Robust material consisting of nanotubes

2002/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak

At Oklahoma State University (USA) The way of introducing nanotubes into polymer matrices has been discovered. When the manufacture of carbon nanotubes was achieved in 1991, they were expected to replace carbon fibers, much harder and stronger than they were. But nanotubes, when mixed with polymers, were stacked and the material could not be used.

The layers of monoleculae nanotubes with superposed polymeric layers have now been interspersed. For this purpose, alternatively, they have introduced the material into a water with the dispersed nanotubes and a polymer solution, which allows the adhesion of layers of nanotubes or polymers to the surface. To make the material harder, when adding each layer, chemical groups have been glued to the nanotubes.

Finally, half of the material is made up of nanotubes. And as light as carbon fiber, but six times stronger than it, and as tough as the hard ceramic materials used in engineering.