Author Description

This is an introductory book for graduate students and researchers from various fields of science and technology, who wish to learn about carbon nanotubes. This book discusses large variety of carbon nanomaterials i.e., carbon nanotube, carbon nanofiber, carbon nanocoil, carbon nanohorn, amorphous carbon, graphite carbon, porous carbon, etc and various processing techniques involved in synthesizing CNTs. The background on purification of CNTs, growth mechanism of CNTs, properties of CNTs, various characterization techniques, and their potential uses have also been discussed. In addition, the variety of CNT based nanocomposites, have also been included in this book. Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes about two decades ago by Sumino Ijima, the scientific community involved in various aspects of research related to synthesis, purification, structure, properties and applications has observed a steady progress of the science and technology, as is typical for any new and novel material. Materials properties are not only governed by the atomic composition and the chemical bonding, but also by the dimensions of materials. Interesting properties arises when a material approaches a molecular scale. The unique structures of the nanotubes result in numerous superior physical and chemical properties, such as the strongest mechanical strength (Tensile strength of ~100 GPa, stiffness of ~640 GPa, Young s modulus of ~2.8 to 3.6 TPa), the highest thermal conductivity (~3500W/mK at room temperature), highest electrical conductivity of ~106 S/m, room temperature ballistic quantum conductance, electromechanical coupling and super surface functionality. As a result the research on carbon nanotubes has reached in variety of applications, such as composite materials, nanoelectronics, flat panel display, sensors, noanodevices and novel instrumentations. The authors hope that readers from any field of science and technology can read this book without any special background requirements