Materials Science IV: The revolution of carbon nanotubes in nanotechnology.

Hi Steemit, continuing with the topics of the area of ​​materials science, I want to talk about carbon nanotubes and how they have revolutionized nanotechnology, with applications in space research, electronics, biomedicine, energy, among others. Undoubtedly, one of the topics of the science of materials with greater interest at present. I hope you enjoy it.

Nanotubes

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology has aroused great interest in scientific communities, and especially throughout the last decades, since it is characterized as an essentially multidisciplinary field, and cohesive exclusively by the scale of the matter with which it works. To understand the potential of this technology, it is key to know that the physical and chemical properties of matter change at the nanoscale, which is due to quantum effects. The electrical conductivity, the heat, the resistance, the elasticity, the reactivity among other properties, behave differently than in the same elements on a larger scale. All this makes nanotechnology have a lot of promising applications.

Carbon nanotubes (NTC's)

Behind the nanotechnological revolution are carbon nanotubes (NTC's), which are allotropes of carbon, such as diamond, graphite or fullerenes. Its structure can be from a sheet of graphene rolled on itself. In addition, the diameter of these tubes is only 1 nanometer (a million times smaller than a millimeter), but, however, its length can be several centimeters. Never before had it been possible to manufacture a molecular tube with such a high proportion between length and diameter. The NTC's discovered accidentally in 1991 by Sumio Iijima, who working in an electron microscope, observed the existence of tubular molecules in the soot formed from the electric arc discharges, using graphite. So the attempt to produce fullerenes doped with metals resulted in the discovery of this material.

Allotropes of Carbon

Properties and aplications

The wonderful thing about carbon nanotubes are their mechanical and electrical properties. According to multiple investigations, it is the hardest material known, even more than diamond. A cable of one square cm of section of this material would support a weight of more than a thousand tons. The equivalent of a steel cable would be around 10 tons.

If the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes are surprising, electrical and electronic properties are no less so. The electrical resistance is extremely low, because electrons barely collide in its path. This makes the nanotubes have very high electronic mobility and support densities of electric current thousands of times larger than the best copper cables.

The thin layers of nanotubes can be used in many applications: from solar panels to electronic devices, sensors or biosensors. In addition, the electronic configuration of the carbon atoms that make the nanotubes makes them very sensitive to the environment that surrounds them. That is why they are the base element of different types of chemical or biological sensors.

Aplication

Exploration in Space

Due to all these properties, exploration in space takes as an element for the development of its future applications to carbon nanotubes, since they can solve problems facing space technology such as: monitoring the health status of the astronauts, have better material for the construction of space machines, optimizing the resistance, quality of these materials, all this for improvements in the advancement of the field of exploration.

Conclusion

Although the literature on different topics of the NTC´s is very extensive, in this post we have reviewed the most basic aspects of carbon nanotubes. Likewise, a general panorama has been offered on the state of the applied research of the NTC's, specifically in the space and energy areas. We can conclude that the multiple investigations of this material promise many scientific advances.

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References:

Kalamkarov, A. L., Georgiades, A. V., Rokkam, S. K., Veedu, V. P., & Ghasemi-Nejhad, M. N. (2006). Analytical and numerical techniques to predict carbon nanotubes properties. International journal of Solids and Structures, 43(22), 6832-6854.

Mathur, R. B., Chatterjee, S., & Singh, B. P. (2008). Growth of carbon nanotubes on carbon fibre substrates to produce hybrid/phenolic composites with improved mechanical properties. Composites Science and Technology, 68(7), 1608-1615.

Veedu, V. P., Cao, A., Li, X., Ma, K., Soldano, C., Kar, S., ... & Ghasemi-Nejhad, M. N. (2006). Multifunctional composites using reinforced laminae with carbon-nanotube forests. Nature materials, 5(6), 457-462.

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