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Nanotubes Start to Show their Promise
Rei writes "Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed the highest quality nanotube sheets to date (the team previously set strength records with polymer-nanotube composites). Producable at a rate comparable to commercial wool spinning, the transparent cloth has exceedingly high conductivity, flexibility, has huge surface area to volume ratios, can potentially be made into very effective OLEDs and thin-film photovoltaic cells, and outperforms even our best bulk materials (such as Mylar and Kevlar) at strength normalized to weight. It strongly absorbs microwaves for localized heating (leading to applications in seamless microwave welding of sections and even windshield warming), changes conductivity little over a wide temperature range (very useful in sensors), and is expected to be used in commercial applications very soon. The research should even be expandable to artificial muscles! To head people off, while the exact tensile strength is not listed, it sounds like it is still far from the >100 GPa needed for a space elevator. Anyways, here's to process advancements!"
To head people off, while the exact tensile strength is not listed, it sounds like it is still far from the >100 GPa needed for a space elevator.
Why do they say they're going to enter the material into some space elevator competition at the end of the article then?
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It is the resource usage and sustailability that makes it worthwhile. Cars cost a shedload of cash, but they are still bought. People work longer and longer hours, parents both work. Why? Because they want to buy the things they want and they are expensive.
Cost is irrelevant.
If the cost of the item is too great to be commercial (as computers used to be), it will be bought by those with the need for this stuff. After a while, it will become cheaper, as computers did.
However, if the creation of these nanotube materials is not resource efficient, then they will never be able to become widely used.
It strongly absorbs microwaves for localized heating (leading to applications ... in windshield warming)
Yeah, I'm going to have a microwave generator going in my car, aiming the the windshield, just to warm it up. That's got to be safe right?
Just a shame we can't do something slightly safer, like send a small electric currents through tiny wires, or blow hot air at it.
But oh no... we have to shoot microwaves through our cars instead.
Even in GR, the stress-energy tensor has zero divergence.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
"...and is expected to be used in commercial applications very soon..."
:(
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Hmmm, hasn't that been the case for the past decade? That's what my inner cynic says, anyway. Just like the fuel cell revolution, not to mention the nuclear fusion revolution.
there should be a revolution any day now...
In all likleyhood, if you could afford to print your resume on such paper, you wouldn't need a job.
Now, that's not to say the GP is right. At the moment, the investment needed would be astronomic, but we don't know how much this will run long term, and a country that already has a space program and regularly launches satellites may find it works out cheaper in the long term to build such a thing, at least, once the price of mass producing materials strong enough to be used in one comes down.
The other response incidentally is largely wrong. One major advantage of an elevator is you can use it to trap the energy of something coming back down. For launching satellites, the elevator may be uneconomic, for more far sighted applications, such as returning materials mined from elsewhere, it will be more than economic. Of course, just as we're a long way from having a practical material to build an elevator from, we're also a long way from mining asteroids.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Okay it looks like this could be used anywhere that you currently use Carbon Fiber. I can hardly wait.
Super strong light weight helmets.
Homebuilt aircraft.
Bicycles.
It just goes on and on.
The fact it is transparent, conductive, and absorbs microwaves makes me think that we will see a lot of it uses for RAM coatings on ships and aircraft.
I can also see it being used for anti rf wall paper and and windows in secure buildings.
All in all very cool.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
From the article:
... With this method they can produce nanotube sheets at up to seven meters per minute, ...
Assuming the product eventually exceeds 100 GPa, at this rate it would take over 27 years to produce a 100,000 km ribbon in one piece. Since that timescale would be impractical, I figure they should aim for at least a meter per second, which would allow them to do it in a little over three years instead. On the other hand, they could also, for example, set up 30 production lines to work at the current speed, run them all for about a year and then glue the segments together using the extra length for overlap. However, that would add extra volume and make it heavier (remember that the first ribbon has to go up on a rocket).
I wouldn't rely on a tabloid science article for the current status of technology.
I do find it odd that you'd expect someone who doesn't know that weight and mass are different would know what 'normalized' means.
Depending on the target audience I would have said either
High specific strength or
Good strength/weight ratio
I'll stand by my initial statement that this is a junk article.