Coiled carbon nanotubes are actually minute carbon nanotubes that are shaped like tiny springs. These are so tiny that each one of these coiled little tubes are actually a thousand times tinier than one human hair.

Production Woes Solved

Coiled carbon nanotubes are now produced in sheets with the help of a hydro-carbon catalyst mixture. One of the problems researchers were faced in the past with these nanotubes was how to produce them in such a huge number without going above a certain budget. With this new method, they can now produce these sheets of coiled nanotubes, and this production method can now be used at industrial levels with a little adjusting and scaling. This can then be used for a lot of applications that people thought were impossible in the past due to the expensive method of producing in them.

Perfect Cushioning Agent

Now that the dilemma of being able to facilitate the production of these coiled carbon nanotubes at a very reasonable cost has been solved by a team of researchers at Clemson University, the next step is now to find ways to put these minute springs to good use. One of the most notable uses that researchers find can best suit these coiled nanotubes is that of a cushioning agent. The first viable idea for the use of this product is as a cushioning device for gadgets that are rather sensitive to shock impacts and for items that will do well with impact protection.

Coiled Nanotubes Testing Results

These sheets made with coiled carbon nanotubes seem to be ideal for use as protective coats for such items that suffer damage with the slightest impact, like mobile phones and other similar gadgets. This was tested with the use of a sheet of coiled carbon nanotubes and the dropping of a stainless steel ball on it. The dropping of this ball on this sheet showed that the nanotubes cushioned the impact and in fact, these coiled nanotubes were even able to recover from such an impact, making them ideal for use as cushioning agents that can protect items from damage when dropped.

Better Than Straight Nanotubes

This idea was also tested on straight carbon nanotubes to see if the coiling of these coiled carbon nanotubes had anything to do with the superior damage protection it provided these items. It was seen that after dropping the same stainless steel ball on a sheet that was made of straight carbon nanotubes, the nanotubes did not recover from the impact unlike the coiled ones. It is therefore prudent to conclude that the coiling of these nanotubes does play a huge role in the cushioning effect needed for protecting objects with. The use of these coiled carbon nanotubes can now be further explored. In fact, talk of using these miniscule shock absorbers in such items like shoe soles, bumpers, and even body armors have already been going on since this discovery.

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Determining Elasticity

Since carbon nanotubes are considered elastic, regardless of their being straight or coiled, they are then considered to be ideal materials for use as cushioning for certain products and for use in certain applications. Researchers are working at finding out just how elastic nanotubes can be and when this is determined, how this elasticity can affect the overall elastic properties of the products that are produced with the use of these composites composed with the use of carbon nanotubes.

Testing and Researching Nanotube Compositions

The testing process that is used by researchers when it came to the determining of the strengths and elasticity of these elastic nanotubes when made into composite nanotube products that are aimed at building things that can be used for cushioning purposes involves the use of different nanotube compositions and one force-constant prototype. Elastic nanotubes that are used in these tests are often investigated for why they may or may not be as elastic enough for what they might be used on. This may include the perusal of structural details like helicity, number of walls, and radius.

Coiled Carbon Nanotubes

One such product of this kind of research, the coiled carbon nanotubes, can be considered one of the more elastic nanotubes around since they do present people with the kind of protection that elasticity often provides. These coiled carbon nanotubes are now being considered for use as cushions or buffers from impact due to the cushioning properties that they possess. These nanotubes have been tested with the use of controlled environments and with comparisons to other similar nanotube compositions, some of which are made not with coiled nanotubes but with straight ones. The results showed that the coiled nanotubes showed more promise for cushioning items than the straight nanotubes that were made in generally the same fashion.

More Research Needed

While research into these elastic nanotubes show some promise, particularly when it comes to the coiled carbon nanotube, more research is still needed before these products can be produced in huge quantities that can be utilized for commercial purposes. Some of the ideas that are being considered as ideal for use with these elastic nanotubes include surface cushioning for small mobile devices, cushioning applications for shoes and protective clothing, and even cushioning uses for bumpers and other car parts. The need for more research is needed to help establish that these nanotubes can indeed be manufactured to be strong enough for a lot of applications that go beyond cushioning small devices like mobile phones and portable electronics or the offering of comfort for your feet in shoe-cushioning applications.

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But why would science expend so much effort on understanding an element that is already being used in the production of materials for space shuttles and strengthening plants, and that is being considered for an array of other uses? Is it possible that there are still mysteries locked within the structure of carbon nanotubes that will open more doors for its use and everyday applications? The answer is: probably.

Although the structure of carbon nanotubes has been extensively studied by researchers and scientists in a wide variety of fields including materials science, architecture, agriculture and engineering, the full implications of this tiny microscopic wonder are still locked away in its unique natural creation, varied structural components and its ability to be both immensely flexible as well as incredibly strong.

But before delving into the actual structural components that make up this small scientific wonder, it’s important to lay groundwork for understanding exactly what it is that makes carbon nanotubes so unique. The structure of carbon nanotubes is easily explained for the untrained through a simple setup using post-its and paper cups.

In this method, the “experimenter” is asked to test the strength of a stack of post-its (akin to graphite) that have made a bridge across two paper cups. Then, in the same “experiment”, the method changes and the experimenter is asked to roll the post-it stacks (akin to carbon nanotubes) and perform the test again.

Naturally it is assumed through this test that the rolled post-its will hold more pennies before buckling—if they buckle at all—than the flat stacks of post-its. For those untrained in science, this is an incredibly easy way to understand how the structure of a carbon nanotube—although the nanotube is made of simple graphite—changes the structural strength and abilities of the graphite immensely.

This test is so simple and correct, in fact, that it should help any reader or researcher begin to understand and identify the more complex nature of carbon nanotubes.

Carbon nanotubes appear to be sheets of graphite cells that have been mended together to look almost like a latticework fence and then rolled up in a tube shape. Although this is a simple explanation for the look of the structure of carbon nanotubes, this is not how carbon nanotubes are created, nor does it explain their immense strength or other incredible structural abilities.

Carbon nanotubes are typically around two millimeters in length or less (with some being only a nanometer in length) but have the capability, if formed correctly, of being more than one hundred times stronger than steel.

Carbon nanotubes are capable of being formed in either single walled structures, also known as Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multiple walled structures, also known as Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs). Each structure of carbon nanotubes has its own set of properties that make it appropriate for different uses across science, architecture, geology, agriculture and engineering, among the many fields carbon nanotubes have become useful for.

Single walled carbon nanotubes have electric properties that are not present in multiwalled carbon nanotubes due to the makeup of their structure. These single walled structures can be used in large quantities for thermal purposes—or in other words, to help produce heat. Additionally, the electric properties of these macro miniature carbon nanotubes make them perfect for engineering electronics to even smaller than their current “nano” sized status.

Although they do not share the same electric properties in the structure of carbon nanotubes as single walled carbon nanotubes, multi walled carbon nanotubes have their place in science and exhibit several properties that are more useful that single walled carbon nanotubes for a variety of applications. For instance, the makeup of multi walled carbon nanotubes makes them perfect for use in the medical field.

The medical field utilizes multi walled carbon nanotubes in the production of sensors for medical diagnostics. Biosensors are able to detect microscopic amounts of biological or chemical agents, which help to diagnose an illness much quicker—these same types of sensors are being used in the military to protect soldiers as they move through hostile territories. Multi walled carbon nanotubes are used for these purposes because of their electrochemically advanced properties, which are due in part to their double or multi walled structures.

In addition to the two different basic structures, there are three different types of carbon nanotubes that are possible. These three types of carbon nanotubes are armchair carbon nanotubes, zigzag carbon nanotubes and chiral carbon nanotubes.

The difference in these types of carbon nanotubes are created depending on how the graphite is “rolled up” during its creation process. Science has found ways to recreate these natural processes and man-made nanotubes are being produced at faster and faster paces each and every day. Each structure of carbon nanotubes in these three varities is different and has different implications for science.

However, determining their exact physical properties and the entire scope of the implications for science and other fields is incredibly difficult because, although science is able to recreate these nanotubes, seeing them under a microscope is difficult—in past because they are so small, and also due to the structure of carbon nanotubes. It is interesting that the very thing scientists wish to examine about carbon nanotubes is the thing that stands in the way of them making discoveries and gaining an understanding about the implications of carbon nanotubes for everyday living.

The structure of carbon nanotubes is still a mystery in many ways because carbon nanotubes are a tiny, yet complex natural occurrence that cannot be completely controlled, but only harnessed by today’s science. Although science has an understanding of the physical properties of carbon nanotubes at a base level, there is more to discover about the structural implications of carbon nanotubes, not only for science but for everyday living as well.

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If you have a plant that isn’t drinking enough water to survive, pump it full of carbon nanotubes. If you have a sensor machine that doesn’t detect chemical gases fast enough, make a new one with carbon nanotubes. If you have a car that’s not strong enough and weighs too much to be profitable, rebuild it using carbon nanotubes. In fact, carbon nanotubes are so light, that you could carry a thousand of them in your pocket and not even know that they there. In addition, they’re so strong that you could shoot a bullet from an AK-47 at close range and the bullet would simply bounce back without even making a dent.

But nanotube water has its own implications for science and for the world at large, if not only for the many many fields of study, discovery and production that it touches every day. Nanotube water is defined as a form of water that is one-dimensional and that exists as a string of water molecules contained within a carbon nanotube. The chemical reactions that occur between the water and the nanotube come out with several interesting reactions.

One of the most interesting reactions occurring with this water is that this water does not freeze, even at temperatures well below freezing. In fact, nanotube water remains fluid even at temperatures hundreds below zero—the lowest recorded temperature before this water begins to form a thin icy layer is 8 degrees Kelvin, or for those on the Fahrenheit scale, minus 445 degrees Fahrenheit.  Nanotube water remains fluid even in the most chilling of temperatures, most likely due to a softer set of hydrogen bonds throughout the chain of water.

So what does this mean for science and for the world? For science, the characteristics of nanotube water may mean several things. For one, the pressure effect of this new use for nanotubes and water together is up to 5kbar. This could mean the possible existence of a new critical point for science.

Additionally, the water in these nanotubes only begins to crystallize and create a thin layer of ice at 8 degrees Kelvin. This suggests, as there is no other evidence or mention, that water does not completely freeze over at this point, but yet remains moderately or at least somewhat fluid. Absolute zero on the Kelvin scale has never been reached and surpassing it or even coming this close to it with a fluid has not been dreamed of in many years.

Implications may be even more far reaching for the world and for every day living. If there is a possibility for water to remain unfrozen at temperatures hundreds below freezing, then there may be a possibility to sustain life in places such as Antarctica and the Arctic, without having to change much of the general environment. As the planet becomes more and more crowded, this option may become more viable and more attractive.

Additionally, the characteristics exhibited in tests with nanotubes and water may help scientists come up with more ideas on how to help produce cleaner air, cleaner water and an all around cleaner environment for our immediate and far out futures.

What everything boils down to in the case of water and nanotubes is that the applications for carbon nanotubes are reaching far beyond the general scope of science and into the dreams of the scientists themselves. We rely on scientists to bring changes to the world that make us run faster, live better and stay on top of the food and evolutionary chains for longer than time dictates.

Carbon nanotubes have been changing the face of science for nearly two decades and in the past five years, carbon nanotubes and their reactions to water have given science a whole new way of thinking about how the world works, and how it doesn’t.

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Carbon nanotubes were discovered by accident in 1991, when a scientist was using the arc discharge method of carbon synthesis to create fullerenes. While he indeed created the fullerenes he’d set out to produce, he also discovered the production of carbon nanotubes.

Because of the natural properties, carbon nanotubes are able to be produced in the lab, but also naturally and it is because of their perfect natural qualities, along with their many unique thermal, electric and additional properties that they are appropriate for creating carbon nanotubes biofuel.

Carbon nanotubes are widely popular and widely debated in scientific and research circles because they are feather light, stronger than many other materials—especially stronger than most man-made materials, and because they have some toxic properties in addition to their uniquely useful properties.

Carbon nanotubes have the ability to change architecture, the automobile industry, materials science, the space program and a variety of activities and products associated with daily living. These nanotubes are able to be produced on industrial mass scales and the commercial production of carbon nanotubes through synthesis make them incredibly affordable, costing as little as 95 dollars per gram at present—with the price going down every year—making them a uniquely affordable in the creation of carbon nanotubes biofuel.

At present, many different studies are being performed all over the world to deduce the use of nanotubes in the production of carbon nanotubes biofuel. These studies are using a variety of different biological matter including glucose, hydroxyapatite, porous silicon and even vegetables such as corn and tomato plants. The most popular studies for this biofuel and other implications in agriculture are the Glucose Oxidase studies and those studies involving the use of growing plants, like tomatoes.

Biofuel cells are an increasingly popular topic for study, experiment and research in the scientific fields, partially due to the constantly depleting sources of fossil fuels on the planet and also due to the fact that biofuels, unlike fossil fuels, are a completely renewable resource.

As long as plants and other biological materials can grow, and grow quickly, biofuels will prove to be a much cheaper and easier alternative for the world. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, while renewable, took hundreds of thousands of years to become what they are today and required incredible circumstances to synthesize that do not all exist today. Most biofuels are made with Glucose Oxidase although many are made with other enzymes or even microorganisms.

Carbon nanotubes biofuels are growing in popularity amongst scientists and researches because these biofuels are much stronger than any of those previously studied or created. Because of the unique construction of carbon nanotubes, the carbon nanotubes biofuels that are presently being created are unlike any other biofuel in existence. They may have implications for all present uses of biofuels including, alternative fuel source vehicles, pacemakers, portable energy supplies and even glucose sensors.

When carbon nanotubes are used in junction with glucose oxidase to produce carbon nanotubes biofuel, the carbon nanotubes form a covalent bond with the glucose oxidase, creating a biofuel that is not only stronger than traditional biofuels but that also has a high electrical output, making these new biofuels useful for a large number of applications across the practical field of sciences, materials science and even modern day living.

What is more interesting at present is the use of carbon nanotubes in increasing the growth in size, quantity and speed, of vegetables like tomatoes.  In September 2009, a team of researchers at the Little Rock Nanotechnology Center, housed at the University of Arkansas, used carbon nanotubes to increase the germination rate of tomato plants.

In addition, this exposure caused the seedlings to become stronger and grow more quickly. What the carbon nanotubes did for the plants in this study was to become a part of the seed by penetrating through the thick outer shell and bonding with the plant structure.

This in turn made it possible for the plants not only to take in more water, but to hold that water, creating a plant that could possibly survive a longer drought period after a long rain fall. Interestingly, although not related to its properties as a biofuel in this instance, the effects the carbon nanotubes had on these plants seemed to make them toxic to fruit flies.

The effects and outcomes of this particular study point to carbon nanotubes biofuel as the wave of the future. If carbon nanotubes are able to create stronger, better and more quickly growing plants, their implications for agriculture, especially in terms of creating biofuels, are greater than most scientists could ever have imagined.

However, even as carbon nanotubes biofuel becomes more of a reality rather than a possibility for the far off future, there are many implications to consider. If carbon nanotubes are toxic to fruit flies, what might their implications be for human beings? Additionally, it has been reported that wastes from this type of biofuel may have been a factor in the cause of asbestos and other carcinogens in the lungs of some mice. The toxic properties and possibilities that come with carbon nanotubes biofuel should be taken into account.

The purpose of using biofuels in our modern world is to help eliminate the dangers that come with fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are damaging the ozone and difficult and expensive to extract and make usable. At this point in time, it seems that while carbon nanotubes biofuels may be less expensive to produce on a mass scale, they are currently as dangerous, if not more so, for animals, humans and the earth than fossil fuels.

Research will continue into the development of carbon nanotubes for use in biofuels and other agricultural pursuits and we can only hope that solutions to the toxic properties are discovered long before these biofuels are put into mass production for public and commercial use.

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While the mystery and implications for science surrounding carbon nanotubes in modern science have gained them immense popularity with scientists and researchers in myriad fields. The age old question -what is carbon nanotube synthesis?  is quickly gaining ground in modern science as well. And its implications may far outweigh and outreach those of just carbon nanotubes, since this process of synthesis may very well open doors for science and for the use of carbon nanotubes that no one ever thought possible.

Carbon nanotubes are essentially constructed of a lattice work sheet of graphite that is rolled into a cylindrical shape. These carbon nanotubes are feather light in their construction and much stronger than many other properties used in not only nanotechnology but also in electronics, optics, additional areas of materials science, architecture and even the construction of motor vehicles, space vehicles and other materials useful in a wide array of traditional fields of research and modern living.

Carbon nanotubes are also known to have any unique electrical properties and have even been tested and proven as super efficient conductors of heat, otherwise referred to as thermal conductors. It is only their potential to have some toxic properties that has limited their widespread use and distribution for construction and other purposes.

Carbon nanotubes come in a variety of forms, including single walled carbon nanotubes, double walled carbon nanotubes and multi walled carbon nanotubes. Each type of carbon nanotubes has its own set of unique properties that make it useful for different areas of science. For instance, the single walled carbon nanotube has especially strong electric properties that the other varieties lack.

Carbon nanotube synthesis is incredibly important to the research of the potential uses of carbon nanotubes because nanotube synthesis is the method of production used to create carbon nanotubes. The faster the rate of synthesis, or production, the more carbon nanotubes available for researches and scientists to use in testing for the various possible uses of carbon nanotubes in standard modern day living, current science and potential future applications.

Although carbon nanotube synthesis can occur naturally through flame synthesis, the most common methods of used in modern science include laser ablation, arc discharge and chemical vapor deposition. 

The arc discharge method of nanotube synthesis was initially developed by accident. In 1991, an arc discharge that was meant for producing fullerenes, produced, along with the fullerenes, carbon nanotubes. In 1992, the experiment was reproduced by two researchers at the Fundamental Research Laboratory of the NEC.

This process involves high temperatures for discharge which cause the negative electrode in the arc to force sublimate the carbon nanotubes contained within. Additionally, this process has a yield by weight of more than 30 percent and it is able to produce both multi walled (including double walled) and single walled carbon nanotubes.

This method for carbon nanotube synthesis is most popular because it was the first method discovered and used. The carbon nanotubes produced through this method of synthesis often have few defects, if any, and lengths of more than 50 micrometers are able to be produced.

But arc discharge is not the only type of nanotube synthesis available to researchers and scientists. Other methods have been developed in order to provide a wide variety of acceptable outcomes—acceptable outcomes being defined as producing usable carbon nanotubes in large quantities with minimal defects.

One of the additional methods of nanotube synthesis is laser ablation method. When scientists use laser ablation synthesis method for carbon nanotubes, both a pulsing laser and an inert gas are paired together in a tightly sealed reactor with high temperatures. The pulsed laser is used to vaporize the graphite as the gas is allowed to slowly seep into the reactor chamber. The graphite vapor condenses as the reactor surfaces of the chamber cool down and nanotubes form out of the vapors.

In the laser ablation method, scientists most often produce single walled carbon nanotubes and the yield is approximately 70 percent by weight. Although this method yields much more by weight than the other two available methods, it is much more expensive to use and many scientists and researchers opt in favor of the less expensive methods.

The final popular method of carbon nanotube synthesis is the chemical vapor desposition method. Although this method has been used to synthesize carbon since 1959, the chemical catalytic vapor deposition method of producing carbon nanotubes was not first used until 1993, nearly forty years after its first use for synthesis  and two years after the first nanotubes were synthesized using the arc discharge method.

This method was further developed in 2007 by University of Cincinnati researchers and at that time began producing carbon nanotubes at lengths of 18 millimeters, much longer than those produced by the arc discharge method at only fifty micrometers.

In chemical vapor desposition, a substrate made of iron, cobalt, nickel or a combination of any of these metals is heated to precisely 700 degrees Celsius inside a chemical reactor. Process gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen or ammonia along with a carbon gas like methane, ethanol or acetylene, is leaked into the reactor chamber. The meeting of the gases at the substrate cause a reaction that breaks the carbon gases apart and forces the particles to the sides of the chamber, where the carbon nanotubes are formed. This method of nanotube synthesis is the most popular for commercial production because it allows for nanotubes to be grown from and on a specified substrate.

The most important factors relating to nanotube synthesis are how fast the nanotubes can be grown, how many can be made at any one time, how much the process to be used will cost and most importantly, how few structural defects will be present in the new carbon nanotubes that have been synthesized. All of these factors determine the future of carbon nanotubes and the development of better method for synthesis will determine the future application of carbon nanotubes in everything that surrounds us.

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When Sumio Iijima discovered carbon nanotubes in 1991, they were just thin and long cylinders of carbon and it was unknown at the time what the implications of this discovery would be. The physical properties of carbon nanotubes, including their size, shape and ability to be manipulated, yet stay strong, have made them a unique find amongst other macromolecules. Essentially, a carbon nanotube is akin to a sheet of graphite that has been rolled up into a cylindrical shape. What’s more, this sheet is comprised of a hexagonal latticework, making the physical properties of carbon nanotubes that much more fascinating and strange to both scientists and physicists.

But it isn’t simply the construction of the physical properties of carbon nanotubes that makes them so unique and such a hotly debated topic. Carbon nanotubes have been known to change depending on the situation they are placed into. They are capable of adapting and changing to meet the needs of electronic, thermal and structural properties. Additionally, the physical properties carbon nanotubes change based on the type of nanotube being used—the type being defined by the length and diameter of the nanotube as well as the twist (also known as the chirality).

The type of carbon nanotube as defined has a great deal to do with determining the electronic properties of a carbon nanotube. The chirality itself determines whether the carbon nanotube is a metal, semimetal or semiconductor and its implications for science and electronics will be determined by its makeup. Carbon nanotubes have been known for some time to be excellent conductors of electricity. This conductivity allows for the use of bundled carbon nanotubes as microscopic tweezers.

The physical properties of carbon nanotubes also segue into an area where many other macromolecules have not been found to venture. Carbon nanotubes have been described as being able to exist as a Single Walled Nanotube (SWNT) or as a Multiple Walled Nanotube (MWNT). In the Multiple Walled Nanotube, one cylinder (or rolled sheet of carbon nanotubes) is inside another cylinder, like nesting dolls. Each of these types of carbon nanotubes have their own physical properties in addition to the standard physical property sets for carbon nanotubes and due to the complex nature of Multiple Walled Nanotubes, they often have many defects and are unusable for several of their major physical properties.

Some of the major properties of carbon nanotubes are the optical properties. In science, if a macromolecule has optical properties that means that it is has properties relating to the principles of photoluminescence, light absorption and that it is able to register light on the Raman spectroscopy. The abilities associated with the optical physical properties of carbon nanotubes are as yet unclear, but it is possible that the carbon nanotube could have implications in the development of optics, photonics, LEDs (or Light Emitting Diodes) and even photo-detectors, among other optical devices.

But the properties of carbon nanotubes are not limited to optical properties. Thermal properties of carbon nanotubes have great implications for science as well. In some experiments, carbon nanotubes have been added to epoxy resin in a successful attempt to double the thermal conductivity in the resin. With this being achieved at only a 1% loading, the experiment proved that carbon nanotubes can be used successfully for thermal management applications when used as part of a composite material.

Additionally, nanotubes are said to have elastic properties as well. While these elastic properties are hotly debated in many scientific circles, it is agreed that carbon nanotubes are one of the most flexible macromolecules in existence today. While there are no defined uses for the extreme flexibility of carbon nanotubes, this elasticity could have implications for the develop of a wide variety of products, including bullet proof vests—though the strength of carbon nanotubes alone could merit this segue—and other safety devices.

Among the many physical properties of carbon nanotubes is the fact that this macromolecule is anisotropic which means that it is directionally dependent. On the other hand, isotropic molecules are not directionally dependent and do the same thing no matter which direction they are going or being pulled. This property is precisely how carbon nanotubes are able to fulfill the needs of many different physical properties without being deficient in any one area. The anisotropic properties of carbon nanotubes could have implications for a wide variety of fields, including but not limited to chemistry, computer graphics, wood and woodworking, real world imagery, geophysics, physics, medical acoustics, material science, engineering, microfabrication and a host of other fields of discovery and invention that are seeking the perfect solution to every problems.

Especially for these work, research and discovery areas the fact that carbon nanotubes are anisotropic means great things for the development of future projects. Not only will carbon nanotubes be able to assist in the enhancement of images seen on a screen, but those seen under a microscope, under the earth and in the sky as well. Additionally, it will be able to enhance dozens of other necessary operations, making these fields work more quickly and more accurately.

The physical properties of carbon nanotubes have implications in a variety of work fields and in the way people live their every day lives. Because carbon nanotubes have the ability to work efficiently in several areas of physical property they will not only change the way the world views research and science, but how the world works—how fast it works, how efficiently it works and how well it works in tandem with each project that is presented.

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Every day, as you move about in the world, you wonder how costs go up for everything in your daily life—the cost of homes, the cost of cars, the cost of gas and the cost of groceries. It seems that the cost of living goes up with each passing day, and that there is no reprieve in sight. But what is there was something that could change everything?

What if there was a natural element on Earth that could be used to change the way we live, the way we think and the amount of money that we spend on everyday products and services, as well as replacement products and services? That natural element is here: how much do nanotubes cost as well as the research to be performed that this element is not being mass-produced and used in the production of a wide variety of products?

In 1991, Sumio Iijima, a Japanese scientist, discovered carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are essentially a sheet of graphite that has been rolled, much the way you roll a tortilla or a cigarette. The act of rolling this sheet of latticework-esque, hexagonal carbon results in the creation of the carbon nanotube, one of the most unique and usable macromolecules ever discovered by science.

As with everything, however, the cost of these carbon nanotubes is a key determining factor in whether or not they will be used, regardless of how well they could be used. When looking at the question of how much do nanotubes cost, you’ve got to start with the costs that can potentially be lowered by their use.

In early 2009, it was reported that carbon nanotubes had the potential to lower the cost of fuel cells, which make up the ultra-expensive platinum catalysts used in some passenger cars—for reference, the platinum catalysts in a passenger car typically costs around four thousand dollars ($4000). But it was a research team at the University of Dayton in June 2009 that discovered the ability to use a throng of carbon nanotubes to do the same job that the platinum catalyst does.

While no researchers, including the University of Dayton, have built a full prototype yet, and the full cost of carbon nanotube catalysts is as yet unkown, the implications for this new method of using fuel cells in passenger cars are great.

The realities for the automobile industry are that platinum is extremely rare and expensive to work with, whereas carbon is relatively cheap and extremely plentiful. This feature of carbon alone makes it more attractive to work with, as it will be cheaper and easier to get a hold of, answering the question of how much do nanotubes cost, with a sound not enough to stop us from using them.

In addition to the automobile industry, NASA and the space aeronautics industry are also using the technology of carbon nanotubes to change the face of science and space. Idaho Space Materials has been using a manufacturing process from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to manufacture single walled carbon nanotubes. This manufacturing process has not only increased the company’s ability to mass produce at a quicker rate, but they have done so without the loss of quality or effectiveness in the end product.

At Idaho Space Materials, carbon nanotubes are being produced at a rate of 50 grams per hour. In addition, because the company is able to produce such a great amount of carbon nanotubes so quickly, they are able to offer it to researchers and to non-profit groups at a heavily reduced cost. This in turn makes it economically feasible for these types of groups to work on producing the facts and evidence for real world application of carbon nanotubes.

For these organizations, the question “How much do nanotubes cost” is answered with a stout, “Little enough that we can afford to change with the world with them”. Even NASA is currently purchasing single walled carbon nanotubes from Idaho Space Materials at near rock bottom prices to test in the creation of new space materials and scientific exploits.

But how much do carbon nanotubes cost to acquire or make? That depends on where you’re purchasing them, when you’re purchasing them and who you’re purchasing them from, not to mention who you are and what you’re going to be using them for. For Idaho Space Materials, researchers, NASA and non-profit organizations get first dibs on the low cost carbon nanotubes, but what if you don’t fit into one of these organizational structures?

How much do nanotubes cost if you’re a regular, for profit business that wants to implement the use of carbon nanotubes into your own products and manufacturing processes?

One company, Cheap Tubes, Inc. has been manufacturing and selling carbon nanotubes since 2005 and at the time of the announcement were making single walled carbon nanotubes available for both research and industrial purposing. In 2005, the answer to the question, “How much do nanotubes cost” was “forty cents per gram when you purchase a metric ton”—for reference, a metric ton is the equivalent of one million grams. In 2008,  the cost of purchasing carbon nanotubes from Cheap Tubes, Inc. had more than doubled and the answer the answer to how much do nanotubes cost rose to ninety five cents per gram. 

This was due at the time to the rising demand for carbon nanotubes when manufacturing could not keep up with the demand in the worldwide marketplace.

Looking across the marketplace today, it’s easy to see that supply and demand continues to play in favor of the manufacturers, where there is much more demand than there is product available. And the answer today to the ever resounding question, “how much do nanotubes cost” is “anywhere from $95 to $500 per gram.”

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If you’ve heard of nanotechnology, then you know it’s small. Incredibly small. Like an ant in comparison to the sun. What you may not know is that nanotechnology is being developed in many different forms and for many different uses. Developments wrought from nanotechnology are currently being used in a variety of products you may encounter everyday including sunscreen, clothing, wrinkle-resistant fabrics, LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), scratch-resistant coatings, anti-microbial bandages, tennis rackets, deep-penetrating cosmetics and even swimming pool cleaners and disinfectants.

One of the most compelling and exciting inventions in nanotechnology today are nanotubes. Nanotubes currently have a wide variety of applications, with the list growing in length every day and almost always made of carbon atoms. The most well-known molecular make-ups of carbon combine to make graphite (which is soft) and diamonds (which are hard). Carbon nanotubes are, in the simplest, just another make-up of traditional carbon atoms.

And this ultra-tiny device is not incredible for its varied uses alone. Nanotube production in itself is an incredible feat for technology. 

The process of producing carbon nanotubes is done by rolling a sheet of carbon atoms into the shape of a tube. The strength of the tube is dependent on which way the sheet is rolled–this is due to the fact that carbon atoms will cluster differently according to their alignment.

The resulting carbon nanotubes are one-hundred times stronger than steel but six times lighter. Due to this strange and fascinating versatility of carbon nanotubes, they can be used for many different projects, from construction projects on buildings and airplanes to medical procedures that require “tiny” solutions.

Nanotubes have implications across a broad spectrum of businesses and technologies and are, in addition to thousands of others, currently being used for or are being considered for us in, the following applications:

• Wind power turbines–While it is a well known fact that wind power turbines create electricity what you may not know is that the amount of electricity generated for collection is limited by the size of the turbines themselves. The turbines are often short because they are heavy. But carbon nanotube production means lighter, longer-lasting material. According to Bayer, a German chemical firm, the nanotubes will make wind power turbines between 20-30% stronger.
• Surfboards–US-based surfboard manufacturer, Entropy, has taken the process of producing carbon nanotubes and their application to a whole new level by using the technology to create a stronger epoxy–this epoxy increases the durability of Entropy surfboards while decreasing the natural wear and breakdown.
• Automobile improvements–BASF of Germany is harnessing the power of nanotube production to create filter fuel housings for new Audi vehicle models. This will make the vehicle lighter as well as reduce the necessary additives and the risk of sparking inside the casing. In addition, if carbon nanotubes could be used in the overall production process for automobiles, it would mean lighter vehicles, which in turn, would translate to better fuel efficiency and the added strength would greater increase the safety of vehicles for all passengers.
• Flame retardant boosters–Nanotube production does not mean the end for traditional flame retardants but BASF believes that small amounts of nanotubes added to traditional flame retardants will have a significant impact on the capability of the products.
• Pressure sensors–Although not currently proven, nanotubes have shown the ability to act as a pressure sensor, a discovery that could lead to the use of nanotubes in tire pressure gauges as well as in microelectromechanical pressure sensors that are used in the equipment that manufactures semi-conductors.
• Semi-conductors–The computer you’re using to view this information is running on a microprocessor which gets its life, in part, from a semiconductor. Semi-conductors made with carbon nanotubes would be stronger, lighter, paper thin and possibly faster than those currently used in computers and other electronic devices.

In addition to the above applications, nanotube production shows strong evidence of working in the favor of medical practitioners. Nanotubes have been used to detect tumor cells in the human body and could even be used to enhance the human body phsyically. However, there are many ethical dilemmas as well as risk factors associated with nanotube production for use in medicine, ethically, whether it is right to enhance the human body physically (in other words, attempt to make yourself indestructable) as well as risk factors including the ability of such particles and tubes to enter the blood stream and reach the brain, causing permanent damage.

The implications for the use of nanotubes is spread across every field of work, every business and into the home of every human being. If you drive a car, if you have surgery, if you use a computer, if you home ever catches fire, if you love to surf or ski, if you use electricity, every feature of life as we know it is or will be impacted by the discovery and development of carbon nanotubes. Whether the production of these nanotubes is ethical and no matter the risk factors, this fascinating discovery is here to stay. Whether you realize it or not, some form of nanotechnology has made a home for itself in your life and before you know it new uses will be coming to a store shelf near you.

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Of course, this is not the case and as we start to understand what nanotubes are used for, we start to understand the potential of this particular science.

One of the most impressive and potentially life changing potential for the use of nanotubes is the ability to help the human body transmit nerve signals where there was previous damage.

When the spinal cord receive trauma, the brain and the body are often cut off from each other by the lack of nerve signal transmission along the spinal cord. Nanotubes have actually been proven to be able to correct this problem in some patients.

Nanotubes are actuall stronger than steel by about one hundred times. Additionally, nanotubes are a fantastic electricity conductor, outperforming copper and silicone.

When nanotubes are used as semiconductor chips their potential is actually limitless. Their strength and their ability to conduct electricity make them prime options for medical advancement, space exploration, undersea exploration, and even computer advancement. The carbon nanotube could one day become the basis of all sciences.

Medical science has been able to see the potential for medical advancement. Paralysis and neurological diseases could be treated and even cured with the nanotube. Once carbon nanotubes are created for nerve cell transmission, the potential for human cell growth on the surface makes nanotube therapies a prime choice for all of medical science to continue to explore.

There is promising research that indicates that the cure for cancer could lay in the hands of nanoscience. Since the nanotubes’ surfaces allow for the growth of human cells, the hope is that the nanotubes could be injected into cancer patients with pinpoint accuracy and the cancer cells could be destroyed while noncancerous cells would be encouraged to grow on the nanotubes’ surfaces.

This technology has not been perfected yet but the hope that the technology will one day eradicate cancer. This hope is thus far the most promising that medical science has ever witnessed.

Those who suffer from diseases and ailments like chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and even depression may very well also be helped by the use of nanotubes. By creating the nanotubes to conduct specific nerve impulses, the altered nerve impulses that can cause the symptoms of these diseases can be over ridden.

Those who are opposed to stem cell research believe often have cited that there has been drastic improvements in the research that nanotubes present. It could have the same effect with the ability to engineer them for specific nerve cell signals.

This may one day turn out the be more productive and promising than stem cell research, which are clean human cells that can be injected and grow into the appropriate human cells that are needed to quiet the symptoms of the disease.

Some nanoscientists are creating carbon nanotubes to actually record the perpetual cell activity in the human body. This would mean that the nanotubes would have the capacity to “understand” what the human cells are doing, record the information, and then respond appropriately.

This means that we have the technology to direct the nanotubes to respond to human cells in different ways, which would allow us to direct the nanotubes to address diseases on the cellular level. The potential to treat almost any disease exists with the use of nanotubes.

Nanotube research is not as well known as other forms of medical research, but it holds great promise. It is vital that the communities that will one day implement this science continue to increase their education regarding nanotechnology and all possible applications of nanotubes.

Nanotubes are now being coated to increase their ability to respond to nerve cell direction, they are being tested on human cancer cells and even worms.

They are being specifically created for various disease relief. While the science and the technology has not received much media attention (most likely because it is not controversial) there are some human trials taking place around the world to attempt to prove that this is the next viable treatment options for many medical problems.

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