Spinning nanotube fibers at Rice University 

Has Rice University attempted to spin graphene either alone, or mixed with the carbon nanotube fibers? If perfected and coated, could be used for electrical motor windings, which could drastically reduce electrical motor/generator weight, while also improving the motor/generator performance characteristics. Something important to investigate further.

For those who think most inventions are already accomplished, it is time to wake up and realize the window is opening ever wider.

forget the space elevator, i want the suit from crysis! :)

The nanotubes in the fibers are heavily bundled together so it is unlikely that breaking the fibers will cause nanotubes to become airborne. Of course, this will need to be tested thoroughly before putting nanotube fibers out in the market, but the arrangement and packing of the nanotubes in the fibers makes it a very different material from asbestos.

Yes and no; Some arrangements are metallic in conductivity, and some are semiconducting. Unless there is a way to control which type is dominant, your milage will vary considerably from nanotube to nanotube, and batch to batch.

As soon as the acid-nanotube mixture comes out of those holes, the acid is rapidly diluted by the surrounding water, leaving behind only the nanotubes themselves. The nanotube fibers are then twisted onto the spool and dried, not necessarily in that order (I have no expertise in this field) and voila, you have (probably almost completely pure) nanotube thread.

wasn't it supposed to be like 100 times stronger than steel? That would mean that 1 string like that could hold like 20kg atleast. not 50 grams

No problem, I love spreading knowledge through the internet. I can't wait until nanotube textiles are commonplace, I can think of so many applications for them.

It is more than strong and heat-resistant enough for that. You'd probably need several strands, but the future is looming closer every day indeed!

Those fibers are something else!

can anyone give a link to an article? I'd like to see method and strength tests with results

very impressive work, thanks for posting this video. Space Elevator at 1G is a major obstacle, but perhaps a martian elevator between the surface and Phobos/Deimos. The space tether appears a far more appealing a technology at this point

How about combination of Carbon Nanotube and Poly-Acrylonitrile to produce a cheaper carbon fibre?

I wonder what the street value of that spool would be.

Please, please, we need some commercial clothing/textile companies to manufacture carbon nanotube fiber fabric and clothing on a larger scale (or any scale at all). I've waited way too long to be able to wear carbon nanotubes already and have been watching the advancements the past 5 years like a hawk, and now finally we can mass produce the fiber, but it's not revolutionizing daily life like it should (not just for semi-cosmetic uses like clothing, of course, that's just a personal wish). It has so many qualities and uses for daily life that could completely change just about everything we make, do, wear, use... I feel like I've never been so distressed about something in my life. Are people just not aware that carbon nanotubes exist at all? I feel like aside from it's amazing uses in science and technology advancement, space engineering uses, etc, that it is probably the most beautiful substance to exist. That blacker than black look, it is literally the perfect standard for a material. And I can say beyond any sort of doubt, if you sold bolts of the fabric for use as a textile, you could probably fund any sort of uses for scientific purposes you could think of. I think especially high fashion would have a very particular interest in it's qualities. And those people sell single items for millions of dollars. I still find it strange that even carbon fiber is hard to find like this, such an untapped field.

It doesn't seem to be exhibiting particular strength or conductivity, probably the molecular bonds between tubes are just average carbon bonds...

Run a current through the spool! OMG I was waiting for that the whole video! If it is a better conductor than gold, lighter and thinner, and your spooling it ! It is going to make awesome electromagnets! Revolutionize the size and power of motors.

Thank you very much for informing me on this, its been a real pain trying to understand their process :D

The wire does not look that strong from the video. What is the ultimate strength in tension you achieved?

Wow! Great work!

this is going to revolutionize everything bub

What I want is a sample of that thread to do my own testing. That would seriously make me giggle like a little girl.

Have you done a tensile strength test on the nanotube fiber?

Nanotubes are expensive. $2/gram when you order more than 100kg. or $35/gram sample size. Do the math for 100kg....$$$$$.... What acid did you dissolve the CNT's in? And is that the "mayonnaise" viscous material or is that a resin your extruding with CNT"s dispersed in that. I'm trying to make a fiber from raw SWCNT's and trying to decide what resin to use and what spinneret and how thick to make them.

I wonder how strong of electromagnet that could make

One step closer to the Iron Man suit, could be used as a secondary layer under the armor, to absorb impact and protect the wearer from shock, multiple layers could be used to maximise effectiveness. Now we just need propulsion, and that's already in the works and that damn power source large enough to operate the suit (biggest problem). Tractor beams are in the works, reversing the effect shouldn't be too difficult, as light natively pushes things away.

please use this as cable for Tesla tower I just want to know how much frequency can handle with that tower

What is the strength level of this fiber per thickness? 1/16" , 1/8" etc.?

Well? Where is the nanotube fiber shirt? Fishing line? Anything?

So if it can be dissolved in a solution, does this mean it is recyclable? And if so, does it loose any strength? Because this is the big problem with materials like carbon fiber.

Hard numbers and everything should be in the paper, which is 20 bucks for non-members. Still, the report says it has 10 times the tensile strength of steel. Which steel? What does the stress vs strain graph showed up? You weren't expecting to find that in a youtube video, were you?

it's applications are so wide, ambitious and has the power to change entire industries and even the world as we know it, it's kinda scary

I've read a single armchair SWNT has incredible theorical values in a tensile stress test. But now a real test is impossible. Is it possible to know how strong is this cable? P.S. Complimenti al Dott. Pasquali!!!!

Has any one tried to use the fiber in 3d printing? It would be interesting to know if the media can be bonded to parallel fibers. Or can the extrusion process its self be adapted to the print head on the printer?

I had a question for a potential product i am designing, my question is can nanotubes be scaled up to hold a 1000psi pressurized gas? i don't need it on the nanoscale, more so the width of a pin.

Hi, I am manufacturing a product that could use this material, but I am needing something much finer, nearly invisible, is this possible with this material? I would be happy to send you a sample of my product if you guys can try it out and see how it works, I currently am using nylon, but maybe this is much better?

nice video, and i want to know one thing. are they sticky in nature?

Granny's nano-trend she'll need a new pair of glasses for that one

One step closer to the space elevator, nice work.

Does anyone know how i can get ahold of a few spools? This stuff could revolutionize ballistic protection.

Ok, so they use Chlorosulfonic acid to make this liquid to make strings of nanotubes. They show the nanotubes which I presume are still mixed with the acid going through water to make a string. But Chlorosulfonic acid is reactive with water. Is this also still pure nanotubes?

so how far are we from inventing space elevator? and concerning environment, is it biodegradable?

nanotubes are extremely more conductive than copper. look it up. it is extremely conductive based upon how you arrange the atoms

i think they know how to control it but im not sure. what I read said they could decide what characteristics are shown. but I don't know how effectively they can control the characteristics.

My automobile muffler is held up by regular nylon rope, but the super high temperatures of the muffler keep burning the rope, Would the nanotube yarn be strong enough to hold up my muffler and would it withstand the temperatures? If so, this stuff has a future.

while they where doing this biologists where actually messing with spider silk proteins and by doing so already had developed a far more sustainable and scale-able process in which to grow the fibers in a single continuous strand and spin them together into a cable all during the same process.

Carbon nanotube clothes. Taser proof!! I smell a marketing opportunity.

Great work

What’s the conductivity vs copper ? How does it handle heat ? Could this replace copper?

Can we make a coil out of nanotubes and test it with electricity. will this had electro magnetic field ?

I keep hearing how strong carbon nanotube fibers are but im yet to actually see a strand of it do something incredible like a single hair sized strand tied to two cars driving in opposite directions

What is said at 2.40 makes no sense to me! "Scaling up production using a wet spinning process could easily be done" How? Running a 19 fibre spinner 24x7? ok that might be a 100 fold increase (100 reels per day?) from one machine but what I see is an expensive product (the prepared graphene in blah blah acid) running through a super-expensive machine...kilos of yarn per day, not tonnes of panel or fabric. I suppose the dream is the fibre gets incorporated into a superlight but weak material and we end up with the superlight but strong materials of the future...what will comprise the bulk in this new world or will we just get used to flimsy in appearance but tough as nails

can you produce cable to make space elevator

I was looking for the experiment done at Wheat University... Why did I even end up here?

Are you planning to design cnt based electric motor.

I'm sorry to ask but what can a space elevator involve with nano tubes?

Well the carbon tubes at the nano level have a cloud of electrons around and the electrons are what the electricity runs through.

this will be much stronger and efficient than steel

Do you have enough final product to test bulk thermal conductivity as a woven material?

Hmm this was posted 8 years ago... I wonder where it's at now. If it's being used for anything practical or still be improved upon.

i expect at least to find information on this somewhere.

Forgot to ask: If it is used for clothing, how likely is it that i get electrocuted when working with eg computer parts ? Never liked silk, kevelar do not breeth, this is a new alternative for my privates ;D

Could this be used to make lightweight coils for electromagnetic motors and generators?

The safer alternative to asbestos e.g. fireproofing? Could this stuff make buildings rodent-proof?

Have also sold it now.

I just have a few questions, i don't know the physical properties of carbon nano tubes per-say but I do know them to be a lot stronger than what is shown here...in fact, famous physicist Machio Kaku offered up a comparison of just how strong nano tubes are by using this example; If you were to place a single layer of carbon nano tubes out into a sheet and then place a pencil point fist into the nano tubes, then place an elephant on the pencil it still wouldn't break. Now that seems thousands of times more impressive than them demonstrating thread holding up a light bulb and a steel spool. Am i missing something here physics wise? I heard we were at least 10 years away from finding ways of mass producing carbon nano tubes....in fact Machio Kaku said we are only able to make about 3 inch long section and that's it. When did we find ways of producing these tubes at such a high rate? Are these not complete nano tubes?

Very good!

This is where we were in creating carbon nanotube fibers just one year ago. Actually this video was published 365 days ago, and it would be interesting to see where it goes in 2014 and beyond.

It is revolution in elektrotechnik!!!

Could this be used for localised treatment of illnesses? You know, because its a nanotube...

I doubt it, having better strength is not required for electric motors, and the conductivity of carbon nanotubes is doubtless lower than that of similar-size copper wire. The emerging tech that will make motors super-efficient is high-temperature (hopefully room-temperature at some point in the future) superconductors.

is it actually carbon fibers, instead of CNTs?

I wonder how well it does with abrasion

INCREDIBLE

Multi-wall or single wall?

So how long are the individual nanotubes that make up the thread?

It would be cool if we could make a self assembling version rather than using a "heat, beat & treat" method

Do you even know what a Pascal is? It's a unit of force per AREA a single nanotube has a strength of about 50GPa, G meaning giga (10^9) so for a bundle of nano tubes to hold up 50Kg of weight it would need to have a cross-section of 0.001 mm^2 rather than the 1 nanometer^2(10^-9 m) cross-section of a single tube. In other words you are wrong by a factor of 100000.

This is in my home city! Houston has claim to fame yet!

arnt they toxic to be putting into clothing ?

Most people don't want to connect the moon with a wire. The idea is to get a station into geosynchronous orbit. Attaching the moon IS a crazy idea, but thats not what is being proposed.

When can I get a shirt of this thread, and what would it cost, And theoretically, what would it weigh?

Is someone else thinking about the Crysis Smart Nanosuit Armour? Dear Santa!

Is this made out of Graphene?

Make a Space Elevator, now!

heated clothing ?

I wonder if the fiber on the spool can hold a shark on a fishing rod :P

how do i make them?

Has anything been made with this yet?

can you stitch your suits with it? can't wait to know the answer so I can start making my spider man replica suit

Where can you buy the fiber?

You are right, they have the right idea of how to bundle them but they have barely tapped about 1/100000 of its true potential (that the public knows off...).

How much/long did it cost to make?

I demand they be made into guitar strings.

Amazing

I don't believe them. 2:04 still using Windows XP? What kind of nano tubes did they create with that? :-)

Anyone know where i can i buy a yarn of carbon nanotube.

someone needs to make a rope with this stuff and see just how strong it is! these things are like a wonder invention, or discovery.

Probati prenos elektricne energije jednim provodnikom sa nanokarbonatnom tankom niti!

It seems that since the carbon is being extruded it must be forming nano-cylinders not tubes. I will have to go away and read more to understand what is going on.