Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures: New Materials for the Twenty-first Century

This book covers all the most important areas of nanotube research, as well as discussing related structures such as carbon nanoparticles and 'inorganic fullerenes'. Carbon nanotubes are molecular-scale carbon fibres with structures related to those of the fullerenes. Since their discovery in 1991, they have captured the imagination of physicists, chemists and materials scientists alike. Physicists have been attracted to them because of their extraordinary electronic properties, chemists because of their potential as 'nano-test-tubes', and materials scientists because of their amazing stiffness, strength and resilience. On a more speculative level, nanotechnologists have considered possible nanotube-based gears and bearings. This is the first single-author book on carbon nanotubes. It will be of interest to chemists, physicists, materials scientists and engineers working on carbon materials and fullerenes from both an academic and industrial background.