The Nanotube
Introduction:
Nanotubes, specifically the carbon nanotubes are just one of the handful of structures engineers and scientist use today that fall in the nanoscale category. Structures in the nanoscale category are usually between 1-100 nanometers, which one nanometer is one-billionth the size of a meter. A confusing yet beneficial property found in materials at the nanoscale is a concept call quantum called quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics the laws of classic or Newtonian physics are often defied, this is beneficial because it broadens the applications that a material can be used for.
Roger Bacon created the first depiction of carbon nanotubes back in 1959, but the significant nanoparticle discovery of carbon nanotubes was not until the year 1991. Sumio Iijima, researcher at NEC’s Fundamental Research Lab, was the one who made the discovery and named them. He was able to take photographs and was the first to truly understand and explain what nanotubes actually are.
Iijima discovery came when he placed samples of carbon containing Bucky balls in an electron microscope, but while taking photographs he notices strange thin cylinder like structures. Where Bucky balls have a spherical shape, nanotubes are …show more content…
First all you need is a smooth surface with a thin layer of catalyst, which is a chemical that initiates the production of the nanotubes. Then a mix of gasses is needed filled with carbon atoms leads to a special furnace. When you place the smooth surface and catalyst into the furnace it heats up the carbon gas at around 1500° F. The heated carbon atoms that make contact with the catalyst surface are what make the carbon nanotubes. After a few hours of baking the surface is full of a thick black carbon nanotube, this black material we see is called a nanotube forest and it contains hundreds of billions of nanotubes in about a one-inch
Introduction:
Nanotubes, specifically the carbon nanotubes are just one of the handful of structures engineers and scientist use today that fall in the nanoscale category. Structures in the nanoscale category are usually between 1-100 nanometers, which one nanometer is one-billionth the size of a meter. A confusing yet beneficial property found in materials at the nanoscale is a concept call quantum called quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics the laws of classic or Newtonian physics are often defied, this is beneficial because it broadens the applications that a material can be used for.
Roger Bacon created the first depiction of carbon nanotubes back in 1959, but the significant nanoparticle discovery of carbon nanotubes was not until the year 1991. Sumio Iijima, researcher at NEC’s Fundamental Research Lab, was the one who made the discovery and named them. He was able to take photographs and was the first to truly understand and explain what nanotubes actually are.
Iijima discovery came when he placed samples of carbon containing Bucky balls in an electron microscope, but while taking photographs he notices strange thin cylinder like structures. Where Bucky balls have a spherical shape, nanotubes are …show more content…
First all you need is a smooth surface with a thin layer of catalyst, which is a chemical that initiates the production of the nanotubes. Then a mix of gasses is needed filled with carbon atoms leads to a special furnace. When you place the smooth surface and catalyst into the furnace it heats up the carbon gas at around 1500° F. The heated carbon atoms that make contact with the catalyst surface are what make the carbon nanotubes. After a few hours of baking the surface is full of a thick black carbon nanotube, this black material we see is called a nanotube forest and it contains hundreds of billions of nanotubes in about a one-inch