6 replies to this topic

[manofsan]

A breakthrough has been made in being able to arrange very dense arrays of nanotube devices for the purpose of making microchips:

http://www.nanowerk....spotid=1934.php

Also, there has been a breakthrough in the synthesis of aligned arrays of very long long carbon nanotubes:

http://www.medicalne...hp?newsid=69032

They're longer than ever, and now in the range of where they can be used for industrial manufacturing.

As someone whose background is chemical engineering, I know that using glass fiber-reinforced composite resins with long fibers can be tough to work with in injection molding, because the long fibers tend to foul up the injectors. However, carbon nanotubes are so thin and so slippery, that they're unlikely to have this problem -- even if you were to pass them through the fine print heads of these inkjet printers that are now being used for #D printing and rapid prototyping. So conceivably, you could have 3D printers manufacturing objects made out of nanotube-reinforced composite materials, having amazing mechanical and/or electrical properties.

[JonesGuy]

Do you think there's enough economic pressure for this type of research? I'm mostly a fan of nanotubes because I'm a Space Elevator fanboy (i.e., not really my field). Is progress in this area nearly certain?

[luv2increase]

A breakthrough has been made in being able to arrange very dense arrays of nanotube devices for the purpose of making microchips:

http://www.nanowerk....spotid=1934.php

Also, there has been a breakthrough in the synthesis of aligned arrays of very long long carbon nanotubes:

http://www.medicalne...hp?newsid=69032

They're longer than ever, and now in the range of where they can be used for industrial manufacturing.

As someone whose background is chemical engineering, I know that using glass fiber-reinforced composite resins with long fibers can be tough to work with in injection molding, because the long fibers tend to foul up the injectors. However, carbon nanotubes are so thin and so slippery, that they're unlikely to have this problem -- even if you were to pass them through the fine print heads of these inkjet printers that are now being used for #D printing and rapid prototyping. So conceivably, you could have 3D printers manufacturing objects made out of nanotube-reinforced composite materials, having amazing mechanical and/or electrical properties.

I seen a show on this on the one of the science channels. It was the one with space elevators. They use the special material as the rope that the elevators will travel up.

[Live Forever]

I seen a show on this on the one of the science channels.  It was the one with space elevators.  They use the special material as the rope that the elevators will travel up.

Yes, the concept of space elevators have gotten quite hot over the last few years. There are some very interesting concepts when you begin to read more about them. http://en.wikipedia..../Space_elevator


By the way, thanks for the links, manofsan. Interesting nanotube stuff.

[manofsan]

More stuff:

http://www.aip.org/p...plit/811-2.html

Nanotubes can heal themselves, and fix tears/rips.

This seems to be like electron-hole pairs in a semiconductor. Because fullerene carbon is almost totally SP2 carbon with electron delocalization, this permits a certain amount of movement amongst the carbons. So apparently you have have these pentagon-heptagon-petagon patches that migrate around the nanotube.

When a patch encounters a tear, it stops moving and settles where the tear is.

Wierd, isn't it? It's analogous to the way blood will flow through your blood vessels, but when they encounter a tear, they will clot.

[manofsan]

Nanocomp has announced it has achieved sheets of unwoven nanotubes which have great strength and electrical properties:

http://www.textilewo...m?CD=5&ID=12965

[manofsan]

A nanotube-reinforced aerogel has been developed, which has the extreme light weight of an aerogel, with the high strength from the nanotube reinforcement:

http://www.physorg.c...ws98551391.html

People have talked about the idea of "vacuum lift" technology. This is when you have a chamber made from a strong lightweight material which is enclosing a vacuum cavity.
The result is supposed to be a "buoyancy cell" which is slighter than even a hydrogen balloon.

Maybe this nanotube-reinforced aerogel could be used for just such an application.