United States. At Rice University in Houston they made a new painting with carbon nanotubes that can help detect deformations in materials from buildings, bridges and aircraft. This compound could be read with an infrared spectrometer.
This method could warn when a material is showing signs of deformation long before the effects become visible to the human eye, and without touching the structure. The researchers said this provides a huge advantage over conventional strain gauges, which must be physically connected to their reading devices. In addition, the nanotube-based system could measure stress anywhere and along any direction.
Rice University professor Bruce Weisman spearheaded the discovery and interpretation of infrared fluorescence from carbon semiconductor nanotubes in 2002, and has since developed and used new optical instrumentation to explore the properties of physical and chemical nanotubes.
The fluorescence of nanotubes shows a large and predictable change in wavelength when the tubes are deformed by tension or compression. The paint – and therefore each nanotube, about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair – undergoes the same deformation as the surface that is painted and gives a clear picture of what is happening on the lower surface.
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