Long, thin cylinders of carbon, discovered in 1991 by S. Iijima. These large macromolecules are unique for their size, shape, and remarkable physical properties. They can be thought of as a sheet of graphite (a hexagonal lattice of carbon) rolled into a cylinder. The physical properties are still being discovered. Nanotubes have a very broad range of electronic, thermal, and structural properties that change depending on the different kinds of nanotube (defined by its diameter, length, and chirality, or twist). To make things more interesting, besides having a single cylindrical wall (Single Walled Nanotubes or SWNTs), nanotubes can have multiple walls (MWNTs)--cylinders inside the other cylinders. Sometimes referred to simply as nanotubes.
(CNTs) come in single walled, (SWNTs) double walled (DWNTs), and multi walled (MWNTs) varieties. CNTs can best be described as a graphene sheet rolled into a one dimensional structure with axial symmetry. CNTs are one of the primary building blocks which will be critical to the Nanotechnology Revolution. CNTs have many unique and interesting properties, please visit our our applications page as well as our FAQs page to find out more about CNTs.
A form of carbon related to fullerenes, except that the carbon atoms form extended hollow tubes instead of closed, hollow spheres. Carbon nanotubes can also form as a series of nested, concentric tubes. Carbon nanotubes can be used as nanometer-scale syringe needles for injecting molecules into cells and as nanoscale probes for making fine-scale measurements. Carbon nanotubes can be filled and capped, forming nanoscale test tubes or potential drug delivery devices. Carbon nanotubes can also be “doped,†or modified with small amounts of other elements, giving them electrical properties that include fully insulating, semiconducting, and fully conducting.