Chinese nanotube wire rivals copper in conductivity and could someday be used in space
- Superstrong, ultrathin carbon fibres, also known as buckytubes, could be used in array of hi-tech sectors, from energy storage to aerospace
Nanotubes are cylindrical molecules made of carbon atoms linked together in a hexagonal shape with a diameter as small as 1 nanometre. By comparison, a strand of human hair is about 100,000 nanometres thick.
Carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel pieces of the same size, with only a fraction of their weight.
But figuring out how to bind tens of thousands of these tiny tubes together into a visible and usable fibre has proved to be a challenging task – one that took the research community more than two decades to achieve.
To overcome these challenges, scientists from the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science improved on a common fibre formation method known as “dry-jet wet spinning” to ensure maximum preservation of the nanotubes’ properties.
The team was led by researchers Liu Chang and Hou Pengxiang of the Shenyang institute, which is under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Liaoning province. Their findings were published in a paper for in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Functional Materials last month.