wiredinUSA October 2011

INDEX

Nanotube cables - as good as copper?

Developers have made carbon nanotube electrical cables, claimed to carry as much current as copper wires. Nanotube cables could help carry more power in the electrical grid, provide lightweight wiring for fuel efficient vehicles, and make connections in low-power computer chips. Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated carbon nanotube cables in a practical system and are designing a manufacturing line for commercial production.

Individual carbon nanotubes (hollow nanoscale tubes of pure carbon) are mechanically strong and more conductive than copper, but are demanding in construction. Large structures made from carbon nanotubes demand precision construction, or they lack the properties of the individual tubes. Rice materials science professors Pulickel Ajayan and Enrique Barrera have developed construction techniques to ensure carbon nanotube cables will perform as well as copper cables. Their nano cables boast a combination of properties, claimed to be unprecedented. Mechanically strong, yet flexible enough to be knotted or woven together into long lengths of wire, the cables carry around 100,000 amps of current per square centimeter of material, about the same amount as copper wires (but copper weighs around six times as much). They outperform copper on current density, which means they carry more electricity over longer distances without losing energy to heat, and, being made of carbon, there is no danger of corrosion.

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wiredInUSA - October 2011

wiredInUSA - October 2011

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