MSI R9 270X Hawk Review
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Combining a Polymer and Graphene to Trap Gases
In many situations, we want to hold gases within a container or keep them out. Achieving this is harder than you may think though, as many materials are permeable to gas molecules, including many plastics. Researchers at Rice University, and in Hungary, Slovenia, and India though have managed to combine a polymer and graphene nanoribbons to make a nearly impermeable barrier.
Graphene is an atom-thick sheet of carbon that is capable of blocking gas molecules, but it is difficult to produce, so the researchers had to look elsewhere. In this case they went to graphene nanoribbons, which are actually made by unzipping carbon nanotubes. The nanoribbons are then solution cast into a polymer, where they disperse enough to mimic a full sheet of graphene. When the composite material, containing just 0.5% nanoribbons by weight, was used to separate a vacuum from a chamber full of nitrogen, the pressure did not change after 1000 seconds, and barely dropped over 18 hours.
Potentially this composite material could be used for preserving food, drinks, beer, and storing compressed natural gas for cars. As the 0.5% mixture also provided optimal strength for the polymer, that latter possibility could become quite real, as the polymer could be a lot lighter than an all metal tank.
Source: Rice University
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Researchers Surprised by Counter-Intuitive Healing Process
Wouldn't it be nice if broken and cracked materials could repair themselves? Of course it would which is why researchers are searching for self-healing materials. Those at MIT have recently stumbled upon a way by which metals could self-heal, and it was such a surprising find, they had to recheck their work.
Normally one would expect that pulling on a piece of metal with a crack in it would cause the crack to grow. According to the MIT researchers, it may not be that simple. Their computer showed cracks actually sealing as tension was applied, though the cracks had to be of a special kind. Disclinations are a type of defect where the crack extends partially into a crystalline grain, but do not reach from one side to the other. This kind of defect was first discovered a century ago and can have such intense stress fields that the effects of an applied load can be reversed, forcing a crack to heal itself.
Currently this work is just theoretical, but if real metals and alloys can be made to self-heal like this, we could see substantially longer lasting materials in the future. Metal fatigue, possibly the most common cause of metal failure, can occur as nanoscale cracks build up, and potentially it is these cracks that can be healed with tension.
Source: MIT
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Deepcool Releases new Mini ITX CPU Cooler
The latest CPU heatsink from Deepcool has been announced and will be released under the Gamer Storm product line. The GABRIEL CPU cooler is targeted at users with small form factor PCs and is compatible with Mini ITX boards. The low profile heatsink has a copper base and four copper heatpipes that run into aluminum cooling fins. A 120mm fan that measures just 20mm thick is included and the entire package is only 60mm thick. The included fan is capable of pushing 61.93 CFM at up to 1800 RPM with a noise level that tops out at just over 18 dBA. The cooler has mounting options for all major Intel and AMD sockets and will be available in November at an MSRP of $40.
Source: Press Release
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Another Carbon Allotrope with Extraordinary Properties
Carbon can be found in many places around us, and certainly in us, so some may think it is not that special of an element. They would be very wrong as materials such as graphene, a two-dimensional, pure carbon structure, have extraordinary properties that could revolutionize many technologies. Now researchers at Rice University have determined some properties for another allotrope of carbon, including its world-record tensile strength.
Called carbyne, it is a one dimensional carbon structure, as the carbon atoms either share double bonds or alternating single and triple bonds with each other. It was first theorized over a hundred years ago and first synthesized in 1960, but only now has a complete mechanical picture of it been made. According to this study, it should have double the tensile strength and stiffness of graphene and carbon nanotubes, stretching it changes its band gap, and twisting it alters the band gap so much it can become a magnetic semiconductor. Perhaps most its most important property though is its stability. Contrary to prior literature, the new research indicates that at room temperature, carbyne chains will not collapse into graphite or soot upon contact, but will just connect at a single spot.
As impressive and potentially useful as these properties may be, there is no means to mass produce carbyne at this time. Of course, now that we can start to think of ways to use it, that may change.
Source: Rice University
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