Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
carbon nanotubes
Maxey:
Edward D. Wood Jr. would be proud.
Oh, hai!
raoullefere:
I've often thought Space Elevators to be the absolute maddest idea anyone's ever come up with. Which means that it will probably be the future, and Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [1964] and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator [1972]) is the new Jules Verne. Which means, I suppose, we may all be flying in giant fruit soon, too.
cs30109:
--- Quote from: Surgoshan on 07 Nov 2008, 20:11 ---Except that microscopic particles of asbestos escape from the material it's made of, which is a possibility with a thread of nanofiber.
However, carbon nanotubes are, at the moment, still only being considered for microchip purposes, as I understand it. I don't think anyone's made a nanotube even microns long, let alone long enough to weave into yarn.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, but like the other guy said, the problem is that pieces might break off and be inhaled.
As I understand it, the problem with long nonotubes has been that the catalyst used to grow them seems to get messed up after a while, so the tubes stop growing. I think there was a breakthrough that was published a couple of years ago (in Science, I believe) where somebody found some set of conditions that kept the catalyst functional. They were able to grow tubes a couple of millimeters long. This has now been improved on even further, as somebody else noted.
Presumably, with the right coatings, or by putting the right functional groups on the nanotubes, carcinogenicity could be minimized in the future.
mustang6172:
Well considering they're grown on the backs of space bunnies I doubt length isn't that much of an issue now.
Surgoshan:
--- Quote from: mustang6172 on 08 Nov 2008, 23:22 ---Well considering they're grown on the backs of space bunnies I doubt length isn't that much of an issue now.
--- End quote ---
I don't care who you're talking to, length is always an issue.
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