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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."
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.
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
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.
It's worse than that: with the new smaart fabric, the paisley's swim around.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
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.
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...
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
There have been a few studies done by NIOSH sponsored by NASA. I have nice presentation of them but it is 100mbs so I can not put it up anywhere. Iwould check out there website because I believe the report is publicly available there. It basically says they are not sure and to take proper precautions. It explains the sizes of particles and what takes them out in the lungs and so forth. I work with carbon nanofibers daily in research and anytime we are hadnling dry fibers we wear respirators to be safe. Once it is in a polymer/resin then we do not have to worry about it. If you think about it everytime you go to the beach there are nano sand particles.
This may have been the first time that Clarke wrote about a space elevator, but the concept was not original with him.
t owers.html
Tsiolkovsky first proposed it in 1895.
See http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/TETHER/space
Please develop a sense of humor. The idea of a chastity thong is funny, it seems ridiculous exactly because you can have sex while wearing one. The fact that you could actually make one that worked as a chastity belt by using smart clothing just makes it funnier. The point of the original post was not to promote the actual use of castity belts or any other similar measure of parental control. It was a joke.
Carbon nanotubes explode when exposed to a camera flash, right? Their conductivity is a bit too good. What an odd way of adding excitement to the bedroom.