Is This New Super Carbon Better Than Graphene?

Scientists have been searching for schwarzites for decades, here’s how their discovery could change our world.

Graphene is heralded as a wonder-material that could completely change our world. Its incredibly flexible, strong and conductive carbon structure promises to revolutionize energy storage, computing, and technology as we know it.

However, graphene isn’t the only nanocarbon out there with promising applications. There’s one in particular that’s been capturing scientists’ attention for decades, and it has the potential to be even more game-changing than our fan favorite graphene. The only thing is, no one’s actually figured out how to make it. Until now.

Currently, scientists know how to create two kinds of nanocarbons; those with positive curvature, like nanotubes and buckyballs, and those with zero curvature, like graphene. But scientists have theorized that a third group should exist: nanocarbons with negative curvature, known as Schwarzites.