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The Nanotube Site
Most scientists have probably heard ofcarbon nanotubes (CNTs), but it is noteasy to get an overview of the field.Starting research on CNTs one has todeal with a flood of information. A visitto the Nanotube Site might guide you.A first look at the site encourages you,
as you learn that Robert F. Curl, Har-old W. Kroto, and Richard E. Smalleywon the Nobel Prize for their work onthe C60 ™buckyball∫ in 1996. The link toSmalley×s web pages leads you to severalnice images, a visit to the Center forNanoscale Science and Technology, hisNobel Lecture (in case you missed toread it in Angewandte[1]). You can alsolearn how to mount a CNTon a scanningprobe microscope tip.The layout of the Nanotube Site can
not really be called artistic, but on theother hand, this web site is quicklyloaded. It is maintained by David Tom-
anek who would appreciate any assis-tance. In fact, several links are dead.A closer look at the site will lead you
to the ™Physical Properties of CarbonNanotubes∫ pages compiled by TomAdams. These pages give you a goodoverview about CNTs and a set ofinteresting references. A useful selectionof books is also given. Beautiful imagegalleries of optimized geometries anddetailed information about some CNTstructures are found below.What is currently being done in the
field and who works on it? The site isunfortunately less useful here: ™OtherNanotube Link Sites∫ gives many linksto other web sites. The information ishowever not structured according tosubjects. One has no alternative than tonavigate through around 50 web sites.There are three further sections: ™Dedi-cated Nanotube Sites∫, ™Nanotube Re-lated Sites∫, and ™Links Relevant toNanotube Research∫. Again, the infor-mation is not presented in a structuredway. Secondly, the links do not presentan overview of all the important groupsin the world, but is rather focused on USgroups. The web site could be improvedlargely by dividing the field into severalsubjects and presenting some basic in-formation and the important researchgroups for each subject. Also a compa-rative overview over the diversity ofsynthetic methods and properties of theresulting CNTs would surely help tomake the subject more transparent andeasier to enter.The Nanotube Site also tells you about
future and past conferences and work-
shops. The section ™Sources of Nano-tubes and Nanotube-Based Products∫has been extremely useful for us: Hereyou can find a list of companies whichsell nanotube materials in both bulk andsmall quantities.Carbon nanotubes are currently an
extremely popular subject. The risk thatCNTs will end up like other famous andtrendy scientific subjects is high if theenthusiasm (some would say hype) ofsome researchers is not moderated. Itwould be helpful for both industries anduniversities if the Nanotube Site couldbe a messenger for realism concerningCNTs. An honest and detailed overviewof potential applications with their re-quirements and whether or not theymatch the properties of CNTs would bea tremendous step in that direction. Oneor two real commercial applicationswould do more benefit to the field thana hundred potential ones.
To conclude, the Nanotube Site re-flects the situation in the real nanotubeworld precisely: fascinating on the firstview, with a lot of information, which ishowever not optimally structured, and alack of discussion on industrial applica-tions. It is well worth visiting.
Ralph Kurt and Niels de JongePhilips Research (The Netherlands)
[1] R. E. Smalley, Angew. Chem. 1997, 109,1666 ± 1673; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl.1997, 36, 1594 ± 1601.
WEB SITES
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2002, 41, No. 3 ¹ WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2002 1433-7851/02/4103-0521 $ 17.50+.50/0 521
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