Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical carbon structures, single-walled tubes about half a nanometer to two nanometers across, or nested multi-walled tubes, picturable as a sheet of graphene rolled into a seamless cylinder. Sumio Iijima of NEC is usually credited with bringing them to wide scientific attention in 1991, though Radushkevich and Lukyanovich published images of similar carbon tubes in 1952 and Morinobu Endo observed hollow graphite tubes in 1976, so historians of the material still debate the discovery credit. Their exceptional tensile strength and thermal conductivity, arising from the strength of their carbon-carbon bonds, have made them valuable for reinforcing composites, electronics and emerging nanomedicine. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearSourced to the subject's own accountWidely credited to Sumio Iijima's 1991 paper, but Radushkevich and Lukyanovich published images of similar carbon tubes in 1952 and Morinobu Endo observed hollow graphite tubes in 1976; historians of the material dispute which observation is the true discovery. Primary UseSourced to the subject's own accountReinforcement in composite materials as a carbon-fiber alternative, electronics and conductive components, and emerging nanomedicine and optics applications. 1 Connections
Associated With
Graphene, Materials A carbon nanotube is a rolled sheet of graphene structure
In Field
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Source Carbon Nanotube (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Carbon Nanotube (Wikipedia)
WikipediaOpening sectionQuote, Opening section
Carbon nanotubes can exhibit remarkable properties, such as exceptional tensile strength and thermal conductivity because of their nanostructure and strength of the bonds between carbon atoms.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Who actually discovered carbon nanotubes: Radushkevich and Lukyanovich in 1952, or Sumio Iijima in 1991?
The Wikipedia article on carbon nanotubes states plainly that their discoverers true identity is a subject of some controversy. L. V. Radushkevich and V. M. Lukyanovich published clear images of 50 nanometre diameter hollow carbon tubes in the Journal of Physical Chemistry of Russia in 1952, but the work went largely unnoticed in the West because it was published in Russian during the Cold War, when Soviet scientific journals were hard for Western researchers to access. Sumio Iijima of NEC reported similar tube structures in 1991 in a widely read Western journal, and most academic and popular literature since has credited him with the discovery, even though a later editorial by Monthioux and Kuznetsov argued Radushkevich and Lukyanovich should be credited instead for the earlier finding that carbon filaments could be hollow at nanometre scale.
What would resolve this A settled history-of-science judgment, backed by a close reading of the 1952 Russian paper against the 1991 Iijima paper, on whether Radushkevich and Lukyanovich actually observed and reported the same structure now called a carbon nanotube, or a related but distinct filament; absent that, the field has settled on Iijima by convention rather than by a resolved priority claim.
History of science and materials science historiographyCarbon Nanotube (Wikipedia)
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