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+--- Thread: Super Paper (/showthread.php?tid=8889)
Super Paper - TheTwisted1 - 07-29-2007
According to this article from ScienceNOW, scientists at Northwestern University have found a way to make particles of graphene oxide assemble into thin, paper-like sheets as strong as carbon nanotubes, and which can be scaled to any size. It does tend to lose stability when immersed in water (much like kevlar does, IIRC), and thus commercial production is many years away, at least. The potential uses, though, are many (space elevator, anyone). And, as one Slashdot commentor posed, "Just imagine what Yomiko Readman could do with that paper!"
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Re: Super Paper - robkelk - 07-29-2007
Quote:Only if it never rains again...
It does tend to lose stability when immersed in water
...
(space elevator, anyone)
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Re: Super Paper - Valles - 07-29-2007
Hm. What about adding a lightweight protective coating to the stuff, like a layer of paint or something? Obviously that wouldn't be as nice as an innately waterproof version, but it should still be very useful... Most every version of the Elevator I've heard proposed required constructing the actual cable in space and then lowering it into position - if that was done, then most of the cable's volume could be load-bearing coils of this stuff with only a thin protective outer layer along the lower end - ie, the part actually in the atmosphere and exposed to water vapor.
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Lightweight coatings - ordnance11 - 07-29-2007
Quote:
Hm. What about adding a lightweight protective coating to the stuff, like a layer of paint or something?
Easy enough..apply a coating of aluminum to both sides a couple of microns thick. You'd have what looks like aluminum foil.
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Re: Lightweight coatings - jpub - 07-29-2007
I've read further into this, and the problem is that by coating it with...well, anything...you'll lose some of the favorable properties of the paper.
The key, as they note in the article, is to make the constuction solvent something that isn't water, ideally so that the resultant paper isn't sensitive to water. It's much more involved than that, unfortunately.
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Re: Lightweight coatings - Ebony - 07-30-2007
A couple of years ago, there was some concern that buckytubes (or fullerene, take your pick of term) was a potential carcinogen. Has anyone heard any further information on this?Ebony the Black Dragon
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