Nanotubes

sid_galt

Nanotube revolution?

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/0508...0815-8_pf.html

10 metres * 5 centimeters, 50 nanometers thick ribbon per minute can be produced.

inha

Yeah I read the article today. Pretty damn amazing. Appl. phys. lett. had news on some dude that built a diode out of a nanotube. The news is at physicsweb and you can find the actual articles id there.

FredGarvin

That is very cool.

hypatia

That is more then cool, I wonder which companies will get the most use of it? I've been waiting a long time for a roll up TV.

sid_galt

Is the space elevator now within the realms of possibility?

FredGarvin

The space elevator has a lot more going against it than just nanotubes required.

PerennialII

I've yet to catch the article itself, any information about actual properties the ribbon has ?

inha

IIRC: Good conductor, as strong as (or stronger) that stainless steel, light.

PerennialII

Thanks, comparability to stainless steel mechanical wise gives it the placing was after.

amb123

Does anyone or here work with nanotubes / in nanotech?

I am very interested in this technology and would appreciate any recommendations if there are any good books on this yet.

PerennialII

In nanotech, there are actually quite a number of book already available. I've been meaning to get this new one : Applied Physics of Carbon Nanotubes : Fundamentals of Theory, Optics and Transport Devices by Slava Rotkin, Shekhar Subramoney ... anyone out there got a handle on whether this is good, would be newest?

As a general book I've used Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures by Peter Harris, don't really now how it compares with the other books out there (searching amazon will probably lead to a number of alternatives) but for myself worked as a general intro (a few years older).

Saoist

obviously these ribbons are only relatively strong (ie. compared to steel etc) but their real world strength is q small...so how would they be used to make super-strong materials? as the fibres of a composite or what?

Locrian

Well being comparitively stronger than steel and kevlar isn't insignificant. The real world strength of these fabrics could be quite large, since you can easily layer them to increase total strength. They could certainly be used as fibres in a composite (which is already what tons of CNTs are used for each year, except not as a fiber), but the real value of this material is in its electronic and thermal properties. That is another place the strength is a benefit, because it allows you to generate robust production methods for electronics due to your material being able to handle the process.

Locrian

By the way I did a little research, and as far as I can tell the technology is still missing one ingredient before this process becomes commercially feasible. While tons of MWCNT are produced each year, Zhant et. al's method requires the CNTs to be in an aligned forest before their process works. It is well known how to produce nanotubes in that configuration, but these methods in publication typically create small amounts, and are not obviously scalable.

If someone knows of another method of producing MWCNT in a forest at high production rate, please let me know.

LURCH

Couldn't these sheets be used as a mroe efficient stroge madium for Hydrogen (for use in fuel cells)? I seem to remember hearing once that H could be stored in carbon nanotubes as a safer and easier alternative to pressurization or liquifaction.

Locrian

Yes, and in fact at the same university that this last advance came from they have an entire project devoted to this. See the research thrusts at the nanotechnology institute found at the University of Texas at Dallas.

hypatia

And they all sound so cute too ... nanophotonics, nanoelectronics, and nanoenvironmental, Thats a good link Locrian, thanks for posting it.