Rhondite is a nano

Nano

Nano- is a prefix meaning a billionth. Used primarily in the metric system, this prefix denotes a factor of 10−9 or . It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length, such as 30 nanoseconds , 100 nanometres or in the case of electrical capacitance,...

-scale helical carbon

Carbon

Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...

-based structure created by Robert Job that may be used in the production of steels and alloys to increase cohesion, strength, and uniformity. Each helix is actually made up of small spheres called buckyballs or fullerenes.

Each fullerene

Fullerene

A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and they resemble the balls used in association football. Cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes...

 sphere contains metallic atoms inside of the carbon cage; and as such have created a subset known as metallofullerenes. It is the chaining and winding of the metallofullerenes into their natural shapes that produces the unique Rhondidic structure.

Trivia

• Used as an additive
• Takes the place of free carbon
• Chemically identical to standard metals
• Increases strength without tempering
  Tempering
  Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming brittle martensite or bainite into a combination of ferrite and cementite or sometimes Tempered martensite...
  
   or quenching
• Named after Robert Job's wife

See also

• Nanotechnology
  Nanotechnology
  Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
  
  
• Buckminsterfullerene
  Buckminsterfullerene
  Buckminsterfullerene is a spherical fullerene molecule with the formula . It was first intentionally prepared in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University...
  
  
• Metallurgy
  Metallurgy
  Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
  
  
• Carbon
  Carbon
  Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
  
  
• Iron
  Iron
  Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
  
  
• List of alloys

Sources

• The World & I, April 1999 (Retrieved 2009 February 14) (Dead link)
• United States Patent 5449491 (Retrieved 2009 February 14)
• Steel with much more Muscle Business Week, January 20, 1992 (retrieved October 7, 2009)
• New Carbon Molecules Make Stronger Metals, Jennifer Job (retrieved October 7, 2009) "Sharpest cut from nanotube sword", Nature, Nov 15, 2006