-
Asked by danniella1588 to Colm, Eoin, Joseph, Lauren, Stephen on 17 Nov 2013.
-
Joseph Roche answered on 17 Nov 2013:
I think you might mean graphene (grapheme is a unit of written language). Graphene is strong because of its carbon bonds and its structure. It is arranged in a nice hexagonal pattern (think honeycombs) which makes it very difficult for the bonds to be broken. I hope that helps, but our colleagues over in the Nanozone might have a better explanation: https://nanotechnologyn13.iasie.ddev.site/
-
-
colm bracken answered on 18 Nov 2013:
Graphene is a special type of graphite and it is a layer that is only one atom thick. So it is kind of like a 2D layer of diamond, and we all know how strong diamond is. Diamond is made of the same thing as graphene which is carbon. Carbon lies half way up in the second period of the periodic table meaning it has an 8 electron shell with only four electrons in it. Due to this symmetry when carbon atoms organize themselves into a crystal form the bonds are very symmetrical and very strong. Another really strong form of carbon comes in the form of carbon nano-tubes. These tubes hold great potential for building materials and could even be used to build cool things such as space elevators that could carry spaceships all the way into orbit on a cable made of these nano-tubes.
Comments