2 - Engineering Applications of Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132 million, significantly larger than any other material. These cylindrical carbon molecules have unusual properties that are valuable for nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science and technology. Formally derived from the grapheme sheet, they exhibit unusual mechanical properties, such as high toughness and high elastic moduli. Referring to their electronic structure, they exhibit semiconducting, as well as metallic behavior and thus cover the full range of properties important for technology. Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes or multiple-walled nanotubes. In particular, owing to their extraordinary thermal conductivity and mechanical and electrical properties, CNTs find applications as additives to various structural materials. The properties and characteristics of CNTs are still being researched heavily, and scientists have barely begun to tap the potential of these structures.