e4engineering.com: Researchers Spin Nanotubes Into Fibres

From Design Engineering (found on e4eng feed) 9/9/04
Cool! We're that much closer to our space elevator. Ok, quick review. Carbon nanotubes are really strong but clumpy. They're also brittle. They need to be made into fibers or ribbons to be useful in a somewhat pure form. Looks like researchers from Penn and Rice (a nanotube HQ) have figured out a way to do it. It's similar to the way Kevlar fibers are made. (The original article actually came out in December: V.A. Davis, et al. "Phase Behavior and Rheology of SWNTs in Superacids." Macromolecules v37 n1 (2004): 154-160. DOI: 10.1021/ma0352328.)