For excellent movies about Carbon nanotubes, see Dr. David Tománek's CSC Site at http://www.pa.msu.edu/cmp/csc/simindex.html
For additional images, see Richard Smalley's Image Gallery at http://cnst.rice.edu/pics.html
All graphics original by Thomas Adams unless otherwise credited
carbon nanotube: a molecule made from carbon atoms connected into a tube and sealed at both ends by a structure that is like half of a buckyball. The tubes may be as long as a few millimeters. Also called "buckeytubes."
chirality: the "twist" of a nanotube, measured by the length of two vectors. Each vector passes perpendicularly through the hexagons that make up a nanotube, in two different directions from a single point. If the path of these hexagons does not go around the nanotube, but can be followed straight along the length of a tube, the chirality is (10,10). The chirality is important for determining whether the nanotube is metallic or semiconducting.
current density: amount of electrical current per cross-sectional area of wire.
metallic: a substance that has, among other things, a good ability to conduct electricity. Contrast semiconducting.
nano: any device measured in the scale of nanometers.
semiconducting: conducts electricity when a certain energy level is reached.
superconducting: conducts electricity without resistance and is impenetrable by a magnetic field.
Visit the CEM181H Glossary Archive
|Jump To Title Page|