The technicians said that the research team used the airflow focusing method to prepare a centimeter-scale continuous ultra-long carbon nanotube bundle with a certain composition, perfect structure and parallel arrangement, and increased the tensile strength of the tube bundle to above 80 GPa, close to a single carbon nanometer. The tensile strength of the tube and the strength can be maintained as the number of carbon nanotubes increases.

"We arrange the super long carbon nanotubes one by one, use special methods to form the corresponding structure and shape, and prove that the macro fiber synthesized by this can maintain the strength of the carbon nanotubes unchanged." The new method of strong carbon nanotube bundles, combined with the macro-preparation method of ultra-long carbon nanotubes, can produce ultra-long and super-strong carbon nanotube fibers, which are one order of magnitude stronger than ordinary carbon fiber materials.

Technicians point out that this work reveals the bright future of ultra-long carbon nanotubes for the manufacture of super-strong fibers, while pointing out the direction and method for the development of new super-strong fibers. At present, although the research is still in a partial state, the research team has crossed the theory and created macroscopic fibers, which helps to improve the super-strong materials with a certain production scale, and also lays a foundation for the preparation of a large amount of super-strong materials in the future. Good foundation. Super-strong fibers are expected to show their talents in large aircraft, large-scale launch vehicles, and super-buildings.

Reviewer of Nature·Nanotechnology commented: “The author of the paper has made a landmark breakthrough and reported for the first time in the world a bundle of carbon nanotube tubes close to the strength of a single carbon nanotube. This work is extremely Far-reaching influence, it will undoubtedly cause widespread concern around the world."

According to research and development personnel, carbon nanotubes are considered to be one of the strongest materials that have been discovered so far, but when a single carbon nanotube with excellent mechanical properties is prepared into a macroscopic material, its performance is often greatly reduced, much lower than Theoretical value. The reason is that the length of the carbon nanotubes is short, and after forming the macroscopic fibers, they are easily broken from the defects under the tensile force and easily slip to each other, resulting in a decrease in the overall strength. Ultra-long carbon nanotubes can be up to centimeters or even decimeters in length and have a perfect structure. They have mechanical properties close to the theoretical limit and have unparalleled advantages in the preparation of super-strong fibers.