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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 1: Wonder on Wheels

Combine the hydrogen-powered Pac-Car-1, a vehicle revealed in the August issue of Wired Magazine, with the “nanotube” sheets detailed in the Los Angeles Times of Saturday, August 20, and you have a look at a likely “car of the future.” The Pac-Car-1 could carry a driver half way around the world using only $58 worth of fuel.

A Pac-Car-1 made with nanotube sheets would be a spectacular race car. Constructed using sheets of carbon atoms, nanotube sheets provide the material for production of an ultra light metal. In addition, a metal car frame made from nanotube sheets has the ability to function as both a car body and a car battery.

According to research findings reported in the Journal Science, the basic ingredient of nanotube sheets comes from the depositing of iron particles on a silicon plate. A heating of those particles then produces the small cylinders called nanotubes.

At the time of their formation, the nanotubes normally line-up like trees in an orchard. Scientists at University of Texas’ Nanotech Institute have transformed the lines of tubes into a thin sheet. The scientists accomplished this transformation by using an adhesive strip to pull gently on one row of nanotubes.

Relying on the attraction of the atoms, the Van der Waals force, scientists produced transparent sheets of metal up to 2 feet wide and 3 feet long. Although a single sheet was only 2 millionths of an inch thick, it exhibited the ability to hold droplets of water. When layered together, such sheets could serve as a heated car window or a bulletproof vest.

Nanotubes also possess another important property. They can conduct electricity. This property would allow future car makers to put car batteries within the thin nanotube sheets. The nanotubes in the long sheets can carry electricity without losing power at the joints. The sheets thus appear to solve a problem that has long perplexed car makers.

--Written by Sue Chehrenegar

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