Lecture by Professor Richard E. Smalley
Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Rice University
1996 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner
February 22, 2001 @ Chemistry Bldg. The University of Tokyo

Announcing Web Page

Updated: '01/2/26


Lecture Video Part 1 (wmv 265 MB)

Lecture Video Part 2 (wmv 290 MB)

Lecture Video Part 3 (wmv 85 MB)


Buckytubes! New materials and new devices from carbon


Click Here for Slide Show


With Permission from
Professor R. E. Smalley


Abstract

The tubular extension of the fullerenes popularly known as "Buckytubes" are now available commercially in small quantities. Early measurements indicate that these tubes behave as coherent quantum wires. In short lengths they are expected to be the most rigid of all possible beams and effectively unbreakable even when bent in half. Grown in long ropes they are expected to form the strongest fiber ever made, with a tensile strength approximately 100 times stronger than steel at only one-sixth the weight. Short lengths derivitized at the ends will constitute a new branch of organic chemistry. These buckytubes may bring into reality old dreams of molecular electronics, and have application in virtually all technologies where electrons flow. Assembled in closest-packed crystalline arrays these tubes will serve as "seed crystals" for the direct, continuous growth of super-strong, light weight membranes, plates, tubes, and other structures made entirely out of carbon.
Chairman: Professor Shigeo Maruyama (The University of Tokyo)
Panelists: Professor Yoji Achiba (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
Professor Riichiro Saito (The University of Electro-Communications)
Dr. Masako Yudasaka (ICORP-JST)


Thanks to panelists and students of Maruyama Lab.

Contact: maruyama [at] photon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp