Carbon Nano Tubes
Carbon Nano Tubes
Carbon nanotubes are tiny tubes of carbon atoms. When properly formed and lined up, they can be superb conductors or semiconductors, have high thermal conductivity and huge mechanical strength. The versatile structures are touted as being invaluable for many future innovations and everyday applications. They are created by rolling sheets of graphite into cylinders which form super strong strands. Carbon nano tubes are already used in the production of composite coatings for car bumpers which hold their shape in a crash. An ambitious proposed use for nano tubes has been in the construction of a space elevator, a cable with one end attached to a space station in high orbit, and the other moored to the surface of the earth. The cable would be used as an elevator to move men and materials up and down through the earth's gravitational field and into space without the need for conventional rockets.