A new display case

I have a new display case for some of Chern's and my beadworks in the chemistry building of National Taiwan university.

My C168

I have made only one beaded C168, which I gave to Dirk Huylebrouck, a math professor in the department of architecture in Belgium, at the Bridges conference this summer. I took the following photo of this bead model at the Hotel in Pecs, Hungary. I am thinking about making another one, maybe this time with giant beads just like Mr. Horibe has used. Unlike Mr. Horibe, I prefer using different colors for nonhexagons. In this structure, all heptagons are in purple beads. One can easily see that these heptagons are separated by on beads (carbon carbon bonds). In this sense, we can call C168 is the buckyball in the hyperbolic space.


Another two photos that contains more bead models I brought to Bridges conference.



Many of these beadworks are given away as souviners for other attendee. The helically coiled carbon nanotube is given to Laura Shea and the high-genus fullerene is to M. Longuet-Higgins. Toroidal carbon nanotube (T120) with 120 carbon atoms or 180 beads (cat-eye stons) is given away to G. Hart. T120 is made by Chern Chuang. All other small beaded balls are gone too. Many of these small beaded balls are made by Q.-R. Huang. The only three left is the bead models for the P-type triply periodic minimal surface, Shoen's I-WP surface and the trefoil knot, respectively.

2x2x2 bead model of Schoen's I-WP surface

Chern Chuang (莊宸) created this amazing graphitic structures consisting of a Schoen's I-WP surface decorated with graphene sheet. The I-WP surface, found by Schoen in 1970, is a TPMS of cubic symmetry Im3m. In addition to I-WP surface, there are other TPMSs of Im3m symmetry, such as Schwartz P and Neovius surfaces.

Chuang figured out the systematic structural rule for this kind of periodic minimal surface at the beginning of this year. Based on his post, I constructed a 1x1x1 bead model for this structure using three different colors of beads. Apparently, he seems to find time to bead even in the army. Now we have this beautiful 2x2x2 bead model created with 5mm semi-transparent plastic beads. Based on the previous post by Chuang, there are 3456 carbon atoms in the structure. So one need about 5000 beads to create it. It is quite a work.

I am kind of surprised by the strong mechanical strength of this structure. Unlike bead models for other minimal surfaces including Schwartz P or D surfaces, this model seems to be quite rigid, and a little bit like that of a brick. So, it may not be a bad idea to have this kind of 2x2x2 I-WP surface as a high-strength but low-density brick for purpose of construction. The only problem is that it is quite difficult to create even just one of this kind of bricks. We may solve the problem if we can invent a robot to weave them automatically.








The 2x2x2 I-WP surface and my friend's iPad:

IWP Surface with 2-by-2-by-2 Unit Cells

This is the beaded molecule, or beaded solid, that I brought to Taipei yesterday, one with 3,456 carbon atoms.

Beaded model for Schoen's I-WP surface

Here is the beaded model for the Chuang's recent design of the Schoen's I-WP surface.



Graphitic structure of Schoen's I-WP surface: