Making carbon nanotubes as usable as common plastics

Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang is ready to reignite carbon nanotube research. And he's doing so with a common chemical that was once used in household cleaners.

By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Huang has discovered a way to make disperse carbon nanotubes at unprecedentedly high concentrations without the need for additives or harsh chemical reactions to modify the nanotubes. In a surprising twist, Huang also found that as the nanotubes' concentrations increase, the material transitions from a dilute dispersion to a thick paste, then a free-standing gel and finally a kneadable dough that can be shaped and molded.

The study was published online on May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.