Carbon Nanotube Paper

General Discussion
1

I came across an article which may be relevent for building extremely strong but lightweight surfboards, both economically and practically.

Please see original posting http://www.physorg.com/news67173952.html

Researchers have developed carbon nanotube paper which can be mass produced with low material costs - suitable for mainstream use. In fact, tennis raquets are now being sold incorporating this technology.

Thanks.

2

Seems interesting, but there is a serious lack of hard information in that article. Got any other references?

-Samiam

3

It might be difficult to process a paper like composite into a surfboard design, it would have to be elastic to fit around contours. It would also have to be pretty cheap and you have to be weary about specifically what type of strength it adds. It may add to the tensile strength but nothing else. It might do very little overall. Theres alot of speculation going on with nanotechnology and even less real results. The tennis manufacture might be using it as a marketing gimmic. I have been talking to a specific CNT functializing company and one of the questions they asked me was if I was using this for marketing or if I wanted to the CNT to actually do something…are you kidding me?! Theres potential, but you might not see big results until carbon nanofibers are manufactured at decent length and can provide an economical solution, which is still far off…

4

Interesting stuff. I am actually about to leave for a conference in FL to present a poster on both the production of nanoparticles by bacteria, and the toxicity of CdSe nanoparticles. Researching the interactions of nanoparticles with bacteria is what my “real” job is.