Carbon Nanotube Cables Step Up Performance

摘要

Researchers from Rice Univ. have produced carbon nanotubes that can carry as much electrical current as copper wires - making them serious contenders to replace such wires in applications ranging from power transmission to lightweight wiring for fuel-efficient vehicles and airplanes. Led by mechanical engineering and materials science professors Pulickel Ajayan and Enrique Barrera, the team created strands of double-walled carbon nanotubes using a solution-based process previously developed at Rice, and doped the nanotubes with iodine to boost conductivity.