Carbon nanotube
Nanotubo de carbono
- Date
- 1991 · confidence high
- Place
- NEC, Tsukuba, Japan
- Credited to
- Sumio Iijima (NEC); single-walled nanotubes in 1993
- People
- 👤 Sumio Iijima1939–
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Cylinders of carbon atoms one nanometre in diameter with exceptional strength and conductivity. They are the benchmark material of nanotechnology.
Radushkevich and Lukyanovich (USSR, 1952) and others observed carbon filaments earlier; Iijima identified and characterised them. Merged with "Nanotubos de carbono" (duplicate, 23-09-2026).
What it led to
- Nanotube electronics and transistors beyond silicon
- Ultralight composite materials and improved batteries
- The (still speculative) vision of the space elevator
- materials nanotechnology
- ultra-strong composites
- nanotube electronics
- graphene
Built on
- Electron microscope1931–1933
- Buckminsterfullerene (C60)1985
- Endo and Oberlin's carbon fibres (1976)
Made possible
- Graphene2004
- nanotube transistors
- reinforced composites
- chemical sensors
- reinforced composite materials