Against the background of the recent Polymer Nanocomposites Meeting at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, the 2007 Nanocomposites Conference in Brussels, Belgium, and Nanopolymers 2007 held in Berlin, Germany, the erudite Richard Smalley, University Professor, Rice University spoke on and answered questions from SpecialChem Plastics & Elastomers regarding the emerging trends in carbon nanotube (CNT) nanotechnology.
Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are fullerene-related cylindrically shaped materials made up of carbon having diameters measuring on the nanoscale. Discovered in 1991 by Dr. Sumio Iijima at NEC Corporation, carbon nanotube is a fifth carbon allotrope. The other four basic forms of carbon are 'diamond,' 'graphite,' 'non-crystalline' (i.e. charcoal), and 'fullerene molecules' (such as C60 bucky ball, comprised of 60 carbon molecules clustered in a soccer ball shape) discovered in 1985 by Sir Harold Kroto (Sussex University), Richard Smalley (Rice University), and Robert Curl (Rice University).