Carbon nanotube

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Carbon nanotube's revolution


 Chemists felt there was nothing more to learn about carbon, until the late 1950s,  when a new allotrope of carbon was discovered.  Then years after years, the research continued until today where this technology can be used in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science.
AZoNano - The A to Z of Nanotechnology - Schematic of a buckytube or carbon nanotube
Here is how a carbon nanotube should look like.
Something that made the carbon nanotube interesting is that the nanotubes are shaped like a cylinder. The composition is that every carbon atoms is linked in a hexagonal shape, with each carbon atom bonded to three other carbon atoms. Carbon nanotubes have diameters as small as 1 nm and lengths up to several centimeters and it has exceptional material properties, such as very high electrical and thermal conductivity, strength, stiffness, and toughness. This makes the carbon nanotube dense but small, due to this property, construction companies and even NASA is combining carbon nanotubes with other materials to try to build a lightweight but strong spacecraft.
Related image

Sources:

https://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/sumio-iijima/the-discovery-of-carbon-nanotubes-iijima
https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=982
https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/carbon_nanotube.htm
https://www.understandingnano.com/nanotubes-carbon-discovery.html


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