Carbon nanotubes have shown the potential to help us take better x-ray images, make cheaper hydrogen fuel cells, and replace silicon in computer chips. Add another possibility onto the pile: MIT researchers report this week in Nature Materials that they've used carbon nanotubes to create thermopower waves, a system they say could put out 100 times more energy than a lithium-ion battery. Michael Strano's team coated the tubes, which are only billionths of a meter across, with a fuel.
This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse [Environmental News Service]
. That wave travels 10,000 times the typical speed of this chemical reaction, and the heat blasts electrons down the tubes. ...
