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Nanotube fibers on a large scale Rumpelstiltskin may have been able to spin straw into gold, but scientists at Rice University are performing a feat whose industrial potential is even more dazzling: They are using a conventional spinning technique to produce macroscopic fibers composed solely of highly aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) [Science, 305, 1447 (2004)]. The production methods used by Richard E. Smalley, Wen-Fang Hwang, and coworkers are similar to those used in making two of the strongest commercial fibers, Kevlar and Zylon. Zylon is the strongest fiber on the market, and pure nanotube fibers promise to be 10 times stronger still, according to the Rice team. The researchers believe they have overcome a major hurdle to industrial production of nanotube fibers by preparing a concentrated dispersion of SWNTs in a superacid. This dispersion is extruded and coagulated in a controlled manner to produce continuous lengths of highly pure nanotube fibers. |
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