Weird Science: Mixing Carbon NanoTubes With Plastic

[The Straight Story]

Weird Science: Mixing Carbon NanoTubes With Plastic

(ChattahBox)—A team of researchers from the University of Houston has been busy in their laboratories mixing carbon nanotubes, which are approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair, with polycarbonates to create a new kind of plastic that has ultra-high electrical conductive properties.

The new plastics could be used in the next generation of sophisticated electronic components in Air Force fighters, iPhones and computers.

Lead researcher, Professor Shay Curran has devoted the last ten years of his professional career to improving the conductivity of plastics. Polycarbonates have excellent mechanical and optical properties, but have a very low conductivity rate, making them impractical for use in electronic components.

That’s all about to change with the success of Curran’s recent research. Curran devised a method and an exact formula for mixing carbon nanotubes with polycarbonate plastic to create a new material named, nanocomposites.

The resulting nanocomposites have the amazing tensile strength and elasticity of carbon nanotubes, as well as a super charged level of conductive properties.

“By being able to tailor the amount of nanotubes we can add to the composite, we also can change it from the conductivity of silicon to a few orders below that achieved by metals,” said Curran.

Besides having a high conduction rate, the nanocomposite is inexpensive to produce and has the potential for uses in all sorts of electronic components.

http://chattahbox.com/science/2009/05/17/weird-science-mixing-carbon-nanotubes-with-plastic/

[Salviati]

1. Cool.. now here'sa neat part of the brief article:

"Curran plans to develop the nanocomposites into an ink formulation that can be sprayed onto various electrical components, providing lightweight properties that are ideal for Air Force jets."


That would give a new meaning to "printed circuit board" Imagine being able to print out a circuit from your home inkjet...

[ContinentalOp]

3. Yep, we're quickly on the way to self-replicating machines.

Do you know about the RepRap? It's an open source rapid prototyping machine that's designed to be able to build all of its own parts. Essentially a self-replicating machine. Printing it's own circuit boards is the next step and ultimately electric components themselves could potentially be replicated.

You think the internet created a media revolution that killed the record industry, soon the newspaper industry, and eventually the movie industry? Wait until you can "share" physical objects in the same way!

[Mist]

2. Can recycled plastics be used for this purpose? nt

[scubadude]

4. Yeah, I rember hearing Carbon Nanotubes are highly carcinogenic.

Sort of like asbestos on super steroids.

I also keep hearing about them popping up in all sorts of weird applications. I wonder if the cart is getting ahead of the horse on this one?

Scuba