Highlighting the opening ceremony at the Sheraton Waikiki was a lecture by Sumio Iijima, a distinguished Japanese scientist known for his discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991.
A nanotube is a tube-shaped material of carbon with a diameter measuring about one-billionth of a meter, or one ten-thousandth of the thickness of human hair.
Wonder if Greg or Spindler are in town or maybe even TurboJets… though he probably hasn’t qualified to get a travel budget yet…
Wonder if any of the 11,000 are working on a replacement for Epoxy and EPS…
Mybe the waikiki beachboys should start gripping about the whole surfboard mess while giving lessons all this week to the tourists and their families that’s a way to put a bug into someone’s ear… Jus kidding…
Interesting that carbon nano tubes is the keynote… must be important stuff
There was an article on MSNBC within the past couple of weeks about growing concern with regard to the potential health risks presesnted by these structures. They apparently are small enough to be able to pass through cell walls, and one specific concern mentioned was that they could possibly accumulate in the brain. As I recall, the focus of the article was a call for studies to examine the potential health issues (apparently very little is presently known about their effects in the human body even though–as mentioned in the article–they are already being introduced into some consumer products such as tooth paste).
I’m sure some of the Professeurs at Stony Brook were there. Theres alot of nanotechnology research going on over at that school…a few companies started by researchers are forming at the high technology incubator. So far what I’m doing isn’t directly related to nanotubes, but migth be one day. Theres a bunch of research being done now with microsensors. Sensors that could monitior your health internally by being impanted and then have nanotubes filled with medicine transport medicine to the body. It’s crazy to think about the potentials both positive and negative in nanotech…
Those with extra cash can get started with nanotubes right now. Think about using nanotubes as a reinforcement — just like glass or carbon fiber, you will need a matrix like epoxy. In a few years or so, we will be able to get nanotubes woven into a cloth, and maybe even compounded with polystyrene and blown into foam that is almost weightless. Or a foam that doesn’t even need a reinforcement — just shape it and go.
For now, I think the easiest experiment would be to use nanotubes to fortify epoxy. I think a little would go a long way.
Prices are coming down all the time, and I think you could use the multi-wall nanotubes, which are quite a bit cheaper.
How much would you need to add to epoxy to get any benefits?
Sounds very hazardous as well since it’s so fine… could get nto the lungs very easily…
And since it conducts electricity and it also a thermal conductor isn’t it like outfitting your board with an epoxy metal suit?
A highly theoretical advanced application maybe to somehow retrieved energy via the eletrical conductivity of seawater and energizing some type of core structure the CNT/epoxied is re-enforcing. There are some materials that will either become stiffer or pliable depending on you pass a current through it. Seems like the water movement across a plane of electrostatic CNC encapsulated in an epoxy coating could be used to “energize” such materials dyanmically changing the flex patterns of the device electrically versus via force/counter force as is to day…
Again all theoretical and way beyond anything even a “Z” would think of doing…
You know “Z” the guy one step ahead of “Y”… and “G”…
$1,750 per KG or Ton-$220,000 for the industrial grade CNTs. At the ton price, it starts to become affordable. Who wants to go in on a ton of nanotubes with me?
Since carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel, I don’t think very much would need to be added to epoxy to make a noticeable difference.
One small prob. The nanotubes are black — too much added would give you a black board.
By the way, there’s lots of other nano-particles to explore besides the carbon variety — some that anyone can afford.
How about using that Japanese concrete reinforcing technique of a random oriented fiber expanded fiber matrix. I talked with Greg about this years ago. For concrete it makes the lightest strongest concrete ever. For foam it would be hard to hotwire. But CNC is taking us past that. Nano tubes in an expanded fiber matrix: Imagine a blank so light and strong that it’s not unlike air, but not needing a super strong skin. Thermoform a light thin urethane skin over the outside and bingo done. Sheet urethanes are exceedingly strong and felxible. One mil is all that may be necessary.
My “real” job (i.e. what pays the majority of bills, which shaping doesn’t yet) is doing research on the interactions between cells and nanoparticles. I work at UCSB and am funded by the EPA. I work with bacteria, while one of my collaborators is looking at eukaryotic cells. I use cadmium selenide (CdSe) Quantum Dots. While these particles are supposed to be stable and “safe” (thats what manufacturers will tell you), what we have found is that they do indeed enter cells. This can’t happen by diffusion (at least for the particles I look at) because of their size, but there are other means for this to occur. Also, the particles have an obvious toxic effect, which isn’t suprising considering what they are composed of.
Perhaps the most interesting result coming from my research is that the strain of bacteria we are using seem to manufacture selenium nanoparticles, and CdSe Quantum Dots, depending on the growth conditions. It is feasible that other nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes, can be made in a similar fashion. It may turn out that bacteria can be exploited in reactors to very efficiently make these structures. Strains have already been isolated that can manufacture resins (I forgot the composition), but the process of isolating the polymers from cellular material is not yet cost-effective.
Apparently you can weave electronics as the carbon fiber nanotubes allow electronics builds . . . your surfboard will have a built in LCD so you can count how many times someone’s dropped in, shows your speed in km/hr, temp of the water, bacteria content, and age of your wax hehe