August 22, 2005
1 min read
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The tiny carbon cylinders known as nanotubes are prized for their strength and conductive properties.
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The tiny carbon cylinders known as nanotubes are prized for their strength and conductive properties. But researchers have struggled to get them to perform as well en masse as they do individually. Until now. In the current issue of Science, scientists describe having created long ribbons of carbon nanotubes that, when compressed into dense sheets just tens of nanometers thick, are stronger than steel. Transparent, lightweight, pliable and conductive, the easily-made sheets could find their way into devices ranging from electrically heated car windows to flexible television screens. In the image above, two nanotube sheets support droplets of water, orange juice and grape juice. Each droplet has a mass 50,000 times that of the contacting sheets.
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