Carbon nanotubes have been popping on Giz for a while, touted as one of the next wonder-materials—but a new development in their manufacture means they may not remain “future technology” for long. In fact the work of a team at CSIRO and the University of Texas at Dallas means that commercial-scale production of sheets of carbon nanotube “textile” is possible at up to seven metres per minute.
And these are no ordinary textiles either: they’re transparent and way stronger than a sheet of steel. The team’s technique involves chemically-growing “forests” of nanotubes that self-assemble, and is reported in Science currently. If it proves true we may see nanotube materials replacing metals like steel pretty soon—though I’m not sure how many people would balk at flying in a plane with wings you can partly see through. [Physorg]
bill
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 5:59 PMim still waiting for when steel replaces nanotubes but im sure thats a few years off.
JW
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 12:46 AMcan’t they just paint it? then it wouldn’t be see thru lol
Uncle B
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 3:14 AMAn extremely light weight corrosion proof carbon fiber bodied plug in commuter vehicle will assure American workers transportation to and from homes and workplaces when oil is no longer feasible, and with the money-printing $700 Billion bail-out out, the price of oil is about to skyrocket. A new era has been shoved onto an unready America and carbon fiber and its many innovative uses will play a pivotal role in our survival.
pythagoruz
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 4:05 AMGiz,
I’d be impressed if you guys can find the actual paper where this “new” info is being published. The paper physorg refers to is actually from 2005, so this news is three years old! I’d love to be proven wrong and read the new paper but after an exhaustive search I could not find any new paper in Science as they suggest. It is somewhat disappointing that neither you nor physorg undertook this search but it is clear from the lack of a link to an outside source that thats exactly what happened.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/309/5738/1215
Old news, next.
-Hunter, PhD Candidate in Nanoscience, UIUC
LennyM
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 4:27 AMAs a pilot I welcome transparent wings. Wings are a blind spots but they’re not made of steel, they’re usually made of aluminum.
Ben Pinto
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 5:16 AMI’m sure wonderwoman owns the copyright on invisible planes.
Pete
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 6:33 AMLasso of truth sold separately.
miki
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 7:18 AMI guess you could just paint the planes. “Brushed steel from the outside, leather look inside, please! Thaaanks” :-)
Nate
Monday, October 6, 2008 at 11:08 AMCarbon nanotubes are the next asbestos – they’re so small they slip right through the nuclear membrane and damage your DNA. I think we really need to study these things more before we start cranking them out en-masse. Google ‘carbon nanotube toxicology.’
chuckles
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 4:20 PMumm, i googled that toxicology term… and found nothing. some 4-month study about how nanotubes were injected, and after 4 months they were shown to be non-toxic.