20 October 2008
Buckypaper - The paper stronger than steelÂ
Buckypaper is paper that looks like a carbon paper that is made out of tube shaped carbon molecules that are 50000 times thinner than human hair. Its a nanotechnology paper that is 500 times stronger than steel and 10 times lighter. Does this mean that we could soon see vehicles, electronic gadgets and houses being constructed out of this? The material's strength comes when it's stacked and pressed together to form a composite, giving it the ability to conduct electricity like copper and disperse heat like steel.
Scientists at Florida State University (FSU) said they had made significant progress, which could soon turn buckypaper from a lab marvel to a large-scale commercial material for everything from aerospace vehicles to super capacitors and batteries. That's because they have found ways to tackle the two major challenges that prevented the material from achieving its strength. One challenge is getting the carbon tubes to stick together without forming odd angles, and the other is to make the tubes less smooth so that they can stick together better.
FSU researchers overcame the first by using strong magnetism to line up the carbon tubes in the same direction. And they plan to improve bonding by creating surface defects on the tubes. So far, FSU scientists have been able to create buckypaper that is half the strength of the best existing composite material, IM7, and expect to have it as strong and even 35 percent lighter as IM7 by the end of next year