Polyyne rods

Polyyne rods are linear chains of carbon with alternating single and triple bonds. Like a lot of ethyne molecules linked together in series.
This makes for the physically thinnest possible rod for pushing and pulling.

Polyyne rods might be usable for:

• Rod logic – Related: reversible computing
• Sorting rotors like e.g. in the Acetylene sorting pump

Possible downsides:

• Quite a bit higher susceptibility to radiation damage than bulk gemstone-like compounds
• Higher difficulty in manufacturing (unclear, might not be the case)

There's a bit of etyne rod manipulation in the tooltip chemistry for the mechanosynthesis of diamond
as outlined in the tooltip cycle paper.

External links

• Wikipedia: Polyyne