Carbon Nanotube
- Formal
-
Carbon nanotubes are tubes made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. Carbon nanotubes often refer to single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with diameters in the range of a nanometer.
- Practical
-
Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, significantly larger than for any other material. These cylindrical carbon molecules have unusual properties, which are valuable for nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science and technology. In particular, owing to their extraordinary thermal conductivity and mechanical and electrical properties, carbon nanotubes find applications as additives to various structural materials. For instance, nanotubes form a tiny portion of the materials in some (primarily carbon fiber) baseball bats, golf clubs, car parts or damascus steel.