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Futuristic 'Smart' Yarns from Carbon Nanotubes
neutron_p writes "Scientists at The UTD NanoTech Institute achieved a major technological breakthrough by spinning multi-walled carbon nanotube yarns that are strong, tough and extremely flexible, and are both electrically and thermally conducting. Among other things, the futuristic yarns could result in 'smart' clothing that stores electricity, provides ballistic protection and adjusts temperature and porosity to provide greater comfort. The breakthrough, made possible by, in effect, downsizing ancient technology used for wool and cotton spinning to the nanoscale, resulted from an unusual collaboration involving nanotechnologists and experts in wool spinning."
Does this mean that grandma can now knit me a bullet proof vest?
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
and now they come out with this. I knew I should have waited.
Sweet informative mod.
Now we can get to work on spinning the belt for the space elevator.
"Are you wearing one of them new carbon-acrylic dockers? Or are you just happy to see me?" :)
Insert romantic notions of nanotechnologists and wool clothiers bartering their skills in the art. At an SCA meeting.
See? I can spin a pretty good one.
I read that as:
Futuristic 'Smart' Yams From Carbon Nanotubes
Lets see it will be silver, one piece and one size fits all.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
the chastity thong, a secure impenetrable and fashionable undergarment for young ladies concerned about fashion, and fathers concerned about young men.
from the typing-too-fast dept
...does it repel stains?
This kind of technology is not only useful in helping you wear your computer, which seems to be today's fetiche of every geek. Although that is, indeed, attractive, let us think for a while about the advantages of being able to have such small conductors. For example, we can have super computers that are roughly the same size of today's desktops.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of nanocomputers inside your ATX case, and then you'll see what's a really good fetiche. It might even run Longhorn with Doom 3 and Duke Nukem Forever on dual monitors!
Am I the only one who thought of Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke when reading this?
For those that don't know, Foutains of Paradise is where ACC first coined the idea of building an elevator into space which he later used in 3001: A Final Odyssey (The 3rd sequal to 2001: A Space Odyssey). To build the elevator a super-strength carbon string was bundled into three bundles and then attached to a giant mass in space to keep the tethers taught. At least if memory serves me correctly that's how it was done. If you're an ACC fan and haven't read Fountains of Paradise, I recommend it.
:wq
But wouldn't the sweater cause all this black ugly carbon to rub off on you?
I have always been fascinated by them that they have so many incredible applications and multiwalled carbon nanotubes is just one of its many possible ways of using it.
Screw smart clothes... Hopefully this stuff can be made into next generation pressurised (200-300 atm) rocket fuel tanks. No turbopumps, reliable pressure fed engines without weight penalty in bulky tanks and cheap RLV is one important step closer to reality.
I first read this as "Futuristic Smart Yams from Carbon Nanotubes." If ever any overlords ever needed welcoming, it'd be Smart Yam overlords. I wouldn't have to be the one to explain about Thanksgivings past. Hopefully they wouldn't demand to eat one human for every yam ever consumed...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I, for one, welcome our new itchy sweater-wearing overlords.
Jacket: Your jacket is drying... ::Air being blown in McFly's face::
Jacket: Beep. Your jacket is dry.
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
"Smart clothes," feh. Wake me up when they've developed mimetic polycarbon.
Come up with your best punchline to this and win a g-mail invite! (No, not really)
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
That's just in time (or just a bit too late?) to save many a developed country's ass - if I'm not mistaken in 2005 WTO members must abolish textile quotas and Chinese and Indian manufacturers are poised to make a killing.
Products based on this technology will command premium prices (and have great features - I might finally become interested in shopping!).
In Ontario, Canada the guvmnt wants to declare bullet proof vests against the law, just like weapons. Will clothes that provide ballistic protection as well as a range of other great features be against the law? I want my bullet-proof underwear, god-damnit!
You can't handle the truth.
Well, all we have to do now is find a way to keep the old troll from taking our firstborn sons. If you need to ask, you were deprived as a child.
But all that being said, what I want to see most is clothing that you can change the appearance of (color, pattern, even cut, if possible) at will. Not because I particularly want it, mind you, but because I'm quite certain that that's the feature that will drive adoption of this in the consumer space, which is what will cause all the actually cool applications to be available.
Viva fashion, and whatnot.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
"The breakthrough, made possible by, in effect, downsizing ancient technology used for wool and cotton spinning to the nanoscale, resulted from an unusual collaboration involving nanotechnologists and experts in wool spinning."
Now just think what the car makers can learn from the buggy whip people?
Is this "smart" yarn smart enough to stop people from wearing lime green paisley sweaters?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I would not get my hopes up for getting a carbon nanotube sweater for Christmas this year or next year or the year after that... In the foreseeable future these nanotube yarns would be used to replace metal wires in applications where increased flexibility and pliability are required they could also be used for such things as capacitors or batteries. The authors of the article (Mei Zhang, Ken R. Atkinson and Ray H. Baughman, Science, 306, 5700, p1358-1361, 19 November 2004) state that the small yarn diameters (about 20 micrometers for the four ply yarn), could eliminate the uncomfortable rigidity sometimes found for metal wire-containing conducting textiles that provide radio or microwave absorption, electrostatic discharge protection, textile heating, or wiring for electronic devices. Although a bulletproof, electrically conductive vest that could withstand temperature extremes from +450C to -196C does sound quite appealing.
"When Nature Calls We All Shall Drown" Johan Edlund
Comes textile-punk, to be featured in Neal Stephenson's upcoming book, Sweater Crash. Meanwhile, the Wachowski brothers have a new movie in the making about about a futuristic society where all of humanity is entrapped in a large, controlling single piece of nano-fabric. Of course, this was all done 50 years ago in an Asimov book.
*is run over by rotten tomatoes*
The link is kind of crappy. It's sort of hype-ish without real science, which coincidentally is the name of the journal whose latest issue is mentioned in the link as containing the paper describing the breakthrough. What a sentence that was...anyways, here you go. You should be able to read it even if you aren't at a subscribing institution since it's the latest issue.
It's worth noting that UTD has only been hard at work in CNT research for a few years. I was there in 2002 when the NanoTech institute was still being built. They had a bunch of Dells sitting outside the building with no one watching...but I guess they didn't worry. I mean, who steals a Dell?
Other good links, mostly culled from the above Science article:
Baughman's summary of nanotube work
Smalley (the Nobel prize winner) and his CNT work:: He invented the HiPCO process for large-scale development of CNT's...from what I gather, fiber-spinning like the UTD method is a direct competitor.
A really good (and 46 page!) discussion of nanotube work
Strong Bad, in case you get tired of science.
You'd just need high-strength steel or aluminium, and then stretch this stuff around the frame. Might be a little loud, but I'd bet the weight difference would make people give serious consideration to the designs. Same thing with airplanes and tents. Likely houses, as well.
All kinds of uses. We just need people with the cash to get jiggy with it.
Now, as can be demonstrated by many of my previous posts, I'm all for pure and applied science. However, lately, I've been thinking quite a lot on the question "what good is technology?". Yes, building a space elevator would be cool. Yes, having light bulletproof vests would be cool. But how does this science help mankind? Does it improve agriculture? Does it help provide things people need? Does it help the environment? Does it help people get along better?
I know these are questions that don't have easy answers always, and I know that if people thought about these things in a literal sense then we probably would not have a lot of the technology we currently have.
My question is more of this: what research is being done into pure sciences and technology that does work for agriculture, health, the environment, and those types of things directly. Some technology simply supports those things indirectly by providing jobs, new materials, etc.
What is lacking in a lot of science, though, and much of life in general, is a lack of focus. Even in the pure sciences, what's the goal of a particular project? Sometimes it's "to see how things work". Sometimes it's "we would like a better way to do X". There is no overarching goal for a lot of modern technology though - mostly it's just "we want a profit!" (Reminds me of the line from Star Trek: First Contact where Zefram Cochrane says he wasn't in it for science but for profit!)
I am by most measures a successful person, but I've had to ask myself: what good is it? Not from a depressed standpoint, but a "shouldn't I be doing more?" standpoint. Carbon nanotubes are great, but what do they really give us? The list goes on - what do Linux desktops give us? MP3 players (without DRM, of course!)? Wi-Fi? These are all neat things - but do we have a purpose behind our technical passions?
</soapbox>
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
I hope it comes with a grounding strap.
I wonder if this would be a good material for microsurgical sutures.
And now, we can construct the world's smallest violin for Ron Artest.
sigs, as if you care.
"Form of... Sky Hook!"
--- Ban humanity.
How long is it? Lots of nanotube work has been done before, but at microscopic lengths. Nanotubes won't be practical for anything until they can be made at a useful size.
Thermally conductive sweaters? Great idea, guys, but why stop there? I propose oven mitts.
This may be a really stupid question. Related to a recent study concerning the replacements for asbestos. Back in the 80:ies when it was discovered that asbestos would cause lung-cancer or worse after repeated exposion to it, they replaced asbestos rather swiftly with materials like cheramic fibres. Now, recently they discovered that replacements like heat-resistant cheramics could also cause lung-cancer this. Perhaps just as dangerous as asbestos. The reason found, was because of the micro-fragments (dust) which would gather in the lungs and it's air-sacks (alveoli) and make them to swell abnormally and then risk causing cancer.
Even building insolation materials have also been questioned.
Now to my concern regarding carbon fibre.. has there been any studies on carbon tubes's affects on the human body? Carbon-fibre is an artificial material such as many insolations questioned. That is why I ask.
Ten years, twenty years or more from now, will we notice the dangerious side-affects of materials we push out on the market?
Maybe you could use this to create overlapping grids of nanoscale photoelectric cells and LEDs or similar, and create the effect of light being passed through your body to the other side... if not making you completely invisible, at least sort of ghostly or insubstantial-seeming. Or, alternately, an effect of reflecting all light that hits you, or any number of visual effects. Sort of like a walking Photoshop.
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
Heinlein used it in 'Friday' and maybe other old novels. Remember the 'beanstalk' ?
I think in Friday it was actually a tether all the way from Earth to the Moon. lol.
So this is what the Incredable's suits are made out of... isn't it daaaaaahling!
Eventually, we'll need thread for nanosurgical sutures.
Farmers everywhere would appreciate weatherproof, pest-proof grain bins that breathe, but don't ever explode.
If you can't get along with someone when you're both in bullet-proof underwear, you each deserve what you get. (Not sure I believe that, but it's worth thinking about anyway)
Thin, strong twine could make for improved saws. A razor-thin ultrastrong wire with handles or a bow could slice through anything from a steel bar to a loaf of bread. The trick will be figuring out to make a band-saw shaped one.
Then again, consider how easy a thread of this stuff would be to smuggle into prison.
sigs, as if you care.
Carbon nanotubules have not been rigourously studied for health affects on humans. However, the same chemical attributes that make asbestos so toxic are not found in CNT's. In fact the affect of breathing in CNT's would be most like breathing in carbon soot. In fact, buckey balls and carbon fullerenes do exist naturally in soot. In short, CNT's are not thought to have especially toxic properties, but more studies are being performed.
Yams can cook?
...
...)
Or is that
Yams can cook! (as in fire, lay off, dehire, make redundant
Infuriate left and right
Apparently someone has already done some testing and concluded these things are extermely TOXIC. Clothing and other every-day things made of this stuff? You go first. OTOH, it might be just fine encased in resin. Carbon-nanotube-fiber constuction could be fantastic for everyone except the people who actually make the stuff...
Somehow I have a feeling the ultrafine fiber fragments shed by these yarns or fabrics made from them with age and wear won't be so happy biologically.
Generally small particles or fillaments of any material smaller than a certain size are bad for you if inhaled (i.e. Pneumoconiosis), regardless of their composition.
Additionally, if fiber fragments are short and fine enough, you essentially have little needle-like objects that can do a lot of damage directly at the cellular level.
So, not that I'm being pessimistic or anything, but in the long term I don't think it'll remain an everyday item. It might hit the open market for a while, but a few decades of cancer studies, toxicoligical studies and lawsuits would likely bring an end to that.
While my guesses are just that, there are a few discouraging signs in research to date. Watch this area; we'll see whether further results warrant concern or not.
To be clear, I think this technology should certainly be pursued, but we need to be guarded in our optimisim regarding its widespread applicability.
DNA just wants to be free...
and extremely flexible, and are both electrically and thermally conducting.
Eh hem, everybody remember what happens to steel wool when you hook it up to a 9 volt battery in science class?
Okay, if the handkerchief's in the left pocket s/he's AC, and the right pocket for DC...or was it the other way around?...
[BZZZAP!]
Damn.
Life is like surrealism: if you have to have it explained to you, you can't afford it.
Does this mean that grandma can now knit me a bullet proof vest?
I figured you wouldn't need one. Maybe you should have been Kevlarsides or possibly CarbonNanotubesYarnSides.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Great, so we won't get lung cancer, only black lung disease. I think I will just keep with smoking my cigarettes while working in a coal mine thank you.
Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
This was posted in March and July See http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/1 2/1443253&tid=14 http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/0 8/1425203&tid=126&tid=14
The first airplanes, in particular, were often made with cloth stretched over a wooden or metal frame.
DNA just wants to be free...
Hook me up with one of them tux from the movie. Now that is cool.
will it massage my testicles for me...
Looks like yet another material for overpriced speaker wire to squeeze more cash out of audiophiles. Can't wait to see ads for "Monster Carbon Nanatube" for only $100/foot... And for home theater applications, you don't need speaker mounts any more, just hang your speakers down from the ceiling with carbon nanotubes...
Among other things, the futuristic yarns could result in 'smart' clothing that stores electricity...
Boy, I can't count the number of times I've tried in vain to get my old fashioned clothing to store electricity. Because that would be so incredibly useful in my day to day life. Especially if it's going to rain...
Now when someone calls you "Smartypants", you don't know whether it's an insult or compliment. They'll be anarchy...
So is this what his suit was made out of? I bet this "breakthrough" was created by stealing the technology from the very same aliens that gave the suit to school teacher turned super hero.
Welcome to the HEV hazardous environment suit...
The folks at Rice University did this first. (2-Sep-2004)
Since the CNT fabric is conductive -- imagine if you could have a jersey for running or cycling that had an embedded heartrate monitor. No more stupid straps digging into your chest!
Chip H.
...because these tinfoil underpants are getting seriously uncomfortable!
"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."
-- obligatory quote from The Incredibles
It's about time that the government did something to improve the safety and reduce risks in my line of work.
Now they just need to make mandatory "sensitivity training" programs and "diversity awareness" programs and all sorts of the like for police departments. If the government does what they normally do, there'll be no extra funding for these programs, so the chiefs will have to cut back on things to fit within budget. Things like officers, or forensics, or vehicles.
I'm entitled to three square meals a day, cable TV, a nice bed in a warm room, exercise facilities, the works... if only they'd catch me.
Thank you, Ontario!
Love,
Your average everyday criminal
No photographs please.
"The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
Major Major
Mine used to do that, until the exterminator came.
I think the next generation of Laser Tag will be the 1st application of this technology.
--I smoked my sig.
Web Between the Worlds is Charles Sheffield's take on the same concept. (That's where the "beanstalk" reference came from.)
I used to work with Sheffield. The rumor at the office was that Clark was shown a manuscript for WBTW and managed to get his book to print first by some chicanery.
Though I'm sure any real product would have an insulating lining.
Letter To Iran
Well, when wifi is pervasive and hotspots are one big free everywhere internet (Fast forward about 5 years from now), then we won't have the corporate controls and DRM and all the other draconian bullshit going on that is going on today, so imho, that is a "good thing". I submit that we need a different protocol specifically for this "freenet", and more software infrastructure for it. I like the IDEA of freenet the current one, but let's be honest. IT TOTALLY BLOWS AND NOBODY WILL EVER USE IT. It has a necessary niche that it is NOT filling, and will be MUCH MORE FILLED by some other system, particularly with the (i feel) inevitable advent of ubiquitous hot spots.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
This is the first time I've seen it mentioned that carbon nanotubes are electrically conducting. That raises the question for me as to how the space elevator people intend to deal with what would essentially be the world's largest lightning rod, not to mention the effects of friction with the upper atmosphere as it rips past the cable.
So long, and thanks for all the Phish
A picture of a tiny imp with a even tinier spinning wheel comes to mind. Maybe I've been reading to much Discworld novels lately.
Both announcements from the UTD Nanotech Institute and the CSIRO in Australia give you only limited facts. If you're interested by this discovery, you really should read my overview, "Nanometer Knitting for Futuristic Clothing," which for example contains images not mentioned in the press releases.
between the textile industry and computing industry... In the late 60s, before bipolar transistor memory or MOS transistor memories were commonplace and practical, companies like Digital and IBM employed several textile company weaving-experts on the efficient weaving of core memory "ropes" and "cloths." Basically, the problems encountered in the fabrication of core memory on a large, complex scale had been solved, or at least examined, centuries before. see Rope memory and Apollo Guidance Computer rope memory. And of course, who could forget the original programmed computer, the Jacquard's punch-card loom?
I gotta say that this article sounds pretty breathless to me.
7 /0 8/1425203&tid=126&tid=14. org/article.pl?sid=04/03/1 2/1443253&tid=14
Ok, carbon nanotube wool. Cool, it's true. Didn't we read about carbon nanotubes tangled up into a longer fiber a while back on slashdot?
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/0
http://science.slashdot
And weren't they actually not much stronger than regular fabric? Kudos on incrementing the tech if it's stronger, but bulletproof clothing? Hello, if the fabric is all flexable then the bullet will just go into you and take some portion of your sweater with it. You need some sort of force distributing hard surface.
And then "However, the ability to incorporate electronic sensors and actuators into CNT yarn..." Um, placing electronic sensors and actuators into CNT yarn has been left as an exercise for the reader. This is non-trivial, yes?
Hah, my old wooly sweater accumulates charge enough to kill small rodents!
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
What about treatment or research of cancer? Where fibers are spontaneously woven into tumors, following the tumors own microtubulous? A cancer to cancer one could call it.
"Hmmm... this is megamesh, very sturdy, a useful feature, but hopelessly out of date dahling, a hobosuit."
"But you designed it," says Mr Incredible.
"I never look back, dahling, it distracts from the Now."
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
I have to say that I did not say I agree with the banning of vests but just trying to bring understanding.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I thought this is what my "Light Speed briefs" were made of.
Homer no function beer well without.
Ohh YARNS.. I read this first as Yams. Thanksgiving is coming up and some smart yams would be perfect with the turkey.
Mmmmmm, carbon nanotube yams... Taste good with gravy.
Do any Slashdotters actually own such a garment, and have you ever worn the thing other than for show ?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
They've found with buckey-balls that breathing them in can be very bad to your lungs. Now they seem to have a way to mass-produce tubular carbon fibers. This may increase the danger to people. Remember Asbestos? I don't want to be too alarmist, here, they have found ways to coat the buckey-balls to make them less damaging. Just a thought.
... rather it is the responsibility of someone creating a new product to demonstrate its safety. That's the point. If it's new, and its effects unknown, then you don't dress up little billy or sally in it.
Are there links that show studies and theories as to why/how this would be safe as a material? No one thought asbestos was nasty until much later. How will we avoid the same mistake this time?
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