The center’s capabilities expanded in
1999, when Kramer introduced Wang to
something novel. “He showed me a piece
of buckypaper the size of a quarter and
asked if I thought we could make it.”
Buckypaper is not a new form of station-
ary. It is a novel arrangement of carbon
molecules arranged in tubes and layered
into a thin film, which can be rolled like
paper. But paper-thin is not the same as
paper strength. The nanotubes are ten
times as strong as steel, with only 20
percent of the weight. If nanotubes could
be readily molded and economically proc-
essed, they could lead to the development
of lightweight aircraft, stronger spacecraft
or, on a terrestrial level, stronger, lighter
and more fuel efficient cars.
“They are less than
Bucky Kroto
two thousandths of an
paper and, in 2003 Wang, his students currently planning to build a $17 million,
and colleagues would produce 60-square- 44,000-square-foot facility to expand its
inch, and it allows us
inch sheets, the world’s largest. ability to research nanotubes and other
composite structures and manufacturing
to provide shielding
The ability to manufacture consistent, systems. When completed, it will be the
high quality buckypaper, said Kramer, world’s center for the development of
at the chip level rath-
“meant it was no longer a science fair flight materials of the future.
project, but had real practicality. There
er than have heavy
was a real use for this in the LOCAAS —Roger Witherspoon
– Low Cost Autonomous Attack System
shielding around the
– a missile we make where the wing could
morph into a new shape by telescoping its
completed electronic
length 50 percent.”
system.”
The change in the wing dimensions, he
said, came from using layers of nanotubes
composite sheets that could slide out
But the lightweight molecules were or retract. Wang’s students also found
“What is unique about
difficult to work with, and were ini- the nanotubes had a variety of electrical
tially formed in a fine powder. The tiny properties, ranging from dispersing the
their computer
buckypaper Kramer brought to Wang had electrical bursts from lightning to shield-
models is that they
been made by dispersing the nanotubes ing computer systems from electromag-
show they can do a particular
in a liquid suspension and then passing netic interference.
the mix through a fine mesh filter. This
process in a shorter
filtered layer became the buckypaper and, “These materials can be extremely thin,”
in 1999, it was little more than laboratory said Kramer, “They are less than two
time and much more
curiosity with a lot of potential and no thousandths of an inch, and it allows
effectively than with
practical use. us to provide shielding at the chip level
rather than have heavy shielding around
normal
Wang’s team began processing the nano- the completed electronic system.”
tubes through the forces of the College’s methods
”
.
National High Magnetic Field laboratory, The weight savings from such chip shields
discovering that these magnetic forces would have enormous impact on the size,
made the nanotubes line up and point weight and capability of missiles. The
in the same direction. These organized FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is
nanotubes were easier to process into
64 USBE & Information Technology I January/February 2007
http:www.blackengineer.com
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