Nanotubes, ho! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Thraeryn · 09-12-2003, 07:51 AM

From CNET news: http://rss.com.com/2100-1008_3-50751...feed&subj=news

Quote:

Here come the nanotubes

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 12, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

Carbon Nanotechnologies, the company that produces carbon nanotubes for IBM and various research institutions, plans to expand production over the next two years, a move that could help jump-start commercial deployment of nanotubes.
The Houston-based company plans to increase production of single-walled carbon nanotubes to around 100 pounds of nanotubes a day, according to Tom Pitstick, director of business development for the company. CNI will also begin erecting a full-scale commercial plant capable of producing 1,000 pounds of tubes a day in 2005.

Right now, the company can produce only around a pound or two a day, and typically makes only around 2 pounds a week.

"We will be able to produce some relatively real volumes in 2004," Pitstick said. Although volumes are low now, the first commercial products featuring CNI's nanotubes will come out later this year.

In the past few years, carbon nanotubes have become the leading celebrity in the world of materials research. Single-walled nanotubes--the kind CNI manufacturers--are microscopic spools of carbon atoms that resemble a single coil of chicken wire. Due to their size and the inherent properties of carbon, the tubes can conduct electricity better than copper and heat better than diamonds, said Hongjie Dai, an associate professor of chemistry at Stanford. They are also flexible yet extremely strong.

Some of the first commercial applications will involve sticking nanotubes into paints or plastics to allow them to conduct electricity. In this way, lighter plastic parts could replace metal in certain products. Pitstick, in fact, said that the product using CNI's tubes coming later this year is a conductive polymer. Coatings infused with carbon nanotubes could also serve to deflect static electricity or absorb radar.

Years down the road, the tubes could be used to carry signals in optical fibers or replace traditional transistors in semiconductors.

However, the industry is currently stuck with the familiar chicken-and-egg dilemma.

"There are almost no applications for this material today and there are also no plants for producing this material today," Pitstick said. "There is not much capacity."

Carbon nanotubes are also expensive. Currently, CNI charges $500 a gram for the materials. Additionally, techniques for purifying them--sorting good tubes from bad ones--and ways to incorporate tubes into other products need to be perfected. Some of these tasks may require Nobel-quality breakthroughs, said Josh Wolfe, a managing partner at Lux Capital, a venture firm concentrating on nanotechnology

CNI was co-founded by Richard Smalley, a Rice University professor and winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for chemistry. Rice licenses the technology developed in its labs to CNI.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some products with incorporated nanotubes, be they high-cost or not. This whole thing intrigues me. Just goes to show the continually increasing power of mankind.

baaa · 09-12-2003, 09:22 AM

There were soo many word in that article, so I didn't actually read it. But nanotubes is a very funny sounding word

tinfoil · 09-12-2003, 09:33 AM

COOL! Nanotubes sound better than solid state.

Gah.. that was lame.

rogue49 · 09-12-2003, 10:06 AM

It will be an interesting development.
I can't wait for the new applications of it.

rider6061 · 09-12-2003, 11:30 AM

nanotubes also make materials stain resistant

DROOL ON!!!

ratbastid · 09-12-2003, 11:34 AM

I worked with a guy a while ago whose girlfried was researching nanotubes.

She was hot.

Sapper · 09-12-2003, 03:18 PM

Very cool!!

Lyaec123 · 09-12-2003, 04:17 PM

Sweet, conductive coatings? Sounds like a good plan, and if the tubes are only 1 atom thick, they must be very small so would therefore make very good replacements for metal parts in computers where smaller = faster, right?

Johnny Rotten · 09-12-2003, 04:41 PM

I feel like I've been hearing about this stuff for years, and nothing has come of it yet. I'm more excited about paper-thin OLED displays and solid state storage.

spived2 · 09-13-2003, 03:25 PM

All these technologies are still in research stages. I'm guessing the nanotubes won't used in mass quantities until around 2010-2015, and that's if they can figure out how to get them to grow the way they want. I remember reading somewhere that that was the main problem with them thus far.

ARTelevision · 09-13-2003, 03:38 PM

yes, nanotech is good a investment, still.

Gortexfogg · 09-13-2003, 06:46 PM

I read the "nanotubes" and thought "oh, small tvs, cool!". oh well. If they can think of that many used for these things now, they will have hundreds more once these nanotubes are more widely in use. Conductive polymers definitely sounds interesting too...

Pacifier · 09-14-2003, 02:41 AM

Yeah, thosenanotubes could be the material that is needed to build the space elevator.

meff · 09-14-2003, 03:54 AM

Mmmm nanotubes yummm..

vermin · 09-14-2003, 10:03 AM

When I first saw this thread I thought it was about this article:

Linky-link

The cheap way to the stars - by escalator

David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday September 13, 2003

If climbing a stairway to heaven sounds like too much hard work, then a conference of 70 scientists and engineers opening in Santa Fe today may offer hope of a more leisurely way into space.
In two days of discussions, the scientists aim to turn into a reality an ambition that has been around for at least a century: the creation of a space elevator that would deliver satellites, spacecraft and even people thousands of kilometres into space along a vertical track.

Engineers say that recent advances in materials science - particularly in the development of carbon nanotubes - mean that such a system, which first gained widespread attention when the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke described it in his 1979 novel Fountains of Paradise, is no longer pure science fiction.

Mr Clarke - who once said a space elevator would only be built "about 50 years after everyone stops laughing" - was due to address the scientists at the Santa Fe conference today by satellite link from his home in Sri Lanka.

The American space agency Nasa is no longer laughing. It is putting several million dollars into the project under its advanced concepts programme.

At the heart of a space elevator would be a cable reaching up as far as 100,000km from the surface of the Earth. The earthbound end would be tethered to a base station, probably somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean. The other end would be attached to an orbiting object in space acting as a counterweight, the momentum of which would keep the cable taut and allow vehicles to climb up and down it.

A space elevator would make rockets redundant by granting cheaper access to space. At about a third of the way along the cable - 36,000km from Earth - objects take a year to complete a full orbit. If the cable's centre of gravity remained at this height, the cable would remain vertical, as satellites placed at this height are geostationary, effectively hovering over the same spot on the ground.

To build a space elevator such a geostationary satellite would be placed into orbit carrying the coiled-up cable. One weighted end of the cable would then be dropped back towards Earth, while the other would be unreeled off into space. Mechanical lifters could then climb up the cable from the ground, ferrying up satellites, space probes and eventually tourists.

The biggest technical obstacle is finding a material strong but light enough to make the cable; this is where the carbon nanotubes come in. These are microscopically thin tubes of carbon that are as strong as diamonds but flexible enough to turn into fibre. In theory, a nanotube ribbon about one metre wide and as thin as paper could support a space elevator.

No scientist has yet succeeded in making such a fibre, but Rodney Andrews, a carbon nanotube expert from the University of Kentucky will tell the conference: "Until some of the basic science concerning how to connect nanotubes together and transfer load between them in a composite is understood it will remain elusive, but a lot of progress is being made."

Brad Edwards, a space scientist who has been developing the space elevator concept for several years, said there was still a lot of scepticism to overcome. "Initially, people look at me like they're trying to work out whether or not I'm pulling their leg," he said.

Dr Edwards says the original satellite used to send up the cable should provide enough tension in the cable for the first vehicles to climb into space, each of which would then be added in turn to the counterweight. These lifters would clamp caterpillar tracks to either side of the cable and would be powered by converting laser light beamed up from the ground into electricity.

"None of it is really extravagant," said Dr Edwards, who estimates it would take about $7bn (£4.4bn) to turn the concept into reality. He hopes to have a final elevator design hammered out by next year.

He said the floating base platform would be placed hundreds of miles from aircraft routes and shipping lanes and would be in a region of the sea where storms, lightning and high waves are rare.

The biggest hazard could be space junk, but Dr Edwards said the floating platform would be moved around to steer the cable out of the way. He says it would slash the price of access to space 400-fold, and could allow cheaper, faster travel to other planets.

One unlikely problem could be capturing the public's imagination. "When we actually start launching this it's going to be kind of boring," Dr Edwards said. "There's no smoke, there's no pillars of fire and there's no loud rumbling noises. There's just this thing that slowly ascends the ribbon into space."

One of the coolest ideas I've ever heard of. I seem to recall a Heinlein story about a man-made habitable ring around the earth with elevators made of crystalized carbon (diamond) as access.

Esoteric · 09-14-2003, 04:55 PM

Very interesting

JusticeForPhat · 09-18-2003, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rider6061
nanotubes also make materials stain resistant

DROOL ON!!!

right. If i remember correctly, the dockers stain resistant pants have carbon nano-fibers, which are pretty damn cheap to make compared to the tube, infused in the material. I spent an entire night "accidentally" spilling shit on my buddies pants to see if they worked. Cool stuff.

hunnychile · 09-20-2003, 05:17 PM

Interesting, but can they take the garbage out?

yellowgowild · 09-21-2003, 02:55 AM

I remember reading recently that they found a way to make the nanotubes "self-align" withing a polymer coating. Meaning that you could pour the stuff onto glass and it would arrange itself perfectly. This means flat panel TVs will cost alot less and will be much bigger with higher resolution. I think motorolla was the one behind the new technique and they said this would be a reality within 2 years....

GakFace · 09-21-2003, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pacifier
Yeah, thosenanotubes could be the material that is needed to build the space elevator.

Beat me to it. I"m still very intrigued by the space elevator idea. I'm curious as to how it'll pan out.

WhiteDevil · 09-22-2003, 08:38 AM

Did anyone else immediately think of Borg assimilation when they saw the word "nanotubes"? Nerd, ho!

Thraeryn · 09-22-2003, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JusticeForPhat
right. If i remember correctly, the dockers stain resistant pants have carbon nano-fibers, which are pretty damn cheap to make compared to the tube, infused in the material. I spent an entire night "accidentally" spilling shit on my buddies pants to see if they worked. Cool stuff.

Man, those things kick some pretty heinous amounts of ass. Man has at last triumphed over stains!!!

Where next shall our technology lead?!

skinbag · 09-22-2003, 12:43 PM

To improved staining compounds, of course.

spived2 · 09-25-2003, 03:53 PM

one thing i dont get with that whole elevator thing - whats to keep whatevers climbing the rope from pulling the counterweight back towards earth?

skippy · 09-25-2003, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by spived2
one thing i dont get with that whole elevator thing - whats to keep whatevers climbing the rope from pulling the counterweight back towards earth?

I am always amazed at how broad the discussion can get

09-12-2003, 09:33 AM	#3 (permalink)
tinfoil Fucking Hostile Location: Springford, ON, Canada	COOL! Nanotubes sound better than solid state. Gah.. that was lame. __________________ Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr.

09-12-2003, 11:30 AM	#5 (permalink)
rider6061 Crazy Location: oklahoma	nanotubes also make materials stain resistant DROOL ON!!! __________________ Is This Thing On?

09-12-2003, 03:18 PM	#7 (permalink)
Sapper Insane Location: The Internet	Very cool!! __________________ rm -f /bin/laden

09-12-2003, 04:41 PM	#9 (permalink)
Johnny Rotten lost and found Location: Berkeley	I feel like I've been hearing about this stuff for years, and nothing has come of it yet. I'm more excited about paper-thin OLED displays and solid state storage. __________________ "The idea that money doesn't buy you happiness is a lie put about by the rich, to stop the poor from killing them." -- Michael Caine

09-13-2003, 03:25 PM	#10 (permalink)
spived2 Desert Rat Location: Arizona	All these technologies are still in research stages. I'm guessing the nanotubes won't used in mass quantities until around 2010-2015, and that's if they can figure out how to get them to grow the way they want. I remember reading somewhere that that was the main problem with them thus far. __________________ "This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." - V

09-12-2003, 09:22 AM	#2 (permalink)
baaa Banned Location: ville	There were soo many word in that article, so I didn't actually read it. But nanotubes is a very funny sounding word

09-12-2003, 10:06 AM	#4 (permalink)
rogue49 Loser	It will be an interesting development. I can't wait for the new applications of it.

09-12-2003, 11:34 AM	#6 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	I worked with a guy a while ago whose girlfried was researching nanotubes. She was hot.

09-12-2003, 04:17 PM	#8 (permalink)
Lyaec123 Crazy	Sweet, conductive coatings? Sounds like a good plan, and if the tubes are only 1 atom thick, they must be very small so would therefore make very good replacements for metal parts in computers where smaller = faster, right?

09-13-2003, 03:38 PM	#11 (permalink)
ARTelevision I change Location: USA	yes, nanotech is good a investment, still. __________________ create evolution

09-13-2003, 06:46 PM	#12 (permalink)
Gortexfogg I and I Location: Stillwater, OK	I read the "nanotubes" and thought "oh, small tvs, cool!". oh well. If they can think of that many used for these things now, they will have hundreds more once these nanotubes are more widely in use. Conductive polymers definitely sounds interesting too...

09-14-2003, 02:41 AM	#13 (permalink)
Pacifier undead Location: Duisburg, Germany	Yeah, thosenanotubes could be the material that is needed to build the space elevator. __________________ "It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death — Albert Einstein

09-14-2003, 03:54 AM	#14 (permalink)
meff Vanishing, like I do.. Location: Austin, TX	Mmmm nanotubes yummm.. __________________ Toy-like people make me boy-like.

09-14-2003, 10:03 AM	#15 (permalink)
vermin Indifferent to anti-matter Location: Tucson, AZ	When I first saw this thread I thought it was about this article: Linky-link The cheap way to the stars - by escalator David Adam, science correspondent Saturday September 13, 2003 If climbing a stairway to heaven sounds like too much hard work, then a conference of 70 scientists and engineers opening in Santa Fe today may offer hope of a more leisurely way into space. In two days of discussions, the scientists aim to turn into a reality an ambition that has been around for at least a century: the creation of a space elevator that would deliver satellites, spacecraft and even people thousands of kilometres into space along a vertical track. Engineers say that recent advances in materials science - particularly in the development of carbon nanotubes - mean that such a system, which first gained widespread attention when the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke described it in his 1979 novel Fountains of Paradise, is no longer pure science fiction. Mr Clarke - who once said a space elevator would only be built "about 50 years after everyone stops laughing" - was due to address the scientists at the Santa Fe conference today by satellite link from his home in Sri Lanka. The American space agency Nasa is no longer laughing. It is putting several million dollars into the project under its advanced concepts programme. At the heart of a space elevator would be a cable reaching up as far as 100,000km from the surface of the Earth. The earthbound end would be tethered to a base station, probably somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean. The other end would be attached to an orbiting object in space acting as a counterweight, the momentum of which would keep the cable taut and allow vehicles to climb up and down it. A space elevator would make rockets redundant by granting cheaper access to space. At about a third of the way along the cable - 36,000km from Earth - objects take a year to complete a full orbit. If the cable's centre of gravity remained at this height, the cable would remain vertical, as satellites placed at this height are geostationary, effectively hovering over the same spot on the ground. To build a space elevator such a geostationary satellite would be placed into orbit carrying the coiled-up cable. One weighted end of the cable would then be dropped back towards Earth, while the other would be unreeled off into space. Mechanical lifters could then climb up the cable from the ground, ferrying up satellites, space probes and eventually tourists. The biggest technical obstacle is finding a material strong but light enough to make the cable; this is where the carbon nanotubes come in. These are microscopically thin tubes of carbon that are as strong as diamonds but flexible enough to turn into fibre. In theory, a nanotube ribbon about one metre wide and as thin as paper could support a space elevator. No scientist has yet succeeded in making such a fibre, but Rodney Andrews, a carbon nanotube expert from the University of Kentucky will tell the conference: "Until some of the basic science concerning how to connect nanotubes together and transfer load between them in a composite is understood it will remain elusive, but a lot of progress is being made." Brad Edwards, a space scientist who has been developing the space elevator concept for several years, said there was still a lot of scepticism to overcome. "Initially, people look at me like they're trying to work out whether or not I'm pulling their leg," he said. Dr Edwards says the original satellite used to send up the cable should provide enough tension in the cable for the first vehicles to climb into space, each of which would then be added in turn to the counterweight. These lifters would clamp caterpillar tracks to either side of the cable and would be powered by converting laser light beamed up from the ground into electricity. "None of it is really extravagant," said Dr Edwards, who estimates it would take about $7bn (£4.4bn) to turn the concept into reality. He hopes to have a final elevator design hammered out by next year. He said the floating base platform would be placed hundreds of miles from aircraft routes and shipping lanes and would be in a region of the sea where storms, lightning and high waves are rare. The biggest hazard could be space junk, but Dr Edwards said the floating platform would be moved around to steer the cable out of the way. He says it would slash the price of access to space 400-fold, and could allow cheaper, faster travel to other planets. One unlikely problem could be capturing the public's imagination. "When we actually start launching this it's going to be kind of boring," Dr Edwards said. "There's no smoke, there's no pillars of fire and there's no loud rumbling noises. There's just this thing that slowly ascends the ribbon into space." One of the coolest ideas I've ever heard of. I seem to recall a Heinlein story about a man-made habitable ring around the earth with elevators made of crystalized carbon (diamond) as access. __________________ If puns were sausages, this would be the wurst. Last edited by vermin; 09-14-2003 at 10:08 AM..

09-14-2003, 04:55 PM	#16 (permalink)
Esoteric Tired Location: Florida	Very interesting __________________ From a head full of pressure rests the senses that I clutch Made a date with Divinity, but she wouldn't let me fuck I got touched by a hazy shaded, God help me change Caught a rush on the floor from the life in my veins

09-22-2003, 12:43 PM	#23 (permalink)
skinbag Registered User Location: Madison WI	To improved staining compounds, of course.

09-20-2003, 05:17 PM	#18 (permalink)
hunnychile Alien Anthropologist Location: Between Boredom and Nirvana	Interesting, but can they take the garbage out? __________________ "I need compassion, understanding and chocolate." - NJB

09-21-2003, 02:55 AM	#19 (permalink)
yellowgowild Psycho Location: Tampa	I remember reading recently that they found a way to make the nanotubes "self-align" withing a polymer coating. Meaning that you could pour the stuff onto glass and it would arrange itself perfectly. This means flat panel TVs will cost alot less and will be much bigger with higher resolution. I think motorolla was the one behind the new technique and they said this would be a reality within 2 years.... Last edited by yellowgowild; 09-21-2003 at 04:39 AM..

09-22-2003, 08:38 AM	#21 (permalink)
WhiteDevil Brave Corporate Logo Location: Undisclosed	Did anyone else immediately think of Borg assimilation when they saw the word "nanotubes"? Nerd, ho! __________________ Join me or die! Can you do any less?

09-25-2003, 03:53 PM	#24 (permalink)
spived2 Desert Rat Location: Arizona	one thing i dont get with that whole elevator thing - whats to keep whatevers climbing the rope from pulling the counterweight back towards earth? __________________ "This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." - V