Slashdot Mirror
World Record: Four-Centimeter-Long Carbon Nanotube
colonist writes "University of California scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and chemists from Duke University have recently grown a four-centimeter-long, single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT): a new world record. Previous SWNTs were a few millimeters long. Yuntian Zhu and his colleagues used a process called 'catalytic chemical vapor deposition' from ethanol (alcohol) vapor. From their abstract: 'Our results suggest the possibility of growing SWNTs continuously without any apparent length limitation.' Zhu: 'although this discovery is really only a beginning, the continued development of longer length carbon nanotubes could result in nearly endless applications. Actually, the potential uses for long carbon nanotubes are probably limited only by our imagination.'"
Space elevator, here we come!
they'd have 13 inches already, without all that expensive equiptment!
Wonderous stuff, if only to know that the most brilliant uses for this haven't been thought of yet.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I was going to post something about "could we spin these in space and spool them through the atmosphere for a space elevator, then I saw the growth rate:
11 micrometres a second!
Unless I've flubbed my math, that's over 4 days to grow the short length - not saying that's not a damned good thing, as we _need_ material if we're to get Out cheaply, but production speed is almost as important as strand length.
Negativity aside (sorry, it's my nature); good work guys, keep on growing/going.
the potential uses for long carbon nanotubes are probably limited only by our imagination
....
:)
If it can't be used as a medium for pornography, it's not a proper invention!
the first animated gifs I ever saw was porn
the first avi I ever saw was porn
the first mpeg movie I ever saw was porn
the first DivX movie I saw was porn
unzips flies waiting for the nanotube in the post
I hope it says more about porn than it says about me
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Out cheaply, but production speed is almost as important as strand length.
..
yeah. used to take them whole weeks to make a car, once upon a time. something about 'industrialization' changed all that, though
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Hmmm... From the article:
In addition to uses in lightweight, high-strength applications, these new long metallic nanotubes also will enable...
Since when is Carbon metallic?
Geostationary orbital radius 38,785 km.
Growth rate 11x10^-6 m/s
elapsed time = 38,785,000 / 11x10^-6 = 3.526x10^12 s ~= 112,113 Years.
It going to be a long time till we have a swnt all the way at this rate.
PS yes I know that we don't have to have a single tube all the way there. We are going to have to ramp up the growth rate considerably though.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
" Actually, the potential uses for long carbon nanotubes are probably limited only by our imagination.'"
And so begins the hype machine to ramp up. Don't get me wrong nanotubes have some neat applications but there is quite a gap from that to uses "limited only by our imagination".
Remember only you can stop scientific hype.
In Science News, June 14, 2003, Baughman's team of Univ of Texas made a single-walled carbon nanotube fiber composite that's the width of a human hair, and 100 to 200 meters long. The nanotubes are spun with polyvinyl alcohol, and are 4 times tougher than spider silk (the previous record-holder) as well as stronger (can hold more weight).
100-200 meters, that's a length you can do useful stuff. One weird thing is, they weave it in with ordinary cloth to make supercapacitors in clothing (for built-in antenna,s tiny batteries, et cetera). The field is called 'electronic textiles'!
A.
Hydrocoptic marselvanes here we come! What's next, prefamulated amulite?
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
Heh heh heh heh....
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
hey... if they could embed a permanent static electric charge in the fiber, it would repel dirt; then you could make a suit out of it that would never wear out and never need washing:
SIDNEY [Alex Guinness to Joan Greenwood]: Do you know what a long chain molecule is ?....
Nope. Sadly, I'm afraid it's all you in this case. That happened as soon as you indicated you were about to touch yourself over a nanotube.
shudders =)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
One thing that concerns me with nanotechnology is that the creation of all kinds of weird molecules that nature has no time to adapt to may leave us with some remarkably odd (and possibly pervasive) toxicity problems.
What if CNT's get widely adopted into clothing, tupperware, etc, and then 30 years down the line we find that the little fibers that inevitably break off when you handle such material get lodged in the lungs and induce cancer (like asbestos and other kinds of fibers do)?
I've heard of all kinds of interesting possible applications of CNT's (super strong fabrics and cables, conductive fabrics, electro-kinetic fabrics (generates electricity for your ipod just from you moving around)). But is anyone looking seriously into governing and exploring toxicity issues with these new synthetic molecules and materials?
bif
wag more
bark less
Sexy... ARGGGGHHHHH
Can we build it yet? huh? huh? Can we can we can we?
Can you tell I'm really excited by this?
Time to go enter a ribbon climbing robot contest!
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Why is this a record? According to Super Fibers: Nanotubes make tough threads , there have allready been 100 meter threads grown.
From the article:
By modifying a process developed by French researchers (SN: 12/16/00, p. 398), Baughman's team spins fibers made of carbon nanotubes and polyvinyl alcohol, a common industrial polymer. In the June 12 Nature, Baughman and his colleagues describe the finished threads, which are the width of a human hair and 100 to 200 meters long.
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
Yuntian Zhu and his colleagues used a process called 'catalytic chemical vapor deposition' from ethanol (alcohol) vapor.
So in other words, they're having a few beers in the lab one night, and one of them spills it into the testing appratus.
Scientist #1:"Dude? What have you done?"
Scientist #2: (Frenzied running in circles) "Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!!"
Scientist #3: "Uhhh, guys, something's happening..."
Could this stuff be used to replace carbon fiber when making racecar parts?
I seem to recall that, some two years ago, an article (slashdot or not, I wasn't able to find it) quoted an engineer who was looking at the effects of individual nanotube lengths on the tensile strength of a nanotube composite.
The quote I'm remembering was that, if they could reliably build single-walled nanotubes at least an inch long and use that composite design, the tensile strength would be enough to build the elevator.
4 cm / 2.54 = orbit?
Pavlov's Dog ate the bell, and now he's barking at Schroedinger's cat all the time... -Me
Okay, so we can make them. Say that nanotubes become commonplace. Say that somebody discoveres they cause brain disease in fish and lung cancer.
How would we clean up the mess? Do they combust? Will they eventually oxidize to CO2? How do you destroy a carbon nanotube? Or will they just go through the food cycle causing damage for millenia?
Mmmmm... nano-tube steak.
- a.c.
I was thinking about how one would weave a bunch of these into a rope or ribbon for a space elevator and it struck me: Wouldn't a single strand nanotube be essentially like a perfect blade? How would you handle the thing? How would you pick it up without it slicing through the thing you are picking it up with?
Am I wrong or would this stuff not require some seriously bizarre handling?
The reason that it can be true that 1+1 > 2 is that very peculiar nonzero value of the + operator
Would a tube of that size and strength not cut easily through many kinds of different materials like a hot knife through butter?
Would make one-hell of a cutting device, many different uses come to mind, but might be a bit dangerous to handle.
Or am I completely off track?
One of the interesting technologies in Herbert's _Dune_ universe was shigawire, monomolecular wire. It was used as an extremely dense info medium. And as a razor++ sharp cutting tool (with novel uses by assassins). Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe also explored the implications of the exact technology. They've multiplied the lengths of these nanofibers from 10nm to 4cm - about a thousandfold - how long before we have another thousanfold, for 40m of material that does the tricks inspired by SF?
--
make install -not war