Mass Production of Carbon Nanotubes Now Possible

Originally posted by zhangmaster
You're right there Alan, there are plans for using this for armor.

"This fiber will provide for a new generation of high-strength fabrics and energy-absorbing materials, such as vehicle armor,"
[edit on 5-7-2005 by zhangmaster]

I would be great if the could build the bottom tub of armored vehicles with carbon nanotubes and get them to withstand land mines and IED's

but you just attck the vecule with something else. what if cnts were used as sharpnal? it would cut though it.

Originally posted by blue_sky_9
but you just attck the vecule with something else. what if cnts were used as sharpnal? it would cut though it.

What else would you attack it with So you suggest strapping cnts to a explosive in the hopes that they could penetrate the cnt armor?? Would that work?

Its not exactly like insurgents or terrorists have access to the latest and greatest explosives and weapons which is why they use IED's as in improvised. This is not to say they could get their hands on cnts to use as shrapnel but it would be more expensive and complex for them to pull off.

[edit on 15-8-2005 by warpboost]

Originally posted by warpboost

Originally posted by blue_sky_9
but you just attck the vecule with something else. what if cnts were used as sharpnal? it would cut though it.

What else would you attack it with

So you suggest strapping cnts to a explosive in the hopes that they could penetrate the cnt armor?? Would that work?

Its not exactly like insurgents or terrorists have access to the latest and greatest explosives and weapons which is why they use IED's as in improvised. This is not to say they could get their hands on cnts to use as shrapnel but it would be more expensive and complex for them to pull off.

[edit on 15-8-2005 by warpboost]

yes, iam suggesting just that. i would not know if it works. it has never been done

they could get them from battlefield wreakage.

CNT is a polymer textile, DU would probably penetrate it with enough force. CNT's aren't really that dense which is what penetrating power needs, CNT's are strong and durable that's it. I highly doubt it would be used in munitions. However some other form of Carbon Molecule packed tightly together in a pyramid shape would probably penetrate it. And as for terrorists getting their hands on it I highly doubt it. This technology is way more complicated then Nuclear Tech and they havn't nuked us yet have they? CNT's require very specialised and bulky equipment to fabricate and manipulate, I don't see this changing in the near future. Mylar is much stronger then steel but it isn't used as a weapon now is it?

Anyway's when the battlefield applications become practicle in 20 years I highly doubt terrorism will be at the top of our lists. When Nanotech comes into it's own expect economic turmoil worldwide as entire industries become obsolete.

Now this is a frightening Nanotech weapon...the Cookiecutter...

www.technovelgy.com...

Microscopic invaders were more of the threat nowadays. Just to name one example, there was the Red Death, a.k.a. the Seven Minute Special, a tiny aerodynamic capsule that burst open on impact and released a thousand or so corpuscle-sized bodies, known colloquially as cookie-cutters, into the victim's bloodstream. It took about seven minutes ... for the cookie cutters to be randomly distributed throughout the victim's organs and limbs.

A cookie-cutter was shaped like an aspirin tablet ... two tiny centrifuges. Detonation dissolved the bonds holding the centrifuges together so that each of a thousand or so ballisticules suddenly flew outward...The victim was just a big leaky sack of undifferentiated gore at this point and, of course, never survived.

That nanotech weapon in the wrong hands scares me more then anything CNT's will make feasible.

whats DU?

nano tech is scary, but its quite a long way dow the road yet to use it for millitary purposes. at the moment to theat is from bactria. there are plenty of old soviet scentists running round with this knowleadge. terrorists just need to find them...

DU = Depleted Urainium

nasty. put a bomb on that and you have hell of a mess!

Someone mentioned above that Carbon nanotubes are unreliable and variable in their performance because they are tangled.

This is only because the liquid suspension based manufacturing of them tends to produce many short tubes or tubes that have reduced physical properties amongst other things.

That being said, the method for which they produce the new carbon nanotube ribbons is entirely different. They align the tubes in forests so that they all grow perpendicular to eachother. This actually is more efficient than the method which every other scientist was using to manufacture miniscule amounts for scientific experiements.

The nanotubes created in THIS process are uniformly of the same quality. the overall conducive uses of them tend to be slightly reduced, but this is merely because the technique was just discovered. Much like any other manufacturing technique, you will find that their ease of manufacture as well as quality will go up over the coming years.

I follow this stuff, as it's one of my favorite fields of science next to the quantum. An interesting thing to note is a square mile of this stuff weighs about as much as a human man (appx. 180lbs.)

That is a square mile of 50 nanometer sheets. Consider then how much payload is lifted into orbit by the Space Shuttle (Satellites and other such stuff) and then ask yourself if the Space Elevator Concept is too far fetched.

As to the asteroid comment, in order to maneuver an asteroid into the correct orbit to attach the bloody thing, it would take us several decades at our current point of technology. Meaning that the asteroid concept is feasible, but impractical. We need a better way.

Here are a few LINKS to actual articles dealing with the topic of the nanotube ribbons, since some actual information may shed some light on why this is an amazing discover, rather than mere speculation and heresay.

From Physics.org

and also this one, with pictures.

From MSN news.

And by the by, hello! (First Post).

--
Necessity is the plea for every Infringement of Human Freedoms - William Pitt

It occurs to me that a few people might need to know some of the following information, from the Liftport Group...

Liftport Space Elevator FAQ

They address the idea that weight would pull the ribbon down. Imagine if you would having a small weight attached to the end of a string and then spinning it around with your hand. The string stays taut because of the angular momentum.

I'd also like to muse out loud, why is nobody thinking of making the lifting mechanisms out of the same material and thus reducing the weight of the lifting mechanisms and increasing the overall payload of the project?

On top of that, the material offers so many varied uses in so many various fields, that I am amazed that most people are not considering the practical applications (And often there are multiple applications in any given field).

reply to post by TheCrystalSword


One of the problems that one encounters with the Space Elevator Concept is Harmonics.

You have a tower that long, and you are going to get vibration, harmonic amplification, and eventually stress fractures and complete collapse.

Another problem, is Potential Difference.

The Earth is Massively positively charged, the Ionosphere is massively negatively charged.

The ionosphere is constantly charged from the solar wind, and that would be like a CONSTANT lightning bolt, unless the conductive properties of the CNT's were somehow eliminated.

MY favorite application of nanotube technology is guided quantum entanglement of Noble gas ions in a matrix of carbon.

IT produces data transmit speeds of "Quantum Entanglement speed" which is nearly infinite.

Conservative estimates would put a first generation Quantum Nanocomputer at 1 * 10^15 Floating point operations per second (1 Exaflop)

Just an FYI, your desktop clunks around at a sluggish 1 * 10^9 Flops. (GigaFlop)

www.azonano.com...

homepage.mac.com...

Another interesting property of nanotubes is their conductive properties.

Across the tube, the risistance approaches infinity, along the length of the tube the resistance is quite low.

So, by placeing 2 tubes in a "T" configuration, the conduction of the cross tube can be controlled by applying a voltage to the "Base" tube.

This is the classic configuration of the PNP Transistor, only on a scale much smaller, with lower trigger voltages, and superior trigger timing than typical Doped silicon Semiconducting Transistors.

So, even without the Quantum bits, nanotubes look to completely revolutionize the Computer industry, and leave Moores law in the proverbial Dust.

www.scienceagogo.com...

-Edrick