Many potential applications have been proposed for carbon nanotubes, including conductive and high-strength composites; energy storage and energy conversion devices; sensors; field emission displays and radiation sources; hydrogen storage media; and nanometer-sized semiconductor devices, probes, and interconnects. Some of these applications are now realized in products. Others are demonstrated in early to advanced devices, and one, hydrogen storage, is clouded by controversy. Nanotube cost, polydispersity in nanotube type, and limitations in processing and assembly methods are important barriers for some applications of single-walled nanotubes.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/297/5582/787.full.pdf

Carbon Nanotubes--the Route Toward Applications

https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/cas_sites/physics/pdf/Ren/p85.pdf

Advances in the science and technology of carbon nanotubes and their composites: a review

Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 26504 Rio Patras, Greece, Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vass. Constantinou Avenue, 116 35 Athens, Greece, Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, UPR9021 CNRS, Immunologie et Chimie Therapeutiques, 67084 Strasbourg, France, and Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Universita di Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy

Chemistry of Carbon Nanotubes

Small but strong: A review of the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube–polymer composites

We review the present state of polymer nanocomposites research in which the fillers are single-wall or multiwall carbon nanotubes. By way of background we provide a brief synopsis about carbon nanotube materials and their suspensions. We summarize and critique various nanotube/polymer composite fabrication methods including solution mixing, melt mixing, and in situ polymerization with a particular emphasis on evaluating the dispersion state of the nanotubes. We discuss mechanical, electrical, rheological, thermal, and flammability properties separately and how these physical properties depend on the size, aspect ratio, loading, dispersion state, and alignment of nanotubes within polymer nanocomposites. Finally, we summarize the current challenges to and opportunities for efficiently translating the extraordinary properties of carbon nanotubes to polymer matrices in hopes of facilitating progress in this emerging area.

Polymer Nanocomposites Containing Carbon Nanotubes

A simple method was used to assemble single-walled carbon nanotubes into indefinitely long ribbons and fibers. The processing consists of dispersing the nanotubes in surfactant solutions, recondensing the nanotubes in the flow of a polymer solution to form a nanotube mesh, and then collating this mesh to a nanotube fiber. Flow-induced alignment may lead to a preferential orientation of the nanotubes in the mesh that has the form of a ribbon. Unlike classical carbon fibers, the nanotube fibers can be strongly bent without breaking. Their obtained elastic modulus is 10 times higher than the modulus of high-quality bucky paper.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/290/5495/1331.full.pdf

Macroscopic Fibers and Ribbons of Oriented Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanostructures such as single-walled and multi-walled nanotubes (SWNTs and MWNTs) or graphitic polyhedral nanoparticles can be produced using various methods. Most of them are based on the sublimation of carbon under an inert atmosphere, such as the electric arc discharge process, the laser ablation method, or the solar tech- nique. But chemical methods can also be used to synthesize these kinds of carbon materials: the catalytic decomposi- tion of hydrocarbons, the production by electrolysis, the heat treatment of a polymer, the low temperature solid pyrolysis, or the in situ catalysis.

Production of carbon nanotubes

, BC2N, and C3N4. These studies have been carried out using a total-energy, non-orthogonal, tight-binding parametrisation which is shown to provide results in good agreement both with calculations using higher levels of theory and the available experimental data. Our results predict that of all types of nanotubes considered, carbon nanotubes have the highest Young’s modulus. We have considered tubes of different diameters, ranging from 0.5 to 2 nm, and find that in the limit of large diameters the mechanical properties of nanotubes approach those of the corresponding flat graphene-like sheets.

P. Bernier

Papers

Macroscopic Fibers and Ribbons of Oriented Carbon Nanotubes

Production of carbon nanotubes

Elastic Properties of Single-Wall Nanotubes

Macroscopic Fibers and Ribbons of Oriented Carbon Nanotubes.

Elastic and mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes