By: Matthew Kelso
What is it? Buckypaper is made from carbon nanotubes 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Nobel laureate Dr. Richard Smalley’s group first made buckypaper by filtering a nanotube suspension to prepare samples for various tests. It is ten times lighter and possibly 500 times stronger than steel.
How It’s Made The most common way is to use sodium lauryl sulfate to improve solubility, and filter a suspension under pressure to make the paper. A Frit compression method can also be used without additional substances by compressing a suspension in a syringe. The tubes can be exposed to strong magnetic fields to align them and increase the overall strength.
Applications Computer and television screens Heat sinks Electromagnetic Shielding Filters/Sensors Growing tissue Lightning strike protection Improving composites
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