September 16, 2012
8bitfuture: Why wood pulp is the new carbon nanotube. The first Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) factory in the US opened this July, a technology which is expected to become a $600 billion industry by 2020. NCC is significant because it is an incredibly cheap, renewable version of a carbon nanotube which is made from processed wood pulp. …not only is NCC transparent but it is made from a tightly packed array of needle-like crystals which have a strength-to-weight ratio that is eight times better than stainless steel.  “The beauty of this material is that it is so abundant we don’t have to make it,” says Youngblood. “We don’t even have to use entire trees; nanocellulose is only 200 nanometres long. If we wanted we could use twigs and branches or even sawdust. We are turning waste into gold.” NCC is already being used to make the next generation of flexible electronic displays in Japan, to create computer components by IBM, and the by the US Army to make lightweight body armour. In case you didn’t know about CNTs.

8bitfuture:

Why wood pulp is the new carbon nanotube.

The first Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) factory in the US opened this July, a technology which is expected to become a $600 billion industry by 2020. NCC is significant because it is an incredibly cheap, renewable version of a carbon nanotube which is made from processed wood pulp.

…not only is NCC transparent but it is made from a tightly packed array of needle-like crystals which have a strength-to-weight ratio that is eight times better than stainless steel. 

“The beauty of this material is that it is so abundant we don’t have to make it,” says Youngblood. “We don’t even have to use entire trees; nanocellulose is only 200 nanometres long. If we wanted we could use twigs and branches or even sawdust. We are turning waste into gold.”

NCC is already being used to make the next generation of flexible electronic displays in Japan, to create computer components by IBM, and the by the US Army to make lightweight body armour.

In case you didn’t know about CNTs.

(Source: newscientist.com, via 8bitfuture)

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    In case you didn’t know about CNTs.
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