Originally Posted by allgoo19
Carbon nanotube
It started as Bucky ball(think of succer ball) in early 1980s. Some made it in a tube form(still much thinner than others so callled "fibers") in early 1990s, then layered. It seems like this can be grown into any shape, any size. Said to be much stronger than carbon fiber. I don't know exactly how it is going to be used in bicycle material but its prperty is way beyond just light and strong. People will experiment next 100 or 200 years just to find out what this material can do.
Nanotube CF is already being used in the bicycling industry. Check out Easton's 2005 line of handlebars, forks and seatposts. Currently they are using multiwall nanotubes but as the manufacturing process evolves single-wall nanotubes will hit the scene.
Code:
Graphite Crystal = Diamond
CF Std. = Typical standard carbon fibre
MWNT = Multi-Wall Nano-Tubes
SWNT = Single-Wall Nano-Tubes
Graph CF MWNT SWNT Steel
Crystal Std.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tensile Str. - GPa 100 3-7 300-600 300-1500 0.4
Elastic Mod. - GPa 1000 200-800 500-1000 1000-5000 200
Specific Str.- GPa 50 2-4 200-300 150-750 0.05
Specific Mod.- GPa 500 100-400 250-500 500-2500 26
Strain-Failure - % 10 1-3 20-40 20-40 25