Extreme thermal stability of carbon nanotubes

The versatility of carbon-carbon bonding creates a wealth of extraordinary physical properties. Of the two common allotropes of carbon, diamond (sp-3 bonded) exhibits record thermal conductivity but is meta-stable and transits to graphite at elevated temperatures. Graphite (sp-2) is electrically conducting but sublimes at temperatures as low as 2400 K. Carbon nanotubes (also sp-2) capitalize on the extraordinary strength of the sp-2 hybridized carbon-carbon bond and exhibit high electrical and thermal conductivities as well as tremendous mechanical strength. Here we report a new technique to measure the thermal proper-ties of nanosystems. We apply this technique to determine the ultimate high temperature breakdown of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.