Dry Ice Made into Super-tough Glass

janus zeal writes "A form of solid carbon dioxide that could be used to make ultra-hard glass or coatings for microelectronic devices has been discovered. The material, named amorphous carbonia, was created by scientists from the University of Florence in Italy. Writing in the journal Nature, the team says the material was theoretically possible but had never been created. It was made by squeezing dry ice, a form of carbon dioxide used to create smoke in stage shows, at huge pressure. Scientists are interested in the new material because of the potential applications. Also, they believe it could give them clues to the processes that happen in the center of huge gas giant planets such as Jupiter."

How do we know he didn't invent the stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see this stuff replacing transparent aluminum anytime soon.

Re:Needs a bit more work first though....

[ronz0o]

At room temperature, dry ice vaporizes. The only way for it to maintain its structure is under pressure. All we need to do is find some way to lower the global temperature and increase pressure...

Well, Duh...

[Baldrson]

The next stage of the research is to work out how to make the glass stable at room temperature and pressure.

Reminds me of the cartoon of the scientist at the blackboard with a series of equations on one side and concluding equation on the other with "And then a miracle happens." in between.

Most important use

[chiller2]

Scratch-proof iPod screens of course! ;)

Re:Just needs Stability,

[kfg]

. . . if hey manage to find a way of making it stable at room teperature and pressure. . .

Easy enough. Simply apply the Congressional Model of engineering; redefine room temperature and pressure.

KFG

Re:Needs a bit more work first though....

[RsG]

Well, we could suck all the Co2 out of the atmosphere. This would remove the greenhouse effect, both the manmade one and the naturally occuring one, and drop the planetary temperature. And we get our Co2 for making this stuff in the bargin! It's a win-win situation (well, except for the living - they'll be royally screwed - but they were just taking up space anyways).

Re:Most important use

[__aardcx5948]

Well, it might crack, it's glass afterall... :-p

Re:Needs a bit more work first though....

[Anonymous Coward]

So are nipples. But you don't see those used in construction, do ya?

(Well, actually you do. But on the workers, not the buildings. And let's face it, those aren't nipples most of us want to see.)

Carbonia is lovely this time of year

[ScentCone]

Cheap flights into Elbonia often connect through the Amorphous, Carbonia international airport. Unfortunately the town's not very stable when it's warm out.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[ceoyoyo]

Um, diamond is made from a highly available source material. Under much the same conditions actually. It also has the minor advantage of not evaporating at room temperature and pressure.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[RsG]

That, or we use the NASA model and swap the units of measurement. Kelvin you say? Well let's just assume they meant Celsius!

Finally! A solution to global warming!

[brian0918]

All we have to do is start sucking up all the carbon dioxide out of the air, and convert it into little waste cubes that can be dumped in landfills or baby seal breeding grounds. It's foolproof!

Re:Well, Duh...

[cp.tar]

the cartoon of the scientist at the blackboard with a series of equations on one side and concluding equation on the other with "And then a miracle happens." in between.

Do you have that cartoon?

It would come in very handy next time I have enough free time to go argue with Creation Scientists.

I think this takes ...

[AstronomicUID]

the term Vaporware Windows to a whole new level!

Re:Well, Duh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Creation Scientists.

I understood the first word and the second one. But put together like that? It doesn't parse.

Re:Well, Duh...

[kfg]

"And then a miracle happens" . . .

We mixed it with a bit of room temperature and pressure gaseous diamond. Unfortunately this only works so long as we keep it immersed in room temperature and pressure molten gold.

If we can just work out how to. . .

I find it interesting that one of the things this company is pushing is that it would be a solution to binding excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I thought the solution to that was simple and obvious:

Take your carbon dioxide and some plain water. Crack the water into hydrogen and oxygen. Crack the carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen. You're left with a lot of . . .oxygen. Hurray! Let it go in the air and breath deep.

Now you've got carbon and a hydrogen. Combine the two and you'll get a sort of brown-black goo which will be a bit of a disposal problem, since you'll eventually end up with billions of barrels of the stuff, but really, all you have to do is inject it under pressure into underground sand and shale deposits and it can sit there safe for millions of years.

Problem solved.

Of course you have to be careful. There's a certain risk that when the hydrogen and carbon combine you'll just end up with billions of barrels of vodka instead of brown-black goo and lord only knows how we'd manage to dispose of that.

KFG

Re:Just needs Stability,

[Martin Blank]

It's also extremely brittle. I have a little bit that an aerogel manufacturing company sent to me after a polite request based on curiosity. It was just an irregular scrap piece from the machineroom floor, about an inch thick, two inches wide, and four inches long, and the gentleman was kind enough to mail it to me free of charge (I offered to pay for it). Within two minutes of taking it out of the plastic case, it had become two pieces, and in the years since has become about seven pieces.

The MSDS enclosed with it said that it had no known toxic effects, so a friend ate a small piece, just a few millimeters on a side, before I could stop him. It didn't hurt him, but it left his mouth feeling weird. He is a bit of an eccentric, though.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[svtdragon]

At the right temperature and pressure, a ring made from dry ice leads to frostbite and ring made from diamonds leads to sex. That's another advantage.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[maxume]

Isn't a diamond ring the beginning of the end of sex?

Re:Stable at room temp?

[NoMaster]

So what sort of pussy lab do you work in where you don't regularly immerse your undergrads in custard?

Re:Not so much with the dry ice any more

[falconfighter]

There's other reasons - such as the fact that fogging oil condenses on the optics for the lights - you don't know real joy until you've cleaned 200+ stagelights.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[tgd]

Fostbite can be cured. Eventually that sex is going to take half your stuff.

Re:Just needs Stability,

[StikyPad]

Easy -- it already remained stable after being cooled to room temperature. Just increase room pressure to 5.7M PSI and you're all set. (Don't forget to swallow or yawn to equalize the pressure!)