
Ask HN: What happened to carbon nanotubes? - xg15
Hi,<p>I recently was led to an old (pre-2010) page describing the chemical properties of carbon nanotubes and fullerenes.<p>That page reminded me of the hype and optimism that was surrounding nanotubes in the &#x27;00s (at least in mainstream media) : For a time, they were on the covers of almost every pop-sci magazine, there were even some scifi novels written about the glorious, nanotube-based civilizations of the future. That page alone listed space elevators, 1nm-dense microelectronics and curing AIDS as expected applications (the latter for fullerenes) and predicted nanotube-based electronic components to be available in 2010.<p>Yet, if you look for info <i>today</i> about current progress on the technology, you find surprisingly little. Apparently facilities for industrial-scale production of nanotubes exist and there are techniques to produce nanotubes half a meter long. But... no one cares? From what I could find, it&#x27;s used in some high-end bike frames, cosmetics and tennis racquets to slightly improve properties but... that&#x27;s it?<p>A while ago, I came across another pop-sci article which already touted the next miracle material (I think long chains of copper atoms) in much the same way without even mentioning carbon nanotubes.<p>So as I don&#x27;t have much knowledge in the field, I&#x27;d like to ask if anyone knows what happened? Have they just moved to the far right of the hype curve and development continues away from media attention or are there some actual roadblocks that have made the material less promising than it used to be?
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mee_too
New tech companies will make media noises in two cases:

1\. Need investment

2\. Have a product to sell

Currently carbon nanotubes firms/departments fill neither case. They have
enough money, because of all the hype and they don't have a product, as
there's still no known way to mass produce.

In a few years, once price efficient nanotube fabs come online, IMHO we'll see
tons of amazing, ground-braking products out.

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PantsMan
It's all hype.

I hope you've learned a lesson about following crowds.

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PaulHoule
Back in the 80's they said that "material science" was the future so they
created "materials science centers" at many Unis.

By the 00's, funding agencies got jaded about "materials science" so a few
academic administrators stole Eric Drexler's "nanotechnology" word and started
building "nanotechnology centers", and often they still double-dip and have a
"materials science center" too.

