Term of the Moment
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Redirected from: carbon nanotube
Definition: nanotube
A carbon molecule that resembles a cylinder made out of chicken wire one to two nanometers in diameter by any number of millimeters in length. Accidentally discovered by a Japanese researcher at NEC in 1990 while making Buckyballs, they have potential use in many applications. With a tensile strength 10 times greater than steel at about one quarter the weight, nanotubes are considered the strongest material for their weight known to mankind.
Myriad Applications
Currently used to strengthen plastics and carbon fibers, nanotubes have the potential for making ultra-strong fabrics as well as reinforcing structural materials in buildings, cars and airplanes. Nanotubes are already a component in Nantero's non-volatile memory chips (see NRAM), and they are expected in more electronics such as sensors and display screens. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may replace silicon transistors in integrated circuits (chips), and such prototypes were developed as far back as the late 1990s.
Single Walled and Multiwalled
Single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) use a single sheath of graphite one atom thick, called "graphene." Multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) are either wrapped into multiple layers like a parchment scroll or are constructed of multiple cylinders, one inside the other. See Buckyball, graphene, nanotechnology, nanohorn and NRAM.
The Chicken Wire Tube
Myriad Applications
Currently used to strengthen plastics and carbon fibers, nanotubes have the potential for making ultra-strong fabrics as well as reinforcing structural materials in buildings, cars and airplanes. Nanotubes are already a component in Nantero's non-volatile memory chips (see NRAM), and they are expected in more electronics such as sensors and display screens. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may replace silicon transistors in integrated circuits (chips), and such prototypes were developed as far back as the late 1990s.
Single Walled and Multiwalled
Single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) use a single sheath of graphite one atom thick, called "graphene." Multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs) are either wrapped into multiple layers like a parchment scroll or are constructed of multiple cylinders, one inside the other. See Buckyball, graphene, nanotechnology, nanohorn and NRAM.
At the molecular level, a single-walled carbon nanotube looks a lot like rolled up chicken wire with hexagonal cells. The number of applications that may ultimately benefit from carbon nanotubes is enormous.