7 replies to this topic

[Guyverman1990]

Hey there,

I'm surprised that no one's decided to do an individual thread on this as of now. Carbon Nanotubes, what can you say about them? If any known material can revolutionize the way thing are built, it's none other than them.

Just imagine once they become perfected and enter mass production. They can be used for countless purposes ranging from constructing buildings, circuitry, being used as cables and even serving a function in the medical field.

Edited by Guyverman1990, 22 March 2012 - 05:41 AM.

[Raklian]

Don't forget space elevators.

[CyberMisterBeauty]

And artificial skeleton and muscles for androids...

[Mr. Carmichael]

I'm more interested in news on their manufacture which continues to elude engineers.

[preeti22]

Well carbon nanotubes properties can be also used to make turbine blades.

[EVanimations]

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but we have to think realistically here. The reason carbon nanotubes aren't a huge thing right now is because they're not marketable- in fact, they're pretty much like asbestos or fiberglass in that microscopic blades get inhaled and stick around in the pores of your lungs. Just saying. I think nanotech is where the future really is.

[Alric]

Don't forget graphene as well. It is even stronger than nanotubes and everyone is looking into it's electronic properties as well. Instead of a tube you have a flat surface. It is really just a single atom thick piece of graphite. We have known about graphite forever, but now we can produce it at a level of 1 atom thick and it has different properties and is much more useful for the advance purposes we are talking about.

Obviously massing producing both on large scales is an issue, but it isn't one we can't solve.

[Logically Irrational]

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but we have to think realistically here. The reason carbon nanotubes aren't a huge thing right now is because they're not marketable- in fact, they're pretty much like asbestos or fiberglass in that microscopic blades get inhaled and stick around in the pores of your lungs. Just saying. I think nanotech is where the future really is.

While I agree there are some safety problems, I wouldn't write nanotubes off just yet. The future isn't going to be based off of one method. Nanotubes probably won't become ubiquitous in everything, but I could definitely see them being used in large scale projects, like a space elevator.

And there are people looking into the potential health problems of nanotubes.
http://www.newhaveni..._safer/id_45661