Since the carbon nanotubes were discovered, everybody has been very excited by them as they can be useful in various domains like electronics, optics, automotive, energy, clothing, nanotechnology and architecture. The carbon nanotubes can be used in multiple areas thanks to their properties - these nanotubes are the strongest in terms of tensile strength, they have a high flexibility, and they are very good thermal and electrical conductors.
Now that the science is getting more and more advanced, the carbon nanotubes could replace steel thanks to a breakthrough of a team of researchers from the NanoTech Institute of the University of Texas, Dallas in collaboration with CSIRO.
The scientists developed a new way of manufacturing the carbon nanotubes which would lead to cost-efficient spun ribbons of carbon nanotubes. Now, carbon nanotubes can be manufactured in transparent sheets that are commercially-viable and stronger than steel.
“Rarely is a processing advance so elegantly simple that rapid commercialisation seems possible, and rarely does such an advance so quickly enable diverse application demonstrations,” said Dr. Ray H. Baughman from the NanoTech Institute, UTD.
Thanks to this breakthrough, the researchers can manufacture up to seven meters of carbon nanotube sheets per minute . Well, it seems like this technology will be introduced on the market very soon as CSIRO and the UTD are cooperating with several companies and with the government in order to commercialize the carbon nanotube sheets.
via Physorg
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October 1st, 2008 at 2:23 am
Steel is a very long way from being replaced; it is very cheap, readily recyclable, quite predictable, and simple and forgiving to work with. The polymer resins required to bond carbon nano-tubes together are in most cases NOT recyclable.
It is possible that steel might be replaced in the foreseeable future in applications such as automobile bodies, but it is highly unlikely that carbon nano-tubes would hold up high-rises and bridges any time soon. At least not until the cost of producing carbon nano-tubes has approached that of humble steel I-beams and reinforcement bars.
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:20 am
…will they fit my waterbed?