using carbon aerogels to make really large capacitance caps in the 1-100Farad range. Does this new nanofoam have similar potential for making new capacitors with higher surface area/mass ratios?

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  4. Oooh I've got a use! by kippy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I already commented on this over here but hey...

    I'm a space nut so you can guess where I'm going with this.

    Aerogel is a really cool substance. It's glass foam that's very very light and it's an excellent insulator. I don't know about it's radiation blocking properties though.

    If this carbon foam is of comparable weight as aerogel (negligible), it's perfect for space use. The lighter the better since it costs $thousands/kilo to get stuff off the ground. If it blocks radiation, fantastic. Water and metal are the big rad blockers now but they're heavy. If it can act as a good insulator too, you're golden. If not, a sandwich of aerogel and carbon nanofoam could act as a heat trapper so you don't freeze and a radiation blocker so you don't get zapped. And all for practicaly no weight. Shazam!

    --
    Blaze a trail to the New World
    1. Re:Oooh I've got a use! by JGski · · Score: 3, Interesting
      "Radiation" is many, many things. It's sort of like glomming all programming languages together: OO, functional, etc.

      So blocking "radiation" isn't always simply a matter of density, aka Hi-Z shielding. There are cases, such as with cosmic rays, where Hi-Z actually increases the radiation exposure on the other side of the shield though the processes called spallation and bremstrahlung.

  5. So, diamonds AREN'T forever... by dpbsmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...I spotted a factoid I hadn't known in the referenced Wikipedia article

    "The transition [from diamond] to graphite at room temperature is so slow as to be unnoticeable."

    So, diamonds aren't forever, diamonds are just a really long time.

    --

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  6. Re:Finally... by stevelinton · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Nonsense -- sounds remarkably like a primitive version of the "flamed trellis" from A Fire Upon the Deep:


    After a moment, Greenstalk said a little shyly,
    "There are theories. It's pure carbon, a fractal polymer. We know it's very
    common in Transcendent cargoes. We think it's used as packing material for
    some kinds of sentient property."
    "Or perhaps the excrement of such property," Blueshell buzz-muttered.