Scientists have investigated a way to create linear chains of carbon atoms from laser-melted graphite. The material, called carbyne, could have a number of novel properties, including the ability to adjust the amount of electrical current traveling through a circuit, depending on the user’s needs.

Using powerful computer simulations, researchers have identified a material with a higher melting point than any known substance. The computations show that a material made with hafnium, nitrogen, and carbon would have a melting point of more than 4,400 kelvins (7,460 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s about two-thirds the temperature at the surface of the sun, and 200 kelvins higher than the highest melting point ever recorded experimentally.

Flexing graphene may be the most basic way to control its electrical properties, according to calculations by theoretical physicists.

Researchers around the globe are on a quest for materials capable of capturing and storing greenhouse gases. This shared goal led researchers to team up to explore the feasibility of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes to trap and store two greenhouse gases in particular: carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

A covariance matrix produced with a new technique at Rice University maps fluorescence signals from various species of single-walled carbon nanotubes that are beginning to aggregate in a sample. The matrix allows researchers to know which types of nanotubes (identified by their fluorescence spectra) have aggregated and in what amounts, …

Nanoparticulate carbon black particles tiny culprits that start emphysema.Credit: Image courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine
When pathologists perform autopsies on smokers who died with severe emphysema, they find that lungs are black in appearance. These emphysematous lungs place strain on lung structures and ultimately other organs. Until recently, researchers and …