Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator (space.com)

Taco Cowboy writes with news that Penn State researchers have discovered a way to produce ultra-thin diamond nanothreads that could be ideal for a space elevator. According to the report at Space.com, The team, led by chemistry professor John Badding, applied alternating cycles of pressure to isolated, liquid-state benzene molecules and were amazed to find that rings of carbon atoms assembled into neat and orderly chains. While they were expecting the benzene molecules to react in a disorganized way, they instead created a neat thread 20,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair but perhaps the strongest material ever made. ... Just recently, a team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia modeled the diamond nanothreads using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and concluded that the material is far more versatile than previously thought and has great promise for aerospace properties.

Comments

Elevator will happen when materials are proven

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh look, some decayed old Luddite butthurt. What's the matter, your buggy whip hanging up there useless, touching off some stank 'ol nostalgia for ya? protip - stop reading tech sites. You're too backwards to hang around real engineering types.