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(Narrator) Carbon nanotubes are one of the most promising new materials in textile science.
They are sub-microscopic, hollow fibres of pure carbon,
which look like black powder
but their true fibre nature becomes apparent under the electron microscope.
They are light but incredibly strong,
and the challenge has been to find a way to harness that strength.
The tubes can be mixed with polymers, but one of the problems with the resulting composites
is that the polymers destroy the nanotubes electrical conductivity.
But now CSIRO's Division of Textile and Fibre Technology, in collaboration with the
Nano Tech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, has made a major breakthrough.
A 100% carbon nanotube yarn.
This yarn is very strong, durable and flexible
and fully retains the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes.
(Dr Stephen Hawkins) We're able to take the nanotubes directly from the substrates,
spin them into yarn, twist that yarn onto a bobbin
and there after use the yarn as one would a conventional textile.
(Narrator) The first part of the process is an improvement in the growing of carbon nanotubes
in the laboratory.
(Dr Hawkins) Carbon nanotubes are typically 1 to 100 nanometres in diameter.
Ours are in the range of 10 to 50 nanometres in diameter
and we have made them up to three millimetres in length.
Although typically one millimetre is the length we aim for.
(Narrator) Then the problem is in capturing those tubes into a yarn.
This is the prototype spinner being trialed at the Nano Tech Institute
at the University of Texas in Dallas,
which has allowed CSIRO's Division of Textile and Fibre Technology
to spin the carbon nanotubes into a yarn.
(Ken Atkinson) The big breakthrough that's happened in the last year with carbon nanotubes
is the discovery that you can use twist to bind them together
into a macro structure, that is hundreds of thousands of nano tubes.
(Dr Hawkins) The yarn as a single twisted structure is only three microns in diameter.
For comparison a wool fibre, a single wool fibre,
is usually in the vicinity of 20 microns in diameter.
So we are producing a yarn that has many thousands of
carbon nanotubes in its cross section,
this is only one sixth of the diameter of a single wool fibre.
Such a fibre is almost impossible to see with the naked eye, for example,
so that is a challenge in simply handling and processing this material.
(Narrator) These single yarns can then be made into various plies or thicknesses
and in the future, woven into fabric.
The result could mean products such as smart clothing
with the ability to determine body temperature and adjust accordingly,
or even act as a power source.
(Ken Atkinson) The other use is to use the yarns as actuators.
With actuators as muscle replacements you can have,
you can provide drives for people who have disabilities.
These actuators would be electrically operated to move arms, move legs.
(Narrator) Other major potential uses are in medicine, fire fighting and in the defence forces.
This material could be invaluable to the aerospace industry.
(Ken Atkinson) What aeronautical engineers want from a yarn is high specific strength,
that is high strength and low weight.
So on the battlefield, the American military would like robotic soldiers
and pneumatic and hydraulic systems are not suitable for this application.
Potentially they have a use for emergency services, say in fire protection services
where you want to send a robot into a building to rescue people.
The project's now at the stage where we have a patent for, that has over 200 claims.
Carbon nanotube yarns are very exciting. They have tremendous properties
and there is an opportunity for potential licensees to adopt the technology
to take it to the next stage of development.
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