Nanotubes thus might find use as a storage medium for cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Others have suggested that these light, elastic, but strong carbon molecules might be used to make new structural materials. Some say they could be used to build analytical chemistry laboratories the size of a button. But this speculation is just that, maintains Ken Jordan, a Pitt chemist. Linked by a high-speed switching unit, the computers can work together to run complex simulations of the performance of nanotubes and other molecules.
Some nanotubes measure just a nanometer in diameter.
They are in many ways similar to another recently discovered carbon molecule, called a fullerene. The carbon atoms in fullerenes are bonded together in hexagons and pentagons, connecting together like a soccer ball to form a sphere. Nanotubes can be considered elongated fullerenes with their ends cut off. Rather than the combination of hexagons and pentagons necessary to form a ball, all the atoms in the straight-sided nanotubes can be arranged in sheets of hexagons. One aspect of nanotubes that has fascinated researchers is the way their properties can change simply by varying the way the sheets are rolled.