On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, doctoral student researcher Oliver Dewey talks about a spinning line that allows researchers to turn carbon fibers into threads. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, doctoral researcher Oliver Dewey talks about converting carbon into nanotubes, which have been proven to be excellent conductors of electricity and heat. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, researcher and doctoral student Oliver Dewey pulled carbon fiber from the spinning production line, which turned the fiber into a thread. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, doctoral researcher Steven Williams demonstrated the flexibility of carbon fiber, which has been sewn into an elastic fabric. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, doctoral student researcher Steven Williams demonstrated how to sew carbon fiber into fabric, making it possible to use it in wearable technology. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, researcher Oliver Dewey holds a can of carbon nanotubes that are dissolved in chlorosulfonic acid to be processed into carbon fibers. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

A carbon fiber thread processed in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston on Thursday, August 12, 2021. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Rice University Carbon Center Laboratory in Houston, researcher Oliver Dewey holds a carbon fiber thread in his hand. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, the chlorosulfonic acid shown on the left is used to dissolve carbon nanotubes in order to convert them into carbon fibers or other solid materials. In this photo, nanotubes are dissolved in acid at different concentrations. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

On Thursday, August 12, 2021, in the Carbon Center Laboratory at Rice University in Houston, doctoral researcher Oliver Dewey holds a spinneret that allows researchers to turn carbon fibers into threads of different sizes. Researchers hope that carbon nanotubes can eventually replace materials such as copper and steel, the mining of which will generate a large carbon dioxide footprint.

In a laboratory in the Chemistry Building at Rice University, doctoral student Oliver Dewey unwrapped a fiber, so thin that trying to catch a glimpse of it would make your eyes tired.

It is thinner than human hair, but when dozens of strands are woven together, it starts to look like an ordinary charcoal thread-so that it can be threaded into a sewing machine.

But its scale in Rice's lab obscures its potential. It is 20% stronger than Kevlar and more than 100 times stronger than steel. It can conduct more electricity than copper, and as Rice's researchers have just discovered, it can convert heat into electricity. It is produced by breaking down one of the most harmful greenhouse gases: methane.

Recognizing carbon nanotubes, this material has the potential to decarbonize the notorious dirty metal industry through the use of natural gas. Matteo Pasquali, a chemical engineer in charge of the Rice Carbon Center, said that the prospect of carbon nanotubes prompted the U.S. Department of Energy to provide a $3.3 million grant to his institute to find a better way. To create it.

"This is not a pipe dream. This is what many of us have been doing in the field of nanotechnology for more than 20 years," Pasquali said. "We already know how to do this, but we just don't know how to do it effectively."

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These fibers are made by heating methane gas to 800 to 1,200 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen. This forces the cracking of methane into pure hydrogen — which can be used as a clean fuel — and carbon nanotube fibers. The laboratory staff mixed the carbon nanotube fibers with chlorosulfonic acid, turned the tube into a liquid, and then pushed it through a small hole that was poked into a small disc. Coming out of the other end are thin noodle-like filaments in the water, pulled by wheels that collect the fibers and spin them onto a spool. In essence, it absorbs one of the most destructive greenhouse gases and converts it into a potential fuel source and potential substitutes for steel, aluminum and copper.

Reducing the need to mine these materials can prevent large amounts of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. According to McKinsey & Company, as much as 7% of global emissions come from mining operations only. Researchers such as Pasquali envision that one day, bridges, transmission lines, and buildings will use carbon nanotubes mixed with metals or carbon nanotubes alone as their basis.

Although Pasquali and other researchers have been making this material for decades, it is now only a dream to create enough material to build a bridge. Carbon Hub’s laboratory can only produce about one gram of this substance per hour. A few companies-including Huntsman, headquartered in Houston-are trying to create larger numbers.

Scott Wright, Huntsman's division president, said that when his company purchased the technology to make carbon nanotubes a few years ago, it could only produce one gram per hour. Now, he says, one kilogram can be produced per hour, and he expects to be able to produce thousands of tons per year in the next few years.

He said his company has sold carbon nanotube films, which are now being used on NASA's Juno satellite orbiting Jupiter.

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"I think the potential here is huge," Wright said. "Think about the basic science of what we are doing: We are using a material that has been discharged from oil wells and other places around the world to capture exhaust gas and convert it into carbon to clean structural materials."

These fibers can also prove to be a source of electricity generation.

Rice University physicist Junichiro Kono and scientists at Tokyo Metropolitan University conducted a study in which the scientists arranged carbon nanotubes into fibers and stitched them into fabrics. Their small-scale tests showed that about four forearm-sized cloths using nanotubes can convert the heat from two electric furnaces into enough electricity to power small LED lights.

Pasquali said that scientists and manufacturers are still decades away from maximizing these potential uses. He likened it to the development of solar panels, which were used in high-tech applications such as satellites as early as the 1950s, but did not become commercially affordable until decades later.

At the same time, PhD student Dewey stated that adding it to cheaper materials to make it stronger will help scale up.

"Now it is quite expensive, especially for higher quality things," Dewey said. "We are still a long way from making it more commercially viable, but we are working hard now because the government and people want to invest money in things like this."

Shelby Webb is an energy technology and renewable energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She worked as an education reporter for Chronicle for more than four years, covering trends in Greater Houston and Texas. Before moving to Houston, she worked in a newspaper in her hometown in Sarasota, Florida from 2013 to 2016 and graduated from the University of Florida.

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