Overview
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylindrical nanostructures formed from rolled graphene sheets — allotropes of carbon with remarkable physical properties that make them one of the most studied materials in modern science.
This project is a structured research effort into their properties, synthesis methods, and real-world applications — particularly in areas where their combination of electrical conductivity, tensile strength, and thermal properties creates genuinely novel possibilities.
Why Carbon Nanotubes
The numbers are striking. CNTs have a tensile strength estimated at 100 times that of steel at a fraction of the weight. They can behave as either metallic conductors or semiconductors depending on their chirality — the angle at which the graphene sheet is rolled. Their thermal conductivity exceeds that of diamond along the tube axis.
What makes them interesting from a research perspective is the gap between those theoretical properties and what’s currently achievable in bulk applications. The challenge isn’t the material itself — it’s synthesis consistency, alignment, and integration into existing manufacturing processes.
Research Areas
Mechanical properties
- Tensile strength and Young’s modulus characterisation
- Comparison between single-walled (SWCNTs) and multi-walled (MWCNTs) nanotubes
- Behaviour under compressive and torsional loading
Electrical properties
- Chirality-dependent conductivity
- CNT field-effect transistors
- Applications in flexible electronics
Applications under review
- Structural composites for aerospace
- Conductive films and transparent electrodes
- Drug delivery vectors and biomedical scaffolds
- Energy storage — supercapacitors and battery electrodes
Status
Research ongoing. Write-up in progress.
Last updated: March 2026