In science
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Organic molecular wires have been proposed for use in optoelectronics. [1]
Monomolecular wire is a type of wire consisting of a single strand of strongly bonded atoms or molecules, such as carbon nanotube.
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2018) |
Organic molecular wires have been proposed for use in optoelectronics. [1]
Among the earliest descriptions of a super-strong filament are the film The Man in the White Suit , in which a scientist develops a monofilament cloth fibre that will never wear out, and Theodore Sturgeon's "The Incubi of Parallel X" (Planet Stories, Sep 1951), [2] where a "molecularly condensed fibre" is used as a zipline. [3]
An early example of a material similar to monomolecular wire deliberately used as a weapon and cutting tool is "borazon-tungsten filament" in G. Randall Garrett's "Thin Edge". (Analog, Dec 1963) [4] The main character uses a strand from an asteroid towing-cable to cut jail bars and to booby-trap the door of his room. Many later writers, including John Brunner, Frank Herbert, William Gibson and George R. R. Martin, have also used monomolecular or similar wire as a weapon or tool. [3]
Perhaps the best-known proposed use of monomolecular wire ("hyperfilament") is in the cables of a space elevator. Although there were a few earlier scientific papers suggesting the concept, a fully realized space elevator was first described in 1979 in Arthur Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise and Charles Sheffield's The Web Between the Worlds . The concept has been used in later fiction by Robert A. Heinlein, Iain M. Banks, Larry Niven and others. [3]