Peter J. F. Harris

Carbon nanotubes represent one of the most exciting research areas in modern science. These molecular-scale carbon tubes are the stiffest and strongest fibres known, with remarkable electronic properties, and potential applications in a wide range of fields. Carbon Nanotube Science is a concise, accessible book, presenting the basic knowledge that graduates and researchers need to know. Based on the successful Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures, this book focuses solely on carbon nanotubes, covering the major advances made in recent years in this rapidly developing field. Chapters focus on electronic properties, chemical and bimolecular functionalisation, nanotube composites and nanotube-based probes and sensors. The book begins with a comprehensive discussion of synthesis, purification and processing methods. With its comprehensive coverage of this active research field, this book will appeal to researchers in a broad range of disciplines, including nanotechnology, engineering, materials science and physics.

Carbon nanotubes represent one of the most exciting research areas in modern science. These molecular-scale carbon tubes are the stiffest and strongest fibres known, with remarkable electronic properties, and potential applications in a wide range of fields. Carbon Nanotube Science is a concise, accessible book, presenting the basic knowledge that graduates and researchers need to know. Based on the successful Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures, this book focuses solely on carbon nanotubes, covering the major advances made in recent years in this rapidly developing field. Chapters focus on electronic properties, chemical and bimolecular functionalisation, nanotube composites and nanotube-based probes and sensors. The book begins with a comprehensive discussion of synthesis, purification and processing methods. With its comprehensive coverage of this active research field, this book will appeal to researchers in a broad range of disciplines, including nanotechnology, engineering, materials science and physics.

This book covers all the most important areas of nanotube research, as well as discussing related structures such as carbon nanoparticles and ‘inorganic fullerenes’. Carbon nanotubes are molecular-scale carbon fibres with structures related to those of the fullerenes. Since their discovery in 1991, they have captured the imagination of physicists, chemists and materials scientists alike. Physicists have been attracted to them because of their extraordinary electronic properties, chemists because of their potential as ‘nano-test-tubes’, and materials scientists because of their amazing stiffness, strength and resilience. On a more speculative level, nanotechnologists have considered possible nanotube-based gears and bearings. This is the first single-author book on carbon nanotubes. It will be of interest to chemists, physicists, materials scientists and engineers working on carbon materials and fullerenes from both an academic and industrial background.