Lecture by Professor Richard E. Smalley
Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry
and Professor of Physics at Rice University
1996 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner
February 22, 2001 @ Chemistry Bldg. The University
of Tokyo
Announcing Web Page
Updated: '01/2/26
Lecture Video Part 1 (wmv 265 MB)
Lecture Video Part 2 (wmv 290 MB)
Lecture Video Part 3 (wmv 85 MB)
Abstract
The tubular extension of the fullerenes
popularly
known as "Buckytubes" are
now available
commercially in small quantities. Early
measurements
indicate that these tubes behave as
coherent
quantum wires. In short lengths they
are
expected to be the most rigid of all
possible
beams and effectively unbreakable even
when
bent in half. Grown in long ropes they
are
expected to form the strongest fiber
ever
made, with a tensile strength approximately
100 times stronger than steel at only
one-sixth
the weight. Short lengths derivitized
at
the ends will constitute a new branch
of
organic chemistry. These buckytubes
may bring
into reality old dreams of molecular
electronics,
and have application in virtually all
technologies
where electrons flow. Assembled in
closest-packed
crystalline arrays these tubes will
serve
as "seed crystals" for the
direct,
continuous growth of super-strong,
light
weight membranes, plates, tubes, and
other
structures made entirely out of carbon.
Chairman:
Professor Shigeo Maruyama (The University
of Tokyo)
Panelists:
Professor Yoji Achiba (Tokyo Metropolitan
University)
Professor Riichiro Saito (The University
of Electro-Communications)
Dr. Masako Yudasaka (ICORP-JST)
Thanks to panelists and students of Maruyama
Lab.