New Carbon-based Paper Stronger Than Nanotubes 166
LynnwoodRooster writes "Science Magazine reports that a group from Northwestern University in Illinois has a new process for creating carbon-based paper that's stronger than nanotubes, and incredibly easy to use to make sheets of any desired sizes. Huge implications for aircraft, automobiles, and the ever-sought-after space elevator?"
The end of a generation of excuses (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:The end of a generation of excuses (Score:5, Funny)
"My dog ate my homework. I'll hand it in tomorrow."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Super Strong Carbon-based paper eh? (Score:1, Funny)
Gives a new meaning to the word... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how many /.ers... (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder how many /.ers are too young to even know what you're talking about? :)
(Yeah, I know there are still places where it's used - probably.)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if anyone remembers those wonderful blue Mimeograph [wikipedia.org] machine
Re:I wonder how many /.ers... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Spirit Duplicator (Score:2)
Just in case... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
I've got a few typewriters sitting around, but they're rather common models. Even the interesting and antique-looking Royal Portable, I found, was produced for a wide range of years (mine comes, IIRC, from the late '30s or early '40s) and has little collectible val
Re: (Score:2)
Every time you CC (carbon-copy) someone on an email. That's when the little email gnomes use carbon paper to make more copies of your emails.
Water (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Water (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Water (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the usual practice for making composites for structures and vehicles. Epoxy is the resin of choice. Using epoxy with this material as opposed to woven carbon material will result in very little weight difference, but if this stuff will be that much cheaper, great. Here's my source for making rocket parts; check the prices per yard: http://www.aerosleeves.com/Carbon_Fiber_Biaxial_S
There's also a recurring shortage andd thus price fluctuations due to supply problems with the raw fiber. A new material with roughly the same characteristics but without the supply problems would be very nice too.
Epoxy would also make them fairly water resistant after curing. Topping that with acrylic completes that job and makes for a pretty finish too. That doesn't solve the manufacturing problem. I hope they come up with a solution (har...) that's not an environment unfriendly solvent.
Re: (Score:2)
It does work pretty well on artwork, though.
Re:Water (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Water (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Water (Score:5, Informative)
It's no different than any other composite. Silk is still an extremely attractive (oops, no pun intended) medium for composites, but very expensive compared to carbon fiber, kevlar, and fiberglass cloths. But, with any of those modern materials used in composites, the tensile strength is one thing, but torsional stiffness is nonexistent, and the materials are not waterproof. Resin by itself has extremely good torsional strength, but very little tensile strength and is very brittle. So, the solution is to make a sandwich of materials with each desirable characteristic, resulting in a composite material which will have the most desirable characteristics of each composite component, but without the undesirable characteristics. Carbon fibre is protected from UV, water, and abrasion by the epoxy (and usually a additional layer of protection using acrylic, lacquer, or other coating - in other words paint), and the resin provides torsional stiffnes by itself AND by bonding several layers of the cloth together, which utilizes the tensile strength of each composite to further increase torsional strength without becoming brittle.
Why should paper be any different? The bonding techniques will be different, sure, but this discovery is the first step. The next step is to either devise a new bonding process which is as reliable as "conventional" composites, or to find a way to use this process to develop new fibers which can be used in conventional composite construction techniques.
It would be interesting to see how this development affects experimental aircraft. Can a Long-EZ or Cozy MkIV be made lighter with this new material, without sacrificing airframe strength and without lengthening build time?
Re:Water (Score:5, Informative)
It also rots. My neighbour had a Pacer [abacuspub.com] whose fabric rotted out and he had to get the wing recovered.
Silk is often referred to as "stronger than steel". That may be true per unit density (strength/weight), it really doesn't matter because silk is useless as a structural due to it's low stiffness. Young's modulus is around 100 or 200 MPA, whereas aluminum is about 70,000 and steel is 200,000.
There is no such thing as the torsional strength of a material. Structures have torsional strength, not materials. Materials have shear strength, and the shear strength of even the very very best polymers are negligible compared to common structural materials. The shear strength of common high-performance epoxies used in aircraft composites are maybe 5 ksi when you account for moisture absorption and service temperature, whereas 2024 aluminum is maybe 30 ksi.
Resin doesn't have good "torsional" (shear) strength, it has bad shear strength. Ditto for the tensile strength. Again, compared to most structural materials, most polymers (resins) have high elongation to failure but that varies widely depending on the amount of crosslinking of the hydrocarbon chains. Within the epoxies, you can formulate ones that have low crosslinking and stretch like bubblegum, or you can crosslink the bejeepers out of them and create glass. It depends on the chemistry.
Actually, the resin together with the fibers forms a microstructure that becomes a material continuum from the macro perspective. That is, the composite is actually a structure on a microscopic scale, but from an engineering point of view it is viewed as a material with properties derived using classical lamination theory [efunda.com]. So the purpose of the matrix (resin) is structural, you could say to support the fibers that carry the actual load. The paint is required to protect the matrix from UV and moisture as most polymers are susceptible to both.
The resin doesn't provide any of the stiffness, the fibers do all that, the resin (matrix) supports the fibers so they can do their job. The shear stiffness and strength of the laminate stack come from plies at 45 degrees to the load application direction. Mohr's circle [efunda.com] for pure shear tells us that you get pure tension and compression in the 45 degree directions, which the fibers can carry. It's quite clever and is the classic example of structural tailoring.
A million reasons. How resistant the material is to delamination would be my first question. Hidden delamination and it's effect on compression strength was carbon/epoxy's Achilles heel for a long time. Getting the matrix (epoxy?)
Re: (Score:2)
Moisture (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
It may just make the paper thicker.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
obviously it's in a composite... (Score:3, Informative)
TFA states that water is the "kryptonite" of the superstrong paper. Doesn't that kill its practicality in things like planes and automobiles?
Carbon fiber is a floppy woven cloth that can be cut with scissors, but that doesn't stop people from building planes, cayaks, and golf club shafts with the stuff by making a composite with epoxy.
Carbon fiber is great stuff- its main failing is that nobody can make the stuff fast enough (or manufacturers are intentionally not ramping up capacity to milk the aeros
Kevlar (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what data you looked at, it's probably an immersion test at room temp after which they tested tensile strength. Kevlar has fabulous tensile strength, that's not its problem.
There aren't any obvious references I can find, so you will just have to trust me on this, Kevlar's compressive strength, which is low to begin with, goes to hell after moisture absorption and at high service temp. Typically an aircraft part has to withstand 125 degrees F.
The combination of high tensile strength and low
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Water (Score:5, Informative)
Not in the slightest. It just won't be a drop-in replacement for aluminum.
All materials have their strengths and weaknesses. Think of something more like a house... Wood doesn't do too well with water, so the roof is coated with weak, non-structural materials like asphalt shingles or tile. In fact most structural building materials don't do too well with exposure to water and are shielded in some way.
It's not hard to imagine this carbon paper being used to construct structural beams of airplanes and automobiles, being coated with rubber or tar for last-line protection, and having the skin made of other materials that aren't at all susceptible to water (aluminum, fiberglass, or composites).
Of course, we don't know that is going to be an issue to begin with. They seem to be looking into materials other than water to bond the carbon, so this could all be a moot point.
Keep reading (Score:2)
TFA states that water is the "kryptonite" of the superstrong paper.
Doesn't that kill its practicality in things like planes and automobiles? If it rains, then you could have a major catastrophe on your hands...
I'm surprised you read that far and then stopped. From TFA:
So, the next task is to find other molecules that can replace water in the fabrication process. That research challenge and others probably puts commercialization of the technology at least 5 or 10 years away, Ruoff says.
Water?! (Score:2)
I kid, I kid. Obviously steel's vulnerability to water takes place on a vastly different scale of time and affect.
Still, it does suggest that if this graphene-oxide paper is sufficiently advantageous in some domain (as you say, probably NOT aerojets and automocars), then means could be found to protect it from moisture. Right of the top of my head, the idea of spacecraft comes to mind. I wonder how much moisture makes it up to a low-ear
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Just imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nanotubes? (Score:2)
Re:Nanotubes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nanotubes? (Score:5, Informative)
(While I'm thinking of it, why do organic vegetables cost more? They're all organic...)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
- RG>
Coat it in Teflon! (Score:2, Interesting)
Coat it in teflon. Teflon stretches very easily and is water tight.
Re: (Score:2)
Good point. Better hope you don't crash your teflon-coated paper car in the rain. Shatter the teflon coating and you suddenly have a pile of wet paper.
Next on the drawing board: invent a waterproof coating that is as strong as carbon-based paper...
Re:Coat it in Teflon! (Score:4, Informative)
Next on the drawing board: invent a waterproof coating that is as strong as carbon-based paper...
It doesn't have to be as strong, merely flexible...
That way it won't shatter.
Kinda like the paint we put on cars today.
Re: (Score:2)
Kinda like the paint we put on cars today (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why does the coating need to be stiff?
It doesn't have to be as strong, merely flexible...
That way it won't shatter.
Kinda like the paint we put on cars today.
I take it you've never been in an accident? It usually requires at the very least a new paint job. Why? Because the paint usually has big gouges and is scraped/flaked off of many sections.
I agree that the coating doesn't necessarily have to be stiff. My suggestion that they needed to reinvent the exact same material as a coating that is waterproof was kind of a joke.
But it needs to be much more resistant to scratches and gauges and flaking than paint, and not shatter like teflon probably would. It's anothe
finally (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who's going to be shredding documents wouldn't use unshreddable paper.
Re: (Score:2)
On the radio (Score:4, Funny)
Strong, but not strong enough. (Score:5, Informative)
Sadly, no. TFA links to the actual paper [northwestern.edu]. Tensile strength is on the order of 35 GPa. We'd need 65 GPa or more from a material with density similar to graphite.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not even that good. The tensile strength [wikipedia.org] is ~130 MPa. It's the Young's modulus [wikipedia.org] that's 32 GPa.
So we're still short a factor of 500x from space-elevator-grade unobtanium.
Next up (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Uhh... what were we talking about again?
Bwuahaha (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
From TFA: "Also, says materials scientist Boris Yakobson of Rice University in Houston, Texas, because water is so common as either liquid as rain or vapor as humidity, it will [probably] affect graphene sheets exposed to the environment in the long run if the material can't be protected from water's effects."
Sorry.
TWW
Finally, a solution to the nasty problem . . . (Score:2)
Industiral Engineering Problem? (Score:2)
New Army Body Armor (Score:5, Funny)
Pvt Parts was quoted "Yeah they're crap for camouflage and look fucking stupid, that and some joker keeps writing "I luv the cock" and sticking it on my back, but man do they stop the bullets."
Also in the news FBI has arrested three men with suspected terrorist links in an Office Depot this morning, trying to buy three pallets of inkjet paper without having proper I.D. nor the required Federal permits to make the purchase.
What about scissors (Score:5, Funny)
Does this mean that paper beats rock AND scissors now?
Re: (Score:2)
140MPa is similar to brass, not nanotubes (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:140MPa is similar to brass, not nanotubes (Score:4, Informative)
Carbon fiber for example has an elastic modulus of 60-600 GPa and tensile strength of about 6GPa
Maybe this somehow got mixed up?
Re: (Score:2)
inorganic paper? (Score:2)
Rock-paper-scissors (Score:2)
nanotube paper, not nanotubes (Score:3, Informative)
Paper Is Already "Carbon-Based" (Score:5, Funny)
Another Use (Score:3, Interesting)
Research paper in Nature (Score:4, Informative)
Preparation and characterization of graphene oxide paper
Dmitriy A. Dikin1, Sasha Stankovich1, Eric J. Zimney1, Richard D. Piner1, Geoffrey H. B. Dommett1, Guennadi Evmenenko2, SonBinh T. Nguyen3 & Rodney S. Ruoff1
Free-standing paper-like or foil-like materials are an integral part of our technological society. Their uses include protective layers, chemical filters, components of electrical batteries or supercapacitors, adhesive layers, electronic or optoelectronic components, and molecular storage1. Inorganic 'paper-like' materials based on nanoscale components such as exfoliated vermiculite or mica platelets have been intensively studied2, 3 and commercialized as protective coatings, high-temperature binders, dielectric barriers and gas-impermeable membranes4,5. Carbon-based flexible graphite foils5, 6, 7 composed of stacked platelets of expanded graphite have long been used8, 9 in packing and gasketing applications because of their chemical resistivity against most media, superior sealability over a wide temperature range, and impermeability to fluids. The discovery of carbon nanotubes brought about bucky paper10, which displays excellent mechanical and electrical properties that make it potentially suitable for fuel cell and structural composite applications11, 12, 13, 14. Here we report the preparation and characterization of graphene oxide paper, a free-standing carbon-based membrane material made by flow-directed assembly of individual graphene oxide sheets. This new material outperforms many other paper-like materials in stiffness and strength. Its combination of macroscopic flexibility and stiffness is a result of a unique interlocking-tile arrangement of the nanoscale graphene oxide sheets.
Electrical properties (Score:3, Interesting)
Mal-2
foretold by William Gibson in "Virtual Light" (Score:4, Interesting)
Under its coat of spray-on imitation rust and an artful bandaging of silver duct-tape, the geometry of the paper-cored, carbon-wrapped frame makes Chevette's thighs tremble. There's a little double zik as the particle-brakes let go, then she's up and on it.
(Chevette the bike messenger is a precursor to Jessica Alba's Max in Dark Angel.
Leave it to the guy from Houston to point out: (Score:3, Interesting)
LMAO
KeS
CO2 cleanup? (Score:2)
New form of wiring? (Score:2)
Water is no problem (Score:2)
But laminate it in a protective coating, like most people's birth certificates, and it will last a lifetime.
Carbon fibre is often used laminated with a resin, similar to fibreglass. The carbon fibre has the strength, the resin gives it the structure.
It sounds like the new carbon paper could do the same thing, but will be stronger and cheaper.
Unbreakable Condoms (Score:2)
still a useful material (Score:2)
I'm sure there are a number of other applications as well -- stiffeners for notebook computer shells springs to mind, where the "carbon paper" is inside the plastic shell (literally
is there a true long nanotube yet? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Several composite aircraft have had issues with aluminum corroding. The fittings were buried within the epoxy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"The dog peed on my homework."
Re: (Score:2)
Shhh! They've never heard of cellulose, or if they have, they have no idea what its chemical structure might be.
Let's just be quiet here, and let them all make fools of themselves.