Buckypaper
Summary
Buckypaper is a thin, flexible sheet that looks like carbon paper. It is made of tube-shaped carbon molecules that are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, but which have the potential to be 500 times stronger than steel. Scientists have been working with the properties of buckypaper for the last twenty years, but the technology has only recently evolved which will enable them to use buckypaper’s unique properties in commercial production, to revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to televisions are made. At the moment, buckypaper can only be made at a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities, and at a prohibitive price.
Scientists at Florida State University believe that the new manufacturing techniques they are in the midst of developing will allow them to make it in larger quantities, at prices comparable to what is on the market today. As for its uses, they are many and varied. For example, since buckypaper conducts electricity very effectively, it will provide very effective lightning-strike protection for aircraft flying through thunderstorms.
Keywords: buckyball, carbon nanotubes, Fullerene, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley, graphite, diamond, amorphous carbon, buckminsterfullerene, C60
