Carbon nanotubes - a material rising like a Phoenix

Due to their extraordinary properties, carbon nanotubes (CNT) are considered the material of the 21st century. Despite TEM pictures already published by Radushkevich and Lukyanovich in 1952, and Endo in the 1970s, the discovery of nanotubes is usually dated to 1991, when S. Iijima published TEM-figures of "microtubules of graphitic carbon", which were seen in the ashes of an arc-discharge experiment and later on named carbon nanotubes. Shortly after this scientific event, applications and products in almost every industrial sector have been postulated. Meanwhile, especially multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) can be produced on an industrial scale and some products are already on the market, like tennis rackets or golf clubs. However, several open questions are still to be answered before a broad application on all sectors can take place. On this account, chemical functionalization, e.g. by means of technical low-pressure plasmas, is essential to improve solubility and dispersibility. Besides that, a lot of time and money is being invested in an early risk assessment and toxicological evaluation along with the ongoing product development.