Duke chemists and researchers from the University of California working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have created the world’s longest carbon nanotube. At four centimeters long, it breaks the previous world record tube of a few millimeters.
Nanotechnology has gone from being a scientific discovery to being labeled as the “material of the future” in just the past decade, and experts hope that ongoing research will guarantee more strides and discoveries in the future.
First discovered in 1991, carbon nanotubes are small hollow tubes of carbon atoms arranged in such a way that makes them almost 10 times stronger than any other material currently in existence.
Duke chemists Shaoming Huang and Jie Liu have worked on developing longer nanotubes with a team of scientists from the University of California for the past year, sharing ideas, research data and facilities. Huang and Liu’s main task was to map out a research plan for the nanotube team in Los Alamos and guide them with different experimental approaches.
“I was first contacted by the Los Alamos researchers last September about starting this project,” Liu said. “I had done work with carbon nanotubes before, so they wanted to collaborate ideas and basically test them out at their facilities. We just discussed what equipment was necessary and what we had to set up in the laboratory.”
Although this accomplishment marks progress in the field, Liu is optimistic that more developments will be made in the next couple years. Among researchers’ goals is to create larger nanotubes and develop more composite materials with the carbon fibers.
The new carbon nanotubes are heralded by the scientific community as a significant step forward in nanotechnology because the material has numerous applications in electronics and potentially in medicine as well. Experts say the nanotubes can be used in electronic devices as conductors or semi-conductors, creating smaller and extremely lightweight microchips in computers. For example, many scientists hope that they may in the future create molecular-sized microchips and circuits. The life of a normal lithium battery can also be doubled with carbon fibers.
“The potential uses for long carbon nanotubes are probably limited only by our imagination,” Yuntian Zhu, one of the leading scientists at Los Alamos, said in a statement.
The lightweight structure and strong molecular properties of the nanotubes can also replace some of the weaker materials that are used today in a wide variety of industries.
“Graphite is one of the most widely used materials,” Huang said. “For instance, instead of using graphite in the wings of airplanes, we can use a much more lighter and stronger material in carbon nanotubes.”
Although Liu is optimistic about creating larger nanotubes, he sees some limitations.
“I don’t believe that we will see any nanotubes that are several meters long any time soon.... The reason for that is because there isn’t an immediate need for nanotubes that long, and it’s simply impractical,” Liu said. “[But] we will continue to work with the research team at Los Alamos, and hopefully we can get more funding to make more developments.”
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