Meta Monday

Most of the people have seen a honeycomb , and also the hexagonal structure which it resembles. But we have never given it a thought that why Hexagonal??? Lets explore the significance of this hexagonal structure and relate it to material science . A material with honeycomb structure has minimal density and relatively high out of plane compression properties. Man-made honeycomb structured materials are usually made up by layering a material between two thin layers that provide great strength in tension. credits:- https://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/honeycomb-panels/ The above image shows what exactly happens inside a single honeycomb layer. Honeycomb panel strength works an I beam . The core acts like a vertical element and the facing acts like flange. This combination provides a very high shear strength. Thicker the core , greater will be the strength of material. This kind of material comes under the category of composites. credits:- https://www.plascore.com/honeycomb/honeycomb-panels

  Introduction –                                                             ‘Copper just wait, Stanene is coming’  So, what exactly is this stanene?        Stanene (From the Latin stannum meaning tin, which also gives the element its chemical symbol, Sn) the latest cousin of graphene was made by an experimentalist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The sheets of: - 1. Silicene, made with the help of silicone atoms. 2. Phosphorene, made from phosphorous. 3. Germanene, made from germanium. These have honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms which has spiked thousands of studies into 2D materials.         Those listed above are known to be excellent conductors of electricity, but stanene is extra special based on theory.       Stanene is one atom thick mesh of tin. The charge carriers in Stanene (i.e., like electrons) can move freely along its edge and because of this Stanene is said to be an example of topological insulator. It is predicted that it is able to conduct electricity without l