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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
A research team from Tsinghua University in Beijing has developed a fibre they say is so strong it could even be used to build an elevator to space.
They say just 1 cubic centimetre of the fibre – made from carbon nanotube – would not break under the weight of 160 elephants, or more than 800 tonnes. And that tiny piece of cable would weigh just 1.6 grams.
"This is a breakthrough," said Wang Changqing, a scientist at a key space elevator research centre at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian who was not involved in the Tsinghua study.
The Chinese team has developed a new "ultralong" fibre from carbon nanotube that they say is stronger than anything seen before, patenting the technology and publishing part of their research in the journal Nature Nanotechnology earlier this year.
"It is evident that the tensile strength of carbon nanotube bundles is at least 9 to 45 times that of other materials," the team said in the paper.
But hey, it's China, please consume with a medium-sized boulder of salt.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday October 27 2018, @04:25PM
Perhaps what you need to do is braid the nanotubes with lots of overlap in the bundle. I'm not sure what the inter-nanotube friction would be, though. Still, bundles of braided nanotubes, with each braid several miles long should work. This would need to be tested, of course. If you need to embed the stuff in a matrix you'll impair the strength vs. weight. But perhaps the outside of the nanotubes could have some molecules attached that would create sufficient friction to avoid the need for a matrix.
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