Honeycomb Crystal Turns Space Inside Out

IOL ^ | 205-2004

[blam]

Honeycomb crystal turns space inside out

February 04 2004 at 02:12PM

Paris - A new kind of crystal is so riddled with holes that a mere gram of the material has an internal surface area equivalent to 17 tennis courts - a record - the British science journal Nature reported on Thursday.

The substance is still at the experimental stage but the hope is that it could be used as a hydrogen tank in vehicles powered by fuel cells.

Named MOF-177 by its inventors at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the crystal is a so-called metal organic framework.

It comprises alternating molecules of zinc oxide and a carbon-based compound called 1-3-5-benetribenzoate, creating a strong lattice structure that yields a huge surface area.

Porous crystals are big area of research in industrial chemistry. The previous record for internal surface area was the equivalent of 12 tennis courts per gram of material. - Sapa-AFP

[N. Theknow]

That's almost enough space to handle all of Mrs. Theknow's shoes.

[SGCOS]

... A new kind of crystal is so riddled with holes that a mere gram of the material has an internal surface area equivalent to 17 tennis courts

That is quite impressive.

[anonymous_user]

That's big (yeah, yeah, yeah) it's not small (no, no, no.)

(sorry)

[martin_fierro]

A new kind of crystal is so riddled with holes that a mere gram of the material has an internal surface area equivalent to 17 tennis courts

Yeah, but here's the size of the crystal. <|:)~

[Paradox]

Thats pretty impressive, but how are they gonna shrink the tennis players?

[bigcheese]

one word: Tardis

[Constitution Day]

Reminds me of the Honeycomb cereal jingle when I was a kid:

"Honeycomb's big!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!

It's not small.
No, no, no!

[bayourod]

Will this made it less expensive to transport tennis courts?

[RightWhale]

used as a hydrogen tank in vehicles

That's the plan. Forget that old Hindenburg disaster, it didn't happen that way anyway. The new hydrogen tank would be filled with the sponge stuff so even if the tank split wide open the hydrogen would still take its time escaping, and the tank would hold a lot of hydrogen at room temperature and low pressure. No Pinto scenes.

[evets]

Oops. I thought this was the crazy snakes photo thread.

[RightWhale]

A lot like your acetylene gas welder's tank.

[js1138]

More research is needed. America cannot allow itself to suffer a tennis-court gap.

[Publius]

And how many holes will take to fill the Albert Hall?

[Sloth]

The previous record for internal surface area was the equivalent of 12 tennis courts per gram of material. - Sapa-AFP

I thought the scientific 'tennis courts / gram' unit was only used to describe the effectiveness of Greg Rusedski's performance-enhancing drugs.

[evets]

Me want honeycomb!

[Yardstick]

The previous record for internal surface area was the equivalent of 12 tennis courts per gram of material. - Sapa-AFP

Sounds like it's time to coin a new unit of measurement: the TC/g.

[theDentist]

You know, if they made this much larger you'd have never found me!

[robertpaulsen]

Scientists continue to confuse me.

First I learned about English units of measurement like square feet and square miles. Then it was the metric system with kilometers and cubic centimeters.

Now it's the tennis court measurement. What's next -- something the size of a football field?

[RossA]

Good point!

E.g., Meteor Crater is quoted as "as large as 11 football fields".