
Nanocomp Technologies Inc. of Concord, New Hampshire has managed to make the largest sheet of carbon nanotubing ever, rekindling the long-standing dream of a fantastical space elevator that lifts us into orbit along an ultra-light yet ultra-strong carbon nanotube cable. Sure, at 18 square feet, the sheet is smaller than a beach blanket but it contains a billion billion nanotubes, which makes it 200 times as strong as steel and 30 times less dense.
Moreover, it's flame retardant and conducts electricity, which would make it useful in tiny electronic devices. Ironically, the problem with most carbon nanotubes is that they're too small, or rather, too short—on the order of tens of microns long. Short nanotubes are difficult to incorporate into existing manufacturing processes and lack the high performance properties of long carbon nanotubes. They also tend to be delivered in powder form (think of graphite pencils). By contrast, Nanocomp's tubes stretch a few millimeters and the sheets are specially treated to keep them from shedding black specks of carbon.
Sadly, the tubes tend to snap when molded into long tethers, as was the case last year with the MIT-Nanocomp team's entry in the NASA "Centennial Challenges" space elevator games. The more probable application is for making lightweight composite coatings for airplanes, maybe even space planes. So not as cool as a space elevator, but we'll take it.
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Comments
flame retardant? OK, this confuses me since its all carbon. Good thermal conductivity?
0 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulfrom Oxenford, QLD
Chunks of Coal burn nicely, but Diamonds don't. I'm guessing it's to do with the structure of the Carbon, rather than the Carbon itself.
1 out of 1 people found this comment helpfulA Carbon Nanotube has a different stucture than just a carbon molecule. But Nanotubing has a lot of possiblities but the main problem is how strong it is. Since it is made of chains when one link is weak the whole chain is weak.
1 out of 2 people found this comment helpful200x the strength of steel while 30x lighter.
Let's take a 6,000 lb. SUV and its 5-MPH bumper...
You know.
(Hint: We may need parking hooks. Yes, HOOKS embedded in each parking space. Can you guess why?)
0 out of 2 people found this comment helpfulOf course that's assuming that EVERYTHING in the vehicle is made of carbon nanotubes.
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful