FEATURE ARTICLE
Fullerene Nanotubes: C1,000,000 and Beyond
Some unusual new molecules—long, hollow fibers with tantalizing electronic and mechanical properties—have joined diamonds and graphite in the carbon family
Boris Yakobson, Richard Smalley
For the past few years materials scientists have been eagerly
exploring the properties of fullerenes—geometric structures
built of carbon atoms. Recently a new fullerene has joined the
buckyball, the striking cage built of 60 atoms. Scientists have
found that the buckyball structure can be extended to form long,
slender tubes—carbon nanotubes—that are single molecules
comprised of rolled graphene sheets capped at each end. Computer
simulations and laboratory experiments show that these tubes have
extraordinary resilience and strength and various unusual
properties; for instance, they can abruptly and reversibly snap from
one shape to another under load, and they can be formed into very
strong ropes. They also exhibit electrical conductivity in a
quantized fashion that has lead to experiments with tiny nanowires
and nanoscale transistors. A number of practical applications are
now being explored, although manufacture of such incredibly small
molecular wires poses enormous challenges.
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