Carbon nanotubes advantage

Therefore, it might be possible to formulate a compound which both conducts and has all the other advantages of the green tire by the incorporation of relatively small amounts of carbon nanotubes into the silica-filled compound. 

It is interesting to compare halloysite with carbon nanotubes (Table 14.1). One can see that halloysite has some advantages in applications which require a biocompatible nano-container, in addition the halloysite clay is far less expensive, the world supply is in excess of50 000 tons per year. Carbon nanotubes have smaller diameter they may be conductive and they are very strong. 

CNTs have been one of the most actively studied electrode materials in the past few years due to their unique electronic and mechanical properties. From a chemistry point of view, CNTs are expected to exhibit inherent electrochemical properties similar to other carbon electrodes widely used in various electrochemical applications. Unlike other carbon-based nanomaterials such as C60 and C70 [31], CNTs show very different electrochemical properties. The subtle electronic properties suggest that carbon nanotubes will have the ability to mediate electron transfer reactions with electroactive species in solution when used as the electrode material. Up to now, carbon nanotube-based electrodes have been widely used in electrochemical sensing [32-35], CNT-modified electrodes show many advantages which are described in the following paragraphs. 

CNT randomly dispersed composites Many soft and rigid composites of carbon nanotubes have been reported [17]. The first carbon-nanotube-modified electrode was made from a carbon-nanotube paste using bromoform as an organic binder (though other binders are currently used for the paste formation, i.e. mineral oil) [105]. In this first application, the electrochemistry of dopamine was proved and a reversible behavior was found to occur at low potentials with rates of electron transfer much faster than those observed for graphite electrodes. Carbon-nanotube paste electrodes share the advantages of the classical carbon paste electrode (CPE) such as the feasibility to incorporate different substances, low background current, chemical inertness and an easy renewal nature [106,107]. The added value with CNTs comes from the enhancement of the electron-transfer reactions due to the already discussed mechanisms. 

The search for flexible, noncorrosive, inexpensive conductive materials has recently focused on polymeric materials. This search has increased to include, for some applications, nanosized fibrils and tubes. The conductivity of common materials is given in Figure 19.1. As seen, most polymers are nonconductive and, in fact, are employed in the electronics industry as insulators. This includes PE and PVC. The idea that polymers can become conductive is not new and is now one of the most active areas in polymer science. The advantages of polymeric conductors include lack of corrosion, low weight, ability to lay wires on almost a molecular level, and ability to run polymeric conductive wires in very intricate and complex designs. The topic of conductive carbon nanotubes has already been covered (Section 12.17). 

What advantages might conductive carbon nanotubes have over polyacetylene ... 

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