This report focuses on carbon nanotubes-their technology, production, and applications. There has been enormous interest in the commercialization of nanotubes for both near and distant applications and several of these applications will be successful shortly. Nanotubes, cylinders of carbon atoms with diameters ranging from 1 nm to 300 nm, are some of the strongest, stiffest materials known. Furthermore, these materials are either conductors or semi-conductors, depending on their structure and environment.
Nanotubes have some physical properties that have no counterpart in macroscopic materials.
With advances in synthetic techniques and the ability to characterize materials readily on an atomic scale, interest has been piqued in nanometer-size materials. Macroscopic carbon compounds, such as diamond and graphite, have been known for centuries. These two forms of carbon compounds have been used in various applications ranging from lubricants to wear-resistant coatings. Although these materials have been available for many years, new applications of these materials are still being discovered today. It is clear that both graphite and diamond are economically important materials.