# Nanotubes - Looks like good news **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827 "2005-08-20T00:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/1 "2005-08-20T00:12:35Z")
I don’t really have much time to comment on this, and frankly, don’t know enough about the material to do so. Other than to say that nanotubes seem to be the next high tech material. [http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050815/full/050815-8.html](http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050815/full/050815-8.html) > [@](#): > > \But now, nanotubes have gone into warp drive. Baughman’s team can churn out up to ten metres of nanoribbon every minute…This ribbon can be up to five centimetres wide\ Holy Cow. Previsously, nanotubes had to be look at with a microscope. Is this new stuff really nanotube materal? Or just a bunch of nanotubes stuck on scotch tape? I’m curious what folks think? It seems like an incredible break through. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/2 "2005-08-20T00:28:52Z")
I’ve been hearing a lot about this today, it seems like a big deal. Can anyone quickly explain to this moron what they are and why they’re so good? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/3 "2005-08-20T00:30:15Z")
Good god this is huge. Nanotubes are the likely to replace Kelvar in Personnal Armor, Replace plastics in many apllications and will hopefully progress to the point where we can actually think about building a space elevator. Other Apps: > **[Lengthy Nanotube Fibers Could Trump Traditional Textiles](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lengthy-nanotube-fibers-c/)** Possibly even [revolutionize Solar Power](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000A13E6-3264-1F62-905980A84189EEDF) [Replace silicon for transistors](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000093C3-E0C8-12FC-A0C883414B7F0102) [Help Fight Cancer](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000491C2-76C8-12EE-B6C883414B7F0000) WOW, Wow 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/4 "2005-08-20T00:37:14Z")
More: [Carbon nanotubes key to future flat TVs, says scientist](http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169400773) [Confirming article](http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3317031) > [@](#): > > Local scientists who have long grappled with nanotubes hailed the research, which could transform a variety of items, including computer displays and artificial muscles. > > “What they did is not intuitive; it’s really innovative,” said Wade Adams, chairman of the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative and director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University. “It’s just really cool.” > > Starting with a “forest” of nanotubes chemically grown in a drum, the research team devised a method to spin carbon nanotube sheets at a rate of more than seven yards per minute. > > Commercial wool, by comparison, is spun at about 20 yards per minute. > > The nanotube sheets are about 2 inches wide and just 50 nanometers thick, or about 2,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair. At this thickness, 250 acres of a solar sail made of nanosheet material would weigh less than 70 pounds. [This could be the kind of revolution that plastic and microchips were](http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nanotubes-Came-Together-Nanosheet-Happened-6586.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/5 "2005-08-20T00:43:12Z")
I was really hoping that nanosheets would be transparent- that’s a lot more versatile than anything opaque. Solar sails! Efficient solar panels! Extremely lightweight airplanes! Hell, condoms! Best news I’ve heard in a long, long time. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/6 "2005-08-20T00:43:30Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Good god this is huge. Suddenly the future looks so bright, I gotta wear 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/7 "2005-08-20T00:45:40Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > I’ve been hearing a lot about this today, it seems like a big deal. Can anyone quickly explain to this moron what they are and why they’re so good? From what I know, or think I do. It’s light weight and incredibly strong. And it’s made out of one of the most abundant materials on earth, carbon. If this is true, it’s an incredible step forward. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/8 "2005-08-20T00:47:52Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Suddenly the future looks so bright, I gotta wear 🆒 I haven’t been this excited by a news story since the Berlin Wall went down. This is such a huge leap forward. Basically to very carefully craft 3" long strings to rapid production of sheets of material. The Nobel Prize will not be enough if this all pans out. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/9 "2005-08-20T00:57:07Z")
> [@](#): > > The nanotube sheets are about 2 inches wide and just 50 nanometers thick, or about 2,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair. At this thickness, 250 acres of a solar sail made of nanosheet material would weigh less than 70 pounds. I wonder, if you had a sheet of this, could it be strong enough that you would even feel it if you tried to poke a hole in it? It’s light and strong, but it can’t be that strong can it? It’ll need to be woven together for any real applications I suppose. Nothing wrong with that of course. Maybe will end up with somthing as thick as a human hair that is as strong as say sewing thread? Is that a good comparison? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/10 "2005-08-20T01:02:45Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I wonder, if you had a sheet of this, could it be strong enough that you would even feel it if you tried to poke a hole in it? It’s light and strong, but it can’t be that strong can it? It’ll need to be woven together for any real applications I suppose. > > Nothing wrong with that of course. Maybe will end up with somthing as thick as a human hair that is as strong as say sewing thread? Is that a good comparison? It’s actually stronger than that if I under stand correctly. Your human hair thickness should be as strong as 30lb monofilament. I will have to look for comparisons. I have heard it will be stronger and lighter than Kelvar. Stronger than Spider silk and much stronger than steel. Think about everyplace various plastics have ended up and then realize this is will be even more places. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/11 "2005-08-20T01:06:23Z")
according to this [article](http://record.wustl.edu/archive/2000/02-03-00/articles/nanotube.html): Nanotubes are about 50 to 60 times stronger than high-grade steels ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/12 "2005-08-20T01:27:26Z")
I wonder if it will only be able to be used as a cloth? Is it strong on compression like concrete (if you could get it thick enough)? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/13 "2005-08-20T01:42:28Z")
This seems like an amazing breakthrough, but we have to wait until we fully understand the properties of this stuff before we get too excited. How will it stand up over time? How easy is it to work with? Can it be molded? How thick a panel can you make? Is it dimensionally stable when the temperature changes? How does UV radiation affect it over time? Given that, I’m still very optimistic. Imagine a car body that’s half the weight of current bodies. Now imagine that the entire body is a storage battery for the electric motor for the car. And imagine that the outer layer is a photovoltaic battery trickle-charging the rest of the car all the time the sun is out. And at night, the car softly glows so it’s easily seen. Imagine windows in your house that are nearly unbreakable, which auto-dim when the sun is shining through them, and which act as solar cells. At night, they glow to provide what looks like natural light to the house anyway. Imagine clothing that can be heated, or be designed to display different colors and patterns as the mood suits you. Depending on how cheap this stuff is and how easy it is to work with, this could be anything from a new niche product to a society-changing material that will dramatically improve the quality of our lives on the same scale that plastic and the transistor did. And perhaps the coolest uses for it are things we haven’t even thought of because we never had a material like this. Just like plastic revolutionized industries in ways we never imagined and the transistor led to the internet. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/14 "2005-08-20T03:40:17Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > …Snip… > Given that, I’m still very optimistic. Imagine a car body that’s half the weight of current bodies. Now imagine that the entire body is a storage battery for the electric motor for the car. And imagine that the outer layer is a photovoltaic battery trickle-charging the rest of the car all the time the sun is out. And at night, the car softly glows so it’s easily seen. > …snip… > And perhaps the coolest uses for it are things we haven’t even thought of because we never had a material like this. Just like plastic revolutionized industries in ways we never imagined and the transistor led to the internet. I want that car. There are some more breakthroughs in Nanotubes that by coincidence were announced this week. [Customized Y-shaped Carbon Nanotubes Can Compute](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050814161945.htm) [The Vice Geek Presents…Carbon Nanotubes and Us: The Curing Cancer Edition](http://www.dastoronline.com/media/paper330/news/2005/08/12/Diversions/The-Vice.Geek.Presents.carbon.Nanotubes.And.Us.The.Curing.Cancer.Edition-967818.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/15 "2005-08-20T07:46:41Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I’m curious what folks think? It seems like an incredible break through. Time to start planning for the flying cars Declan ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/16 "2005-08-21T07:28:18Z")
This is huge! Think about how plastic has changed society in just a few decades. Well, this is going to be much bigger, and have far more applications than can even be envisioned at this point in time. Scientists are generally not practical visionaries, but once this product is placed in a few designer’s hands, there is almost no limit to the uses. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/17 "2005-08-21T08:27:07Z")
Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/18 "2005-08-21T08:37:40Z")
> [@Lightnin'](#): > > Hell, condoms! At 1/2000 the thickness of paper and many, many more times the strength, the edge of that sucker isn’t going anywhere near the vitals. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/19 "2005-08-21T13:45:18Z")
And, this is _great_, we have **no freaking way to destroy/recycle/get rid of them when we are done using them!** Isn’t that _great_!? :rolleyes: :smack: :dubious: Just what environmental effect will this _wonder_ material have on our environment, when some doofus pitches it into my backyard from his car? Never build something you can’t break when you need to. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827/20 "2005-08-21T13:50:51Z")
> [@](#): > > And, this is great, we have no freaking way to destroy/recycle/get rid of them when we are done using them! Cite? It’s pure carbon. It may be very easy to recycle. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nanotubes-looks-like-good-news/317827.md?page=2)