Advantages of Carbon Nanotubes

(Advantages of Carbon Nanotubes)

In addition to their extraordinary conductivity, carbon nanotubes are extremely strong, flexible, and biocompatible. They can also be combined with a wide range of other materials to produce a huge number of potential applications. They are able to do so thanks to their molecularly perfect structure, which is free of property-degrading flaws that occur in polymers.

These qualities make carbon nanotubes attractive as reinforcing elements for composites that must have high current density performance, such as the new ceramic material developed by researchers at UC Davis. The material is far stronger than steel and has exceptional electrical and thermal properties.

The strength of carbon nanotubes is further enhanced by their intrinsic tendency to form ropes. This is a natural phenomenon that results from the fact that the tubes are not planar. This gives the material a high aspect ratio that offers intrinsically long conductive pathways even at very low loadings. This means that a small amount of nanotubes can achieve impressive performance — a crucial consideration for manufacturing, as it enables products to be made with lower cost and higher functionality.

When carbon nanotubes are combined with other molecules, they typically bond to them via covalent bonds. This process is much like taping an advertisement to a post: It holds the ads and the posts together, but it creates a weak union that has little impact on either one’s individual strength or the overall strength of the combined material. Weak non-covalent forces, such as those that exist between carbon nanotubes, also connect them with other substances but they generally yield kinetically unstable compounds.

(Advantages of Carbon Nanotubes)