Carbon Nanotubes are so light that they float in airpic.twitter.com/AlHWeap8cm
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Here's what makes Carbon Nanotubes so impressive:
Carbon Nanotubes have a "tensile strength" σ of about 60 Giga-Pascals
That's 60,000 Newtons per square 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟
For reference, an
weighs about 20,000 Newtonspic.twitter.com/oJJji9CozA
5 replies 8 retweets 54 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @InertialObservr
Just to avoid misunderstandings: if you hang an elephant by a carbon nanotube, the nanotube will snap immediately. Actually it will snap also if you pull gently with your fingers
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Replying to @j_bertolotti
Indeed, but that's because most nanotubes have a cross sectional area of about 1nm^2, which significantly reduces the amount that it can hold. Okay, so just wrap them together? Well that apparently reduces the tensile strength by half with the addition of each thread, I think.
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Replying to @InertialObservr
Why wrapping them reduce the tensile strength?
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Replying to @j_bertolotti
I think it's because it messes up the "perfect" alignment of the 2D graphene, which is the source of its original strength (cont..)
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Replying to @InertialObservr @j_bertolotti
"To find out why, Feng Ding of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his colleagues simulated CNTs with a single atom out of place, turning two of the hexagons into a pentagon and heptagon, and creating a kink in the tube. They found this simple change was enough to cut the.."
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".. ideal strength of a CNT to 40 GPa, with the effect being even more severe when they increased the number of misaligned atoms." cite:https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotubes-too-weak-to-get-a-space-elevator-off-the-ground/ …
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