How might carbon nanotubes improve composite materials?

Carbon nanotubes are expected to improve composite materials by offering superior mechanical properties compared to standard carbon-fibre composites.1

Their potential impact stems from several key characteristics:

• Enhanced Strength and Elasticity: The Young’s modulus of multiwalled carbon nanotubes is estimated to be 5 to 10 times greater than that of traditional carbon fibres. They are capable of absorbing significant loads through reversible elastic deformations, such as buckling or kinking, without damaging the carbon-atom bonds.2
• Defect Resistance: In conventional materials, structural failure often occurs due to the propagation of microscopic defects. Bundles of nanotubes may bypass this issue because defects can anneal along the length of an individual tube and are prevented from propagating across the entire bundle.1
• Weight Efficiency: Theoretical predictions suggest that materials reinforced with perfectly ordered bundles of nanotubes could achieve 50 to 100 times the tensile strength of steel while weighing only one-sixth as much.1

Realizing these benefits in large-scale applications remains a challenge, as it requires the development of new manufacturing processes to produce long, uniform, and perfectly ordered nanotube bundles.1