For several years leading researchers at Rice University, including

Nobel prize winner in Chemistry 1996, Mr Richard Smalley, along with

researchers at Teijin Aramid, have been working on producing carbon

nanotubes and forming them into useful macroscopic objects with

extraordinary, new performance properties.

For the first time in history, it has been possible to spin carbon

nanotubes (CNTs) into a super fiber that has very high thermal and

electrical conductivity and good textile performance. Carbon nanotubes,

the building blocks of the fiber, which is as thin as a strand of DNA,

combine the best properties of thermal and electrical conductivity,

strength, modulus and flexibility.To spin a high-performance carbon nanotube textile thread (fiber), the

nanotubes must be perfectly stacked and orientated along the fiber

axis. The most efficient method to produce this high performance fiber

is to dissolve CNTs in a super acid, followed by wet-spinning. This is

a patented process which has been used since the 1970s in spinning

Teijin Aramid’s Twaron super fiber.“Our carbon nanotube fibers combine high thermal and electrical

conductivity, like that seen in metals, with the flexibility, robust

handling and strength of textile fibers”, explained Marcin Otto,

Business Development Manager at Teijin Aramid. With that novel

combination of properties it is possible to use CNT fibers in many

applications in the aerospace, automotive, medical and smart clothing

industries.