Carbon nanotube

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Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a recently discovered allotrope of carbon. They take the form of cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.

A nanotube is a member of the fullerene structural family, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several micrometers in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

Nanotubes are composed entirely of sp² bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure, stronger than the sp³ bonds found in diamond, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into "ropes" held together by Van der Waals forces. Under high pressure, nanotubes can merge together, trading some sp² bonds for sp³ bonds, giving great possibility for producing strong, unlimited-length wires through high-pressure nanotube linking http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/staff/taner/nanotube/interlink.pdf.

While it has long been known that carbon fibers can be produced with a carbon arc, and patents were issued for the process, it was not until 1991 that Sumio Iijima, a researcher with the NEC Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, observed that these fibers were hollow. This feature of nanotubes is of great interest to physicists because it permits experiments in one-dimensional quantum physics.

Types of carbon nanotube

Single-walled

Most SWNTs have a diameter of close to 1nm, with a tube length that can be many thousands of times larger. SWNTs with length up to orders of centimeters have been produced (Zhu, et al., 2002). The structure of a SWNT can be conceptualized by wrapping a one-atom-thick layer of graphite called graphene into a seamless cylinder. The way the graphene sheet is wrapped is represented by a pair of indices (n,m) called the chiral vector. The integers n and m denote the number of unit vectors along two directions in the honeycomb crystal lattice of graphene. If m=0, the nanotubes are called "zigzag". If n=m, the nanotubes are called "armchair". Otherwise, they are called "chiral".

SWNTs are a very important variety of carbon nanotube because they exhibit important electric properties that are not shared by the multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) variants. SWNTs are the most likely candidate for miniaturizing electronics past the microelectromechanical scale that is currently the basis of modern electronics. The most basic building block of these systems is the electric wire, and SWNTs can be excellent conductors (Dekker, et al., 1999). One useful application of SWNTs is in the development of the first intramolecular field effect transistors (FETs). The production of the first intramolecular logic gate using SWNT FETs has recently become possible as well (Derycke, et al., 2001). To create a logic gate you must have both a p-FET and an n-FET. Because SWNTs are p-FETs when exposed to air and n-FETs when unexposed to oxygen, they were able to protect half of a SWNT from oxygen exposure, while exposing the other half to oxygen. The result was a single SWNT that acted as a NOT logic gate with both p and n-type FETs within the same molecule.

SWNTs are still very expensive to produce, and the development of more affordable synthesis techniques is vital to the future of carbon nanotechnology. If cheaper means of synthesis cannot be discovered, it would make it financially impossible to apply this technology to commercial-scale applications.

Multi-walled

Multiwalled nanotubes (MWNT) consist of multiple layers of graphite rolled in on themselves to form a tube shape. There are two models which can be used to describe the structures of multiwalled nanotubes. In the Russian Doll model, sheets of graphite are arranged in concentric cylinders, eg a (0,8) SWNT within a larger (0,10) SWNT. In the Parchment model, a single sheet of graphite is rolled in around itself , resembling a scroll of parchment or a rolled up newspaper.

Fullerite

Fullerite is a highly incompressible nanotube form. Polymerized single walled nanotubes (P-SWNT) are a class of fullerites and are comparable to diamond in terms of hardness (see also ultrahard fullerite).

Torus

A nanotorus is a carbon nanotube bent into a torus (donut shape). Nanotori have many unique properties, such as magnetic moments 1000 times larger than previously expected for certain specific radii. Many properties such as magnetic moment, thermal stability, etc. vary widely depending on radius of the torus and radius of the tube.

Properties

Strength

Carbon nanotubes are one of the strongest materials known to man, both in terms of tensile strength and elastic modulus. This strength results from the covalent sp² bonds formed between the individual carbon atoms. In 2000, an MWNT was tested to have a tensile strength of 63 GPa http://sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/287/5453/637. In comparison, high-carbon steel has a tensile strength of approximately 1.2 GPa. CNTs also have very high elastic modulus, on the order of 1 TPa http://ipn2.epfl.ch/CHBU/papers/ourpapers/Forro_NT99.pdf. Since carbon nanotubes have a low density for a solid of 1.3-1.4, its specific strength is the best of known materials.

Under excessive tensile strain, the tubes will undergo plastic deformation, which means the deformation is permanent. This deformation begins at strains of approximately 5% [Qian et al, 2002] and can increase the maximum strain the tube undergoes before fracture by releasing strain energy.

CNTs are not nearly as strong under compression. Because of their hollow structure, they tend to undergo buckling when placed under compressive, torsional or bending stress.

Dynamic properties

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes, multiple concentric nanotubes precisely nested within one another, exhibit a striking telescoping property whereby an inner nanotube core may slide, almost without friction, within its outer nanotube shell thus creating an atomically perfect linear or rotational bearinghttp://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5479.505ehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5479.602. This is one of the first true examples of molecular nanotechnology, the precise positioning of atoms to create useful machines. Already this property has been utilized to create the world's smallest rotational motorhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature01823 and a nanorheostathttp://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.086801. Future applications such as a gigahertz mechanical oscillator are envisionedhttp://focus.aps.org/story/v9/st4.

Electrical

Because of the symmetry and unique electronic structure of graphene, the structure of a nanotube strongly affects its electrical properties. For a given (n,m) nanotube, if 2n + m=3q (where q is an integer), then the nanotube is metallic, otherwise the nanotube is a semiconductor. Thus all armchair (n=m) nanotubes are metallic, and nanotubes (5,0), (6,4), (9,1), etc. are semiconducting. In theory, metallic nanotubes can have an electrical current density more than 1,000 times greater than metals such as silver and copper.

See also: Fermi point

Thermal

All nanotubes are expected to be very good thermal conductors along the tube, exhibiting a property known as "ballistic conduction," but good insulators laterally to the tube axis.

Defects

As with any material, the existence of defects affects the material properties. Defects can occur in the form of atomic vacancies. High levels of such defects can lower the tensile strength by up to 85%.http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2004/isbn9512273799/article5.pdf Another well-known form of defect that occurs in carbon nanotubes is known as the Stone Wales defect, which creates a pentagon and heptagon pair by rearrangement of the bonds. Because of the almost one-dimensional structure of CNTs, the tensile strength of the tube is dependent on the weakest segment of it in a similar manner to a chain, where a defect in a single link diminishes the strength of the entire chain.

The tubes electrical properties are also affected by the presence of defects. A common result is the lowered conductivity through the defective region of the tube. Some defect formation in armchair-type tubes (which are metallic) can cause the region surrounding that defect to become semiconducting. Furthermore single monoatomic vacancies induce magnetic properties.

The tube's thermal properties are heavily affected by defects. Such defects lead to phonon scattering, which in turn increases the relaxation rate of the phonons. This reduces the mean free path, and reduces the thermal conductivity of nanotube structures.

Synthesis

Techniques have been developed to produce nanotubes in sizeable quantities, including arc discharge, laser ablation, high pressure carbon monoxide (HiPco), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). All of these processes take place in vacuum, with process gases. Large quantities of nanotubes can be synthesized by these methods; however, the cost is still too high to facilitate mass production.

Arc discharge

Nanotubes were observed in 1991 in the carbon soot of graphite electrodes during an arc discharge that was intended to produce fullerenes. During this process, the carbon contained in the negative electrode sublimates because of the high temperatures caused by the discharge. Because nanotubes were initially discovered using this technique, it has been perhaps the most widely used method of nanotube synthesis.

Laser ablation

In the laser ablation process, a pulsed laser vaporizes a graphite target in a high temperature reactor while an inert gas is bled into the chamber. The nanotubes develop on the cooler surfaces of the reactor, as the vaporized carbon condenses. A water-cooled surface may be included in the system to collect the nanotubes.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)

The catalytic vapor phase deposition of carbon was first reported in 1959P. L. Walker Jr. et al., J. Phys. Chem. 63, 133 (1959)., but it was not until 1993M. José-Yacamán et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 62, 657 (1993). that carbon nanotubes could be formed by this process.

During CVD, a substrate is prepared with a layer of metal catalyst particles, most commonly nickel, cobalt, iron, or a combination. The diameters of the nanotubes that are to be grown are related to the size of the metal particles. This can be controlled by patterned (or masked) deposition of the metal, annealing, or by plasma etching of a metal layer. The substrate is heated to approximately 700°C. To initiate the growth of nanotubes, two gases are bled into the reactor: a process gas (such as ammonia, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.) and a carbon-containing gas (such as acetylene, ethylene, ethanol, etc.). Nanotubes grow at the sites of the metal catalyst; the carbon-containing gas is broken apart at the surface of the catalyst particle, and the carbon is transported to the edges of the particle, where it forms the nanotubes. The catalyst particles generally stay at the tips of the growing nanotube during the growth process, although in some cases they remain at the nanotube base, depending on the adhesion between the catalyst particle and the substrate.

If a plasma is generated by the application of a strong electric field during the growth process (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition), then the nanotube growth will follow the direction of the electric fieldZ. F. Ren et al., Science 282, 1105 (1998).. By properly adjusting the geometry of the reactor it is possible to synthesize vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (i.e., perpendicular to the substrate), a morphology that has been of interest to researchers interested in the electron emission from nanotubes. Without the plasma, the resulting nanotubes are randomly oriented, resembling a bowl of spaghetti.

Of the various means for nanotube synthesis, CVD shows the most promise for industrial scale deposition in terms of its price/unit ratio. There are additional advantages to the CVD synthesis of nanotubes. Unlike the above methods, CVD is capable of growing nanotubes directly on a desired substrate, whereas the nanotubes must be collected in the other growth techniques. The growth sites are controllable by careful deposition of the catalyst. Additionally, no other growth methods have been developed to produce vertically aligned nanotubes.

Natural and incidental synthesis

Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes are not necessarily products of high-tech laboratories; they are commonly formed in such mundane places as candle flames. However, these naturally occurring varieties, because of the highly uncontrolled environment in which they are produced, are highly irregular in size and quality, lacking the high degree of uniformity necessary to meet the needs of both research and industry.

Applications

The strength and flexibility of carbon nanotubes makes them of potential use in controlling other nanoscale structures, which suggests they will have an important role in nanotechnology engineering. The highest tensile strength an individual MWNT has been tested to be is 63 GPa http://sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/287/5453/637. Bulk nanotube materials may never achieve a tensile strength similar to that of individual tubes, but such composites may nevertheless yield strengths sufficient for many applications. Carbon nanotubes have already been used as composite fibers in polymers and concrete to improve the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of the bulk product.

Structural

• clothes: waterproof tear-resistant cloth fibers

• combat jackets: MIT is working on combat jackets that use carbon nanotubes as ultrastrong fibers and to monitor the condition of the wearer.#redirect

• concrete: In concrete, they increase the tensile strength, and halt crack propagation.

• polyethylene: Researchers have found that adding them to polyethylene increases the polymer's elastic modulus by 30%.

• sports equipment: Stronger and lighter tennis rackets, bike parts, golf balls, golf clubs, and baseball bats.

• space elevator: The monoatomic oxygen in the Earth's upper atmosphere would erode carbon nanotubes, so a space elevator constructed of nanotubes would need to be protected (by some kind of sheath, for example). Carbon nanotubes in other applications would generally not need such surface protection.

• ultrahigh-speed flywheels: due to super slickness - low friction

Electromagnetic

• artificial muscles http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/dn8859.html

• buckypaper - a thin sheet made from nanotubes that are 250 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter that could be used as a heat sinkfor chipboards, a backlight for LCD screens or as a faraday cage to protect electrical devices/aeroplanes.

• chemical nanowires: Carbon nanotubes additionally can also be used to produce nanowires of other chemicals, such as gold or zinc oxide. These nanowires in turn can be used to cast nanotubes of other chemicals, such as gallium nitride. These can have very different properties from CNTs - for example, gallium nitride nanotubes are hydrophilic, while CNTs are hydrophobic, giving them possible uses in organic chemistry that CNTs could not be used for.

• computer circuits: A nanotube formed by joining nanotubes of two different diameters end to end can act as a diode, suggesting the possibility of constructing electronic computer circuits entirely out of nanotubes. Because of their good thermal properties, CNTs can also be used to dissipate heat from tiny computer chips. The longest electricity conducting circuit is a fraction of an inch long.(Source: June 2006 National Geographic).

• conductive films: A 2005 paper in Science notes that drawing transparent high strength swathes of SWNT is a functional production technique (Zhang et. al., vol. 309, p. 1215). Additionally, Eikos Inc. http://www.eikos.com of Franklin, Massachusetts is developing transparent, electrically conductive films of carbon nanotubes to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) in LCDs, touch screens, and photovoltaic devices. Carbon nanotube films are substantially more mechanically robust than ITO films, making them ideal for high reliability touch screens and flexible displays. Nanotube films show promise for use in displays for computers, cell phones, PDAs, and ATMs.

• electric motor brushes: Conductive carbon nanotubes have been used for several years in brushes for commercial electric motors. They replace traditional carbon black, which is mostly impure spherical carbon fullerenes. The nanotubes improve electrical and thermal conductivity because they stretch through the plastic matrix of the brush. This permits the carbon filler to be reduced from 30% down to 3.6%, so that more matrix is present in the brush. Nanotube composite motor brushes are better-lubricated (from the matrix), cooler-running (both from better lubrication and superior thermal conductivity), less brittle (more matrix, and fiber reinforcement), stronger and more accurately moldable (more matrix). Since brushes are a critical failure point in electric motors, and also don't need much material, they became economical before almost any other application.

• light bulb filament: alternative to tungsten filaments in incandescent lamps.

• magnets: MWNTs coated with magnetite

• optical ignition: A layer of 29% iron enriched SWNT is placed on top of a layer of explosive material such as PETN, and can be ignited with a regular camera flash.

• solar cells: GE's carbon nanotube diode has a photovoltaic effect. Nanotubes can replace ITO in some solar cells to act as a transparent conductive film in solar cells to allow light to pass to the active layers and generate photocurrent.

• superconductor: Nanotubes have been shown to be superconducting at low temperatures.

• ultracapacitors: MIT is researching the use of nanotubes bound to the charge plates of capacitors in order to dramatically increase the surface area and therefore energy storage ability http://lees-web.mit.edu/public/In_the_News/wtr_16326,303,p1.pdf.

• displays: One use for nanotubes that has already been developed is as extremely fine electron guns, which could be used as miniature cathode ray tubes in thin high-brightness low-energy low-weight displays. This type of display would consist of a group of many tiny CRTs, each providing the electrons to hit the phosphor of one pixel, instead of having one giant CRT whose electrons are aimed using electric and magnetic fields. These displays are known as field emission displays (FEDs).

• transistor: developed at Delft, IBM, and NEC.

Chemical

• air pollution filter: Future applications of nanotube membranes include filtering carbon dioxide from power plant emissions http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/breaking_news/14612073.htm.

• biotech container: Nanotubes can be opened and filled with materials such as biological molecules, raising the possibility of applications in biotechnology.

• water filter: Recently nanotube membranes have been developed for use in filtration. This technique can purportedly reduce desalinisation costs by 75 percent. The tubes are so thin that small particles (like water molecules) can pass through them, while larger particles (such as the chloride ions in salt) are blocked.

Mechanical

• oscillator: fastest known oscillators (> 50 GHz).

• liquid flow array: Liquid flows up to five orders of magnitude faster than predicted through array.

• slick surface: slicker than Teflon and waterproof.

Carbon nanotubes in electrical circuits

Carbon nanotubes have many properties—from their unique dimensions to an unusual current conduction mechanism—that make them ideal components of electrical circuits. Currently, there is no reliable way to arrange carbon nanotubes into a circuit.

The major hurdles that must be jumped for carbon nanotubes to find prominent places in circuits relate to fabrication difficulties. The production of electrical circuits with carbon nanotubes are very different from the traditional IC fabrication process. The IC fabrication process is somewhat like sculpture - films are deposited onto a wafer and pattern-etched away. Because carbon nanotubes are fundamentally different from films, carbon nanotube circuits can so far not be mass produced.

Researchers sometimes resort to manipulating nanotubes one-by-one with the tip of an atomic force microscope in a painstaking, time-consuming process. Perhaps the best hope is that carbon nanotubes can be grown through a chemical vapor deposition process from patterned catalyst material on a wafer, which serve as growth sites and allow designers to position one end of the nanotube. During the deposition process, an electric field can be applied to direct the growth of the nanotubes, which tend to grow along the field lines from negative to positive polarity. Another way for the self assembly of the carbon nanotube transistors consist in using chemical or biological techniques to place the nanotubes from solution to determinate place on a substrate.

Even if nanotubes could be precisely positioned, there remains the problem that, to this date, engineers have been unable to control the types of nanotubes—metallic, semiconducting, single-walled, multi-walled—produced. A chemical engineering solution is needed if nanotubes are to become feasible for commercial circuits.

Carbon nanotube fiber & film

One application for nanotubes that is currently being researched is high tensile strength fibers. Two methods are currently being tested for the manufacture of such fibers. A French team has developed a liquid spun system that involves pulling a fiber of nanotubes from a bath which yields a product that is approximately 60% nanotubes^{[[Citing sourcescitation needed]]}. The other method, which is simpler but produces weaker fibers uses traditional melt-drawn polymer fiber techniques with nanotubes mixed in the polymer. After drawing, the fibers can have the polymer component burned out of them leaving only the nanotube or they can be left as they are.

Ray Baughman's group from the NanoTech Institute at University of Texas at Dallas produced the current toughest material known in mid-2003 by spinning fibers of single wall carbon nanotubes with polyvinyl alcohol. Beating the previous contender, spider silk, by a factor of four, the fibers require 600 J/g to break^{[[Citing sourcescitation needed]]}. In comparison, the bullet-resistant fiber Kevlar is 27-33J/g. In mid-2005 Baughman and co-workers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization developed a method for producing transparent carbon nanotube sheets 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair capable of supporting 50,000 times their own mass. In August 2005, Ray Baughman's team managed to develop a fast method to manufacture up to seven meters per minute of nanotube tape http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003330.html. Once washed with ethanol, the ribbon is only 50 nanometers thick; a square kilometer of the material would only weigh 30 kilograms.

In 2004 Alan Windle's group of scientists at the Cambridge-MIT Institute developed a way to make carbon nanotube fiber continuously at the speed of several centimetres per second just as nanotubes are produced. One thread of carbon nanotubes was more than 100 metres long. The resulting fibers are electrically conductive and as strong as ordinary textile threads http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3872931.stm http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994769.

History of the nanotube

1985

• Fullerenes discovered.

1991

• Nanotubes discovered at NEC, by Japanese researcher Sumio Iijima.

1993

• Groups led by Donald S. Bethune at IBM and Sumio Iijima at NEC independently discover single-wall carbon nanotubes and methods to produce them using transition-metal catalysts.http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v363/n6430/abs/363605a0.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v363/n6430/abs/363603a0.html

1998

• Nanotube transistor created at Delft and IBM.

2001

• April - IBM announces a technique for automatically developing pure semiconductor surfaces from nanotubes.

2002

• January - Multi-walled nanotubes demonstrated to be fastest known oscillators (> 50 GHz). http://focus.aps.org/story/v9/st4
• REBO method of quickly and accurately modeling classical nanotube behavior is described. http://sinnott.mse.ufl.edu/sub05b_nanomechanics.html

2003

• April - Demonstration proves that bending changes resistance. http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st15
• June - High purity (20% impure) nanotubes with metallic properties were reported to be extracted with electrophoretic techniques. http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/6/19/1
• September - NEC announced stable fabrication technology of carbon nanotube transistors http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0309/1901.html

As of 2003, nanotubes cost from 20 euro per gram to 1000 euro per gram, depending on purity, composition (single-wall, double-wall, multi-wall) and other characteristics.

2004

• June - Scientists from China's Tsinghua University and Louisiana State University demonstrated the use of nanotubes in incandescent lamps, replacing a tungsten filament in a lightbulb with a carbon nanotube one.
• March - Nature published a photo of an individual 4 cm long single-wall nanotube (SWNT).
• August - Varying the applied voltage emits light at different points along a tube. http://focus.aps.org/story/v14/st8

2005

• May - A prototype high-definition 10-centimetre flat screen made using nanotubes was exhibited http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg18625006.800
• August - University of California finds Y-shaped nanotubes to be ready-made transistors http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn7847
• August - General Electric announced the development of an ideal carbon nanotube diode that operates at the "theoretical limit" (the best possible performance). A photovoltaic effect was also observed in the nanotube diode device that could lead to breakthroughs in solar cells, making them more efficient and thus more economically viable. http://www.research.ge.com/04_media/news/20050819_cnd.shtml
• August - Nanotube sheet synthesised with dimensions 5 x 100 cm. http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/4/8/13/1
• September - Applied Nanotech (Texas), in conjunction with six Japanese electronics firms, have created a prototype of a 25-inch TV using carbon nanotubes. The prototype TV does not suffer from "ghosting," as some types of digital TVs do.
• September - Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated that ignition by a conventional flashbulb takes place when a layer of 29% iron enriched SWNT is placed on top of a layer of explosive material such as PETN. With ordinary explosives optical ignition is only possible with high powered lasers. http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/doilookup?in_doi=10.1021/ja0547127
• September - Researchers demonstrated a new way to coat MWNT's with magnetite which after orientation in a magnetic field were able to attract each other over a distance of at least 10 micrometres. http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CC/article.asp?doi=b506758h. The nanotubes were functionalized with negatively charged carboxylic acid groups in an AIBN type free radical addition. Magnetite nanoparticles prepared by the Massart method were given a positive charge by washing with nitric acid which made them stick to the nanotubes by electrostatic forces.
• September - Korean scientists lead by Pohang University of Science and Technology Professor Kim Kwang-Soo succeeded in pulling out a nested tube from a multiwalled nanotube (MWNT), extracted 1 millimeter.
• October - Scientists at Florida State University begin investigating applications for buckypaper.
• November - Liquid flows up to five orders of magnitude faster than predicted through array http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/4/11/8/1
• December - Indian Institutes of Technology Kanpur(India) announces presence of CNT in Soft-Kohl http://www.thenanotechnologygroup.org/index.cfm?Content=88&PressID=691

Industry reports indicate nanotube production will increase by 10 to 100 times in the next 5 years for different types and purity of nanotubes.

2006

• January - Thin films of nanotubes made by evaporation http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/5/1/16/1
• January - Another new method for growing forests of nanotubes is announced http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/5/1/4/1
• January - Elasticity increased from 20% to 280% by raising temperatures, causing diameter and conductivity to change greatly http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/5/1/12/1http://cnanotech.com/download_files/Issued_Patents/US06986876.pdf
• March - IBM announces that they have built an electronic circuit around a CNT http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/24/technology/ibm_semiconductor/index.htm http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn8888 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4839088.stm
• March - Nanotubes used as a scaffold for damaged nerve regeneration [Optic nerve regrown with a nanofibre scaffold]
• May - Method of placing nanotube accurately is developed by IBM http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9241
• June - Gadget invented by Rice University that can sort nanotubes by size and electrical properties http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn9419&feedId=online-news_rss20
• July - Nanotubes successfully alloyed into a carbon fiber bike to be entered in the Tour de France http://news.com.com/Carbon+nanotubes+enter+Tour+de+France/2100-11395_3-6091347.html?tag=fd_carsl

Prices halve in one year to €1.67 per gram in quantities of 1 kg as MWNT, >50 nm diameter, 50 micrometers long. http://www.cheaptubesinc.com/

References

External links and sources

• [New Scientist Special Report] - a collection of nanotechnology articles, most on nanotubes
• [The stuff of dreams] - CNET
• [The Nanotube site] - Last updated 2006.05.18
• [Nanowerk - Information on carbon nanotubes]
• [Animation of a (29,0) being struck by 10 sets of 9 Argon atoms at 10eV each] (opens in media player)
• [The wonderous World of Carbon Nanotubes] (In .pdf format, Good introduction to nanotube)
• [nanotechweb.org] nanotube and nanotechnology news and information
• [Carbon - Super Stuff] Educational interactive with narration and 3D-models of nanotube, diamond, graphite and coal.

 

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