CNTs No Limits

Emily Delgado Salceda

The nanotechnology and nanomaterial industry is booming and there are amazing

discoveries as this ever growing field expands. Although, there has been one discovery that
introduces many benefits for not only science but is impacting all fields whether it be business,

medicine, energy, engineering, etc. This recent discovery is better known as carbon nanotubes or

CNT for short. Consequently, due to its shape there are people who also call these tubes,

Buckytubes, as the Buckyballs are somewhat related to these nanotubes. These nanotubes are

made up of perfect, hollow molecules of carbon linked together in a hexagonally form or is often

referred to as a chicken wire appearance. The cylinder is hollow inside and has a diameter that

can be measured on the nanoscale, hence the name nanotubes. The dimensions for these CNTs

usually run from 1 to 20 nanometers. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter which is about

10,000 times smaller than a human hair.

What intrigued scientists about nanotubes is the ability for it to be on such a small scale,

yet still be able to expand itself length-wise. For example, think about a carbon nanotube as a

magician trick that doesnt end. Its to say that, a nanotube is like a magicians sleeve, and the

length of the nanotube and how much it can be spread is represented by the never ending cloth

that the magician pulls out of his sleeve. This is an interesting way of thinking about a nanotube,

but yet very affective, and makes it clearer to understand why scientists were intrigued with their

discovery, because nanotubes were the magic trick that seemed endless.

In 1991 CNTs were analyzed and taken up as an important discovery by Sumio Iijima.

Iijima first observed the multiwall carbon nanotubes or MWCNTs then later on discovered that

carbon nanotubes came in two types. With this first interest in nanotubes more scientists started

to do research on the topic and both Iijima and Donald Bethune, independently observed, single

wall nanotubes (AZoNano). Although single wall CNTs and multiwall CNTs are similar they

have distinct characteristics. For example, SWCNTs are more pliable and can be twisted,

flattened, and bent. While on the other hand, MWCNTs are stiffer than steel, they are resistant
to damage from physical forces. Now, this is also why scientists were so intrigued with this new

discovery, because who would think that something so small could be so strong. Although, there

are basic concepts that explain why these nano-sized discoveries are capable of the before

mentioned.

First, what do we mean by the word strong and how is it possible for a tiny thing to be

this strong? Carbon nanotubes are considered to be strong because in the example that we

mentioned before about the magician, one can pull on a carbon nanotube and it will be a while

before the magician runs out of string or in other words, before the carbon nanotube breaks

away. This is largely due to the covalent bonds of the CNTs. In covalent bonding, atoms share

electrons. Therefore, the only way that CNTs can break or be detached is if the single chain of

covalent bonds are broken. They become broken when the covalent bonds reach their length limit

and break away. This understanding of how carbon nanotubes are bonded has made it easier for

scientists to understand and possibly mass produce these CNTs although, still at a pretty penny

and at a slower pace than favored (Bahra and Tour).

Secondly, we know that carbon nanotubes are fifty times more conductive than copper?

But why is this so? To be able to understand the different types of structures that a nanotube has

we must first understand what a conductor, insulator, and semi-conductor is. A conductor allows

heat to form well while an insulator cannot form heat well. Following this same line of

reasoning, a semi-conductor can form heat well in most metals but not all. Therefore, the reason

that a conductor can form heat well is because it has no band gap, that is to say that the

conduction band and the valance band overlap, allowing it to be conductive with all metals.

Consequently, an insulator cannot form heat well because the band gap between the conduction

band and valance band is too large. Still, a semi-conductor works for most but not all metals
because even though it has a band gap it is not as big as the insulator band gap. That being said,

carbon nanotubes are conductive because they have no band gap, incidentally there are three

different CNT structures but still one works better than the rest. The three structures that a CNT

can have is armchair nanotube structure, zigzag nanotube structure, or chiral nanotube structure.

The armchair is the most conductive of the three and has metallic properties, while both the

zigzag and chiral possess semiconducting properties. A study of conductivity of individual

CNTs has proved the different CNT structures. Furthermore, they report that measuring

conductivity of bunches of CNTs rather than single CNTs, both metallic and non-metallic

behavior was observed. They determined that this meant there must be a difference in geometry

of the CNTs and therefore plays an enormous part in determining the electronic behavior

(EBBESEN, LEZEC and HIURA). Knowing that there are differences in CNT conductivity is

important because if these carbon nanotubes are to be effective in the future, it is important to

produce the best conductors. Although, this new discovery could have set backs on when CNTs

become massively produced with rapidity.

Third, the structure of carbon nanotubes is also interesting yet very simple when one

thinks about it. The bonding in carbon nanotubes can be written as sp 2 where each atom is

joined to three neighbors, as in graphite. In other words, CNTs can be considered rolled up

graphene sheets. A graphene is a single sheet of a graphite layer. Now, it is important to

understand that the smallest part of an element is an atom, which is made up of orbits, electrons,

and the nucleus, and we must also understand that elements are made up of one type of atom.

Now, how does knowing what a graphene is, relate to carbon nanotubes? This again explains

why CNTs are strong. That is because a single sheet of graphene is 300 times stronger than

shield, therefore, without these graphene atoms, it would be impossible to have carbon nanotubes
and hence begin to understand how to produce them (Wilder, Venema and Rinzler) and how to

use them to their fullest potential.

Ultimately, carbon nanotubes are important because of their nanoscale size, there are

endless possibilities that have yet to be discovered because when an item is on a nanoscale its

properties change. Which explains the craze over CNTs and just anything related to the

nanoscale. So the question to ask then is how will carbon nanotubes benefit society? Well, first,

CNTs would impact the health care field immensely, there are some scientists who are already

in the works of perfecting x-rays with carbon nanotubes. They claim that their device will allow

them to take clearer pictures of organs in shorter amounts of time. Not only will CNTs impact

our health, but our transportation as well. Scientists believe that the hydrogen car can become

more affordable with the use of nanotubes and also more efficient. Although CNTs are still

expensive to make, there has been a recent decline in production which could mean more natural

fueled cars and a cleaner environment for all. Carbon nanotubes could also influence our

technology by making it smaller and more efficient. Studies have been done where CNTs have

been unzipped and packed with much more processing power than the current silicon chip

(Strickland).

Yet, there are more leisure inventions that could come from carbon nanotubes. For

example, one scientist has found a way to create adhesive material that would allow people to

stick to walls. In other words, we could have a shot of becoming the real Spiderman in the future.

This invention was inspired by geckos whose feet are covered in countless tiny hairs that allow

them to walk up certain surfaces. Following this same line of reasoning there have also been

super think speakers developed from CNTs sheets. These speakers could bring another famous

film to life, Harry Potter. According to scientists, these speakers could be attached to anything
like magazines, newspapers and they would produce sound. Moreover, carbon nanotubes could

save us a lot of money on cracked phone screens. Researchers at the University of Tokyo created

a flexible screen that doesnt shatter and can even be bent and crumpled up if need be. Though

this was a huge leap in a direction we would all love, there are still some tweaking to be done

before this product is in high demand. Although, we can all agree we are most excited about

saving on insurance deductibles if youve ever cracked your screen. But even better than

preventing cracked phone screens, CNTs could be the end all of cancer. Researchers inserted

carbon nanotubes into mice who had tumors and proceeded to point a laser at the mice,

activating heat inside the mice that was enough to kill cancerous tumors. Although 80% of mice

were rid of tumors with little to no damage on skin, researchers are still not sure of the side

effects CNTs will have on humans (Strickland).

In conclusion, the field of nanotechnology and nanomaterials is rapidly growing, and as it

grows there will be new discoveries that will hopefully end many of our problems. CNTs are a

bit complicated to comprehend at first, but with knowledge of basic concepts it is an intriguing

topic. First we see that CNTs are strong due to covalent bonding. Second, they are conductive

and possess different structures. Lastly, without understanding CNTs at the atomic level there

would be no progress in research and studies. Researchers and scientists are in a craze with these

carbon nanotubes because they tap into new and unexplored territories that we never knew

existed. In other words, there is so much we do not know yet about CNTs and there are many

innovators who would love to create a name for themselves as it truly seems that carbon

nanotubes have no limits.

 Works Cited

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17 June 2004. Document. 22 March 2017. <http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?

ArticleID=982>.

Bahra, Jeffrey L. and James M. Tour. "Covalent chemistry of single-wall carbon nanotubes."

Article. 2012.

EBBESEN, T. W., et al. "Electrical conductivity of individual carbon nanotubes." 1996.

document.

Strickland, Eliza. "9 Ways Carbon Nanotubes Just Might Rock the World." Discover: Science for

the Curious 6 August 2009. article.

Wilder, Jeroen W. G., et al. "Electronic structure of atomically resolved carbon nanotubes." 1998.

document.