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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While originally nanotubes were a highly rare commodity to the point where the first nanotubes were discounted as nanotubes for not meeting the width requirements, today it is a very different story.

Now, nanoscientists can order up premade carbon nanotubes in order to shorten their time in the cultivation stage and spend more energy in the application effort.

In 1996, Rice University studies successfully developed a rapid production of the single walled nanotubes. This has allowed scientists to simply submit an order and receive the necessary raw materials for creating new and improved scientific strides.

The ordered nanotubes are created through a process of laser vaporization. The laser vaporizing process targets the carbon particles and is confined to a 1200 degree Celsius furnace that in effect “grows” the nanotubes.

There is a specific catalyst of cobalt nickel is part of the growth process. The idea is that the cobalt nickel helps the growth process by preventing the capping of the nanotubes so that they have the opportunity to grow into long tubes in a short period of time. The carbon that is targeted this way can be manufactured into nanotubes between 70 and 90% of the attempts.

Two separate laser pulses are effective at helping the growth continue over longer periods of time, which helps produce larger nanotubes in a shorter period of time. It is vital that the growth process is controlled in order to maintain some sort of uniformity in the manufactured nanotubes.

This is important when it comes to scientific research. Research is naturally more effective when the nanotubes are the same size and width for the project.

The nanotubes are then removed from the superheated furnace via a constant flow of argon gas that ushers the nanotubes directly into a cooling chamber in a copper nanotube collector that is cooled by water. This stabilizes the process and gets the microscopic tubes ready to be delivered to the scientists in need of the tubes for experimentation and application.

A few years later, the University of Montpellier, France amended the process of how nanotubes are made. The production of nanotubes were based on the same need, but the process of manufacturing them was altered in an attempt to get the orders filled with more accuracy in less time.

Ionized carbon is still targeted and the superheating of the discharge has been shown to grow nanotubes in a controlled and quick manner.

There are many other scientific groups that are now altering the original two methods and using them in combination to mass produce carbon nanotubes for scientific experimentation.

With the increase in demand, many different collaborative efforts (even internationally) are merging to attempt to continuously improve the quality, accuracy, and uniformity of carbon nanotube production.

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