Scientists make supermaterial a reality (carbon nanotubes) [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

It’s been a long time coming, but scientists are at the cusp of realizing the dream of carbon nanotubes.

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A low-weight material that’s as strong as steel, as electrically conductive as copper and conducts heat like metal. It’s like Spidey silk, only better.

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Scientists have long recognized the potential in single-walled carbon nanotubes — but they’ve been expensive to make in quantity and quality, and it’s been difficult to connect the tiny, micron-long tubes into longer, useful fibers.

Now, in a new paper in the journal Science (see abstract), Rice scientists say they’ve devised a new carbon nanotube fiber that looks and acts like textile thread and conducts electricity and heat like a metal wire. The process of creating these fibers also appears to be scalable, which means it shouldn’t be too difficult for industry to make them.

[font color=green]More of the Houston Chronicle article at http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2013/01/scientists-make-supermaterial-a-reality/ .[/font]