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iam666 t1_j97087n wrote

This is a cool paper, but it’s title is somewhat misleading. The process they use does create carbon nanotubes (CNT), but it creates them in a very messy mixture of other nano-structured carbon. Their material surpasses other CNT production methods because most CNT researchers aren’t looking for physical properties like tensile strength. CNTs do have really good physical properties in polymer composites, but that’s a pretty underwhelming application for them. The article here even lists applications for CNTs that do not apply to this mixture, which is pretty misleading.

The layman’s TLDR for this paper is “we found that if you process waste plastic in this way, you can reinforce other plastic with it to make it even stronger.”

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Alastor_Hawking t1_j994xyh wrote

Yeah CNTs vary quite a bit by size, quality and strength, and they have found CNTs in unprocessed diesel exhaust, so finding them in super heated plastic wasn’t a big shock to me. They can turn plastic junk into plastic junk with some nanotubes, which is cool, but not a marketable application yet, as some on this thread hope.

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iam666 t1_j998qdm wrote

Yeah but making this meso-structured carbon is still a very effective way to improve material properties, and seems to be a better alternative to carbon fiber rather than carbon nanotubes.

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jonesaffrou t1_j994q3a wrote

Isn't the new Airbus made from CNTs instead of usual aluminum alloy? Which gave the plain a huuge edge. It def has potential in aviation.

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iam666 t1_j998cpc wrote

I’m not sure, it may just be “carbon fiber”, which is much more common and easier to produce since it’s only micro-structured and not nano-. This material seems like it would be good in that application, though.

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colorblood t1_j99gfip wrote

It’s probably made with carbon composites but carbon nanotubes are yet to be used in large scale construction. Aerospace is very conservative on materials especially when it means passenger safety.

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