nanotubes
Science
Carbon Nanotube-Coated Threads Make Wearable, Biosensing Electronics
2:45AM Kit Eaton | Wonder material the carbon nanotube has another new application: A team at the University of Michigan has worked out how to coat cotton threads with a polymer and nanotube mix to produce conductive mini-cables. Conductive threads per se aren’t new, but they generally involve metal which limits their utility—this new material is flexible enough to be woven, won’t corrode, and can carry enough current to light up an LED. Crazily the tubes are also suitable for clinical and chemical biosensing, which could point the way for uses in future military wear. [TechnologyReview] More »
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Nano Silver May Be Envionment’s Silver Bullet
12:00AM Mark Wilson | The UK’s Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has recently released a report urging for more study of nano-engineered materials, warning that there is a “major gap” in our knowledge of this technology. We’ve covered the potential dangers of carbon nanotubes here before, but the commission also warns about nano silver, an antibacterial particle that can be found in a variety of clothing, like socks. And in fact, the commission Chair refuses to wear such clothing at all:
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Nanobama: Barack Obama in Nanotubes
8:20AM Mark Wilson | A technique known as nanolithography was used to build these Obama faces, combining 150 million carbon nanotubes to construct each individual half-millimeter visage. Depending on your political leanings, the result is either the cutest wittle powitician ever or proof that science, in the wrong hands, will engineer miniature robotic Democrats who distract with a message of hope while eating our flesh. As for the undecideds…I’ll be honest here. I’m so sick of hearing what those dudes “think.” [Flickr via Wired] More »
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Nanotube Speaker Film: Transparent, Stretchy, Likes Moldovan Pop
8:15PM John Herrman | Scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing have just perfected a process by which nanotubes can be coaxed to emit sound, allowing for the construction of ultra-thin, transparent, flexible ’speakers’, demonstrated above affixed to a waving flag. Unlike normal speakers, which produce sound with direct vibration, these sheets produce sound with wildly fluctuating temperatures that create pressure oscillations in the surrounding air. In other words, these nanotube speakers — in contrast to other forays into flat sound production — don’t vibrate at all. More »
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Samsung Demos Carbon Nanotube-Based Colour E-paper
1:30AM Kit Eaton | Looks like I really wasn’t wrong when I said e-paper is in the news: Samsung’s just demonstrated its own funky e-paper tech, only this time the display uses carbon-nanotube electrode technology—also a technology that’s in the news. The colour carbon nanotube active matrix electrophoretic display (say that after a few pints of beer) works by rearranging charged pigment particles with an electric field, and is one of the first large-scale colour displays of its type. Plus it has the advantage of being flexible as well as demanding low power. And since Samsung’s display is 14.3-inches across, it’s making our dreams of next-gen e-books even more tantalising. [Gizmag] More »
Science
Carbon Nanotube Manufacturing Breakthrough Could Mean Bye-Bye Steel
8:07PM Kit Eaton | 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. More »
Science
Japanese Scientists Plan to Build Space Elevator
12:30AM Kit Eaton | Japanese scientists are so hyped up on the possibilities of building a real life space elevator that in just two months’ time the country is playing host to a conference designed to set a production timetable. Carbon nanotube technology has advanced so rapidly that a material capable of withstanding the amazing forces in the space elevator cable is almost within reach: according to the chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association it’d only need to be four times stronger than the current strongest nanotube rope. More »
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Carbon Nanotube Supercapacitors May Replace Clunky Car Batteries
11:00PM Kit Eaton | Carbon nanotubes are one of the surprising new carbon supermaterials, and it looks like their application in supercapacitors may have a role in replacing clunky old car battery tech. Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have invented a technique to make supercapacitor “paper” made from randomly tangled carbon nanotubes embedded in a polymer. Both chemical batteries and capacitors store electrical charge, in differing ways, but nanotech supercapacitors could store more energy in a smaller space, without the dangers associated with chemical systems. Potentially excellent news given the rise of the hybrid car. Better yet the new technique is “easily scalable for device fabrication on an industrial scale,” so it might end up in real products sooner rather than later. [Physorg] More »
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Nanotubes Could Make For Bouncy Cellphones: I’m Talkin’ to You Butterfingers
8:20AM Sean Fallon | Ah nanotubes. Is there anything you can’t almost possibly do? Well, now you can add bouncy mobile phones to the list because a team of Clemson University researchers have developed a way to make beds of tiny, shock-absorbing coiled carbon nanotubes which could be used to cushion objects from damaging impacts. They hope that these coiled nanotubes could be used in everything from body armour to mobile phones in the near future. More »
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