1. By: Matthew Kelso

2. What is it?  Buckypaper is made from carbon nanotubes 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.  Nobel laureate Dr. Richard Smalley’s group first made buckypaper by filtering a nanotube suspension to prepare samples for various tests.  It is ten times lighter and possibly 500 times stronger than steel.

3. How It’s Made  The most common way is to use sodium lauryl sulfate to improve solubility, and filter a suspension under pressure to make the paper.  A Frit compression method can also be used without additional substances by compressing a suspension in a syringe.  The tubes can be exposed to strong magnetic fields to align them and increase the overall strength.

4. Applications  Computer and television screens  Heat sinks  Electromagnetic Shielding  Filters/Sensors  Growing tissue  Lightning strike protection  Improving composites

5. References  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckypaper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckypaper  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frit_Compression  http://www.buckypaper.com/ http://www.buckypaper.com/  http://www.buckypaper.com/2008.html http://www.buckypaper.com/2008.html  http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/spring2006/features/paperp romise.html http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/spring2006/features/paperp romise.html  http://thefutureofthings.com/articles.php?itemId=24 /61/