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New Threadlike Carbon Nanotube Fiber Unveiled

Posted by samzenpus on from the threads-that-bind dept.

Zothecula writes "At about 100 times the strength of steel and a sixth the weight, with impressive electrical conductive properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have promised much since their discovery in 1991. The problem has been translating their impressive nanoscale properties into real-world applications on the macro scale. Researchers have now unveiled a new CNT fiber that conducts heat and electricity like a metal wire, is very strong like carbon fiber, and is flexible like a textile thread."

7 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome! by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When do we start building the space elevator?

    --

    Technoli
    1. Re:Awesome! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      TFA says it's as strong as carbon fiber, which suggests that they couldn't translate the strenght of nanotubes into macroscale perfectly.

      The common claim that CNTs are "100 times the strength of steel" is basically baloney. Sure, they are that strong at the molecular level. But at the molecular level, even iron-iron bonds are far stronger than steel. If we ever figure out how to control the structure of materials so that the strength of individual chemical bonds is preserved in bulk materials, then we would not only have stronger carbon fibers, but we would also have stronger steel.

  2. Re:Make a white suit out of it by Coisiche · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Presumably AC is referencing the film but the vanity of people is such that if some fibre allowed permanently enduring clothes they would still want new ones; there will always be a desirable new ironic slogan for a t-shirt.

    Now indestructible clothes with a programmable visual component... one would probably do me.

  3. Journalists are scienticians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The hollow tubes of pure carbon, which are nearly as wide as a strand of DNA, are about 100 times stronger than steel

    Why not use units here? I have no fucking clue how wide a strand of DNA is. And which strength are we talking about? Tensile? Sheer?

  4. Re:Make a white suit out of it by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are probably niche exceptions; but in most of clothing it's been quite some time since disrepair, rather than disuse, has been the driving factor behind consumption.

    Even relatively easy and low-tech techniques like 'patching' and 'darning' and assorted flavors of mending have fallen out of fashion, and those aren't exactly the height of material science...

  5. Re:far below the strength of aerospace carbon fibe by vlm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm more interested in if this is cheap or not in mass quantities and practical to be used for wires..

    The meth head copper thieves are not going to be happy when this stuff gets deployed.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  6. Re:Monster Cable by JeanCroix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The question isn't whether this stuff is strong enough or conductive enough, it's whether it's expensive enough to be used in Monster cables.