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Nanotubes Start to Show their Promise

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the now-lay-me-some-sugar dept.

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!"

13 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. Space elevators by onion2k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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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    1. Re:Space elevators by MaestroSartori · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The authors also say that, with further tweaking, their nanotube sheets may be useful for building a space elevator tether. They're planning to put the sheets to the test by entering the Spaceward Foundation's Elevator:2010 contest.


      Emphasis mine. Seems to suggest that they think they're not too far away from it, so you're not totally off the mark, but we all know that the last few tweaks can be the bit that don't work, relegating this to other uses...
      --
      Game dev and music blog
    2. Re:Space elevators by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's just modern journalism.
      It used to be Who What When Where and How, now it's May Might Could HelpTo and SomeDay.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:Space elevators by WiFiBro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      is it the journalist or: the pr behind the product?

    4. Re:Space elevators by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is there even a difference anymore?

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      I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
  2. Re:How about... by dbIII · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...the cost?
    Cost isn't determined in the lab where the stuff is invented at the time of invention - it's worked out later when it becomes clear that there is more than one way to make something and the best way can be taken advantage of. The first few transistors cost a fortune each to produce, as did aluminium for the first few years. We make both in a different fashion now to the first processes used to make them.
  3. Re:Ummm, that doesn't even begin to sound safe. by fish+waffle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, I'm going to have a microwave generator going in my car, aiming the the windshield, just to warm it up.

    Don't be silly. It'll just use the ambient microwave radiation we're pouring out now for communications. I'm more worried that with the windshield absorbing all the microwaves my coffee will no longer stay warm in the car.

  4. Re:Still lot of carbon... by SimilarityEngine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...as long as you don't include General Relativity, at least...

    Even in GR, the stress-energy tensor has zero divergence.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  5. waiting... by distantbody · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "...and is expected to be used in commercial applications very soon..."
    ,
    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... :(

  6. Re:Hurm... by HomerJayS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In all likleyhood, if you could afford to print your resume on such paper, you wouldn't need a job.

  7. Re:Space elevators will never work by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The issue is maximum payload, not how many vehicles. The "best" designs so far, that is, the ones that envisage a "safe" elevator that, if cut at the top, will not cause the end of civilization as we know it, can only carry a few tens of pounds of weight. That's a total, not a per-vehicle value. And that small wieght has to travel a distance of over 50,000 miles. You can imagine the time that'll take. Realistically, we're looking at over a week for that small amount of mass to travel the entire length of the tether.

    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.
  8. Uses! by LWATCDR · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.
  9. Need For Speed by FridayBob · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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).