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Rice University's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology calls itself the "world's premier nanotube research program."
With Nobel laureate Robert Curl in house, along with Richard Smalley's Carbon Nanotechnology Lab and more than 80 researchers working on nanotubes, it's a strong claim.
The Center's latest accomplishment is a little stranger: a group of undergrad and graduate students have built what they claim is "the world's largest nanotube model."
Nanotubes, specifically single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are only one carbon atom thick and look "like a roll of chicken wire."
SWNTs "weigh one-sixth as much as steel, but are about 100 times stronger" according to the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, and "are among the world's best electrical conductors," moving electricity significantly better than copper, while weighing considerably less.
SWNTs could change impact a wide range of fields, from energy storage to spacecraft construction.
The nanotube model being built by students at Rice University's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology is 1,181 feet long, and will be certified by Guinness as the "world's largest nanotube model."
According to the CNST, the model "depicted an "armchair" SWNT that measures slightly less than one nanometer, or one billionth of a meter, in diameter and a little more than one micron, or millionth of a meter in length. "Armchair" nanotubes are pure metals that conduct electricity at least as well as copper."
[rank=www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1790203,00.asp]Source[/rank]
With Nobel laureate Robert Curl in house, along with Richard Smalley's Carbon Nanotechnology Lab and more than 80 researchers working on nanotubes, it's a strong claim.
The Center's latest accomplishment is a little stranger: a group of undergrad and graduate students have built what they claim is "the world's largest nanotube model."
Nanotubes, specifically single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are only one carbon atom thick and look "like a roll of chicken wire."
SWNTs "weigh one-sixth as much as steel, but are about 100 times stronger" according to the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, and "are among the world's best electrical conductors," moving electricity significantly better than copper, while weighing considerably less.
SWNTs could change impact a wide range of fields, from energy storage to spacecraft construction.
The nanotube model being built by students at Rice University's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology is 1,181 feet long, and will be certified by Guinness as the "world's largest nanotube model."
According to the CNST, the model "depicted an "armchair" SWNT that measures slightly less than one nanometer, or one billionth of a meter, in diameter and a little more than one micron, or millionth of a meter in length. "Armchair" nanotubes are pure metals that conduct electricity at least as well as copper."
[rank=www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1790203,00.asp]Source[/rank]