Ok, fellow Arfcom nerds.....discuss.

they are, like, made from carbon, and like, are really, really small tubes......

Is this my grandmothers exhaust rectum?
lotsa carbon built up in there...
time to take her for mexican food

Much further along than fuel cells.  As soon as the economics are worked out, they'll play a huge role in society.

... the not-so-distant future of engineered materials in many aerospace applications

Quoted: ... the not-so-distant future of engineered materials in many aerospace applications

And electronics, medical equipment, etc.

The major problem right now is manufacturing methods and expense.  They really don't exist outside of the chemistry lab yet.  Even chemists are doing in silico experiments because the things are so costly to make.

Organic Chemistry:  It's like having to suck zits out of your girlfriend's butt.
And don't even get me started talkin' 'bout PChem

ok. for us backwoods hillbillly  redneck insest type of  fucktards,
splain WTF yer yapping about!!!!!!!!!

Quoted: Organic Chemistry:  It's like having to suck zits out of your girlfriend's butt. And don't even get me started talkin' 'bout PChem

right on, bro.  Orgo is the devil.  

If I recall properly, they have a potential use in Cancer treatment.

Label the nano-tubes to a tumor marker antibody (so the nano-tubes stick to the tumor like velcro)--hit the nano-tubes with the proper frequency of electromagnetic radiation, and they will superheat.  Basically cooking/killing just the tumor.

AFARR

I don't know much about it but the University of Texas at Dallas has made some progress with them. I know they've made sheets of the stuff and were working on a method to mass produce them.

Quoted: ok. for us backwoods hillbillly  redneck insest type of  fucktards, splain WTF yer yapping about!!!!!!!!!

Here is a link to the hated Wikipedia.  It'll have to do since it is past my bedtime.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanomaterials

Space elevator!!!!!!!!!!




not gonna happen

Well with the micro structure of them, they may have great uses in the flactronics industry and the biogramicty field.

Quoted: Quoted: Organic Chemistry:  It's like having to suck zits out of your girlfriend's butt. And don't even get me started talkin' 'bout PChem right on, bro.  Orgo is the devil.

God, I loved O-chem. Hate P-chem....I love electro chem though....
They're a derivative of Bucky Balls, which are  60 carbon soccer ball like thingies. If it's what I'm thinking about...Carbon nano tubes are 100 carbon pill shaped molecules.  Supposedly it was thought that they would be awesome lubricants. Imagine microscopic bearings.....

Quoted: Organic Chemistry:  It's like having to suck zits out of your girlfriend's butt. ]

Oh ok, now it's all starting to come together

,

Quoted: Quoted: God, I loved O-chem. Hate P-chem....I love electro chem though.... What's p-chem stand for? And what's the difference?  I always assumed "organic" chemistry related to natural shit, while other types of chem pertained to man-made shit.

Physical Chemistry

Organic Chem is great about structure of molecules with C,O,N,H

Learn how to make stuff also.  

P-Chem, means physical chemistry. Lots of physics, lots of math, lots of trouble for chem students...

Quoted: P-Chem, means physical chemistry. Lots of physics, lots of math, lots of trouble for chem students...

There's quantum involved.  You have to put cats into eigenstates and shit.

I thought organic was a hell of a lot harder than p-chem, personally.

Getting back to the buckyballs and nanotubular shizzle, there was an article on Yahoo a few months ago that said they exhibited significant toxicity when fish were exposed to them.  So there might be "issues" with using them outside the lab.

I'm taking PChem II right now.

I took PChem I  10 years ago.

So far, Biochemistry tops my list of hardest classes.
(having taken no biology classes)

Quoted: If I recall properly, they have a potential use in Cancer treatment. Label the nano-tubes to a tumor marker antibody (so the nano-tubes stick to the tumor like velcro)--hit the nano-tubes with the proper frequency of electromagnetic radiation, and they will superheat.  Basically cooking/killing just the tumor. AFARR

Freakin cool.

Do you have link?

I actually went back and read that Wiki article, and as usual, it is awful.

Physical chemistry isn't too bad if you've had the prerequisite linear algebra.  Many people haven't and that is where the trouble comes from.  It can be a bear if you have to pick that up on the fly.

Organic chemistry, on the undergraduate level, is memorization of reaction mechanisms with a few basic applications of math.  On the graduate level, it is a different animal.  Combine undergraduate organic chemistry and physical chemistry to get a better idea.

Biochemistry can be looked at as an easier version of organic chemistry.  At least that was true when I took it.  Memorize proposed reaction mechanisms, but these mechanisms aren't advanced far enough along so that you'd have to deal with much math.  This is changing, probably.  It certainly has changed a lot in the upper levels in the past 5 years with the shift in focus to what they call the genetic environment.

To answer your question, PeteCO, physical chemistry is sometimes called chemical physics.  It deals with a lot of quantum theory and that sort of thing.    Organic chemistry deals with carbon-based molecules.  Most of these are man-made in the sense that organic chemistry deals with them, but many occur in nature also.  The organic connection comes in because of the carbon.  Biochemistry is biological chemistry.  Basically the chemistry that occurs inside living things.  Those are the short and practical definitions, at least.

Carbon nanotubes did originally fall under organic chemistry but have largely moved into their own.  Nanomaterials is a big deal because much of the basic theory has been worked out and the properties of some basic nanostructures have already been extensively studied.  It is primarily an engineering problem at this point to get these things into economical production.  Of course, there are plenty of theoretical advancements to be made.  Don't get me wrong.  These things are just getting really close to practical.  A lot of chemistry and chemical engineering programs are running into this at full speed because they've caught the scent of money...that is the academic world for you.  I've been poking around the edges of this for a couple of years but haven't really had the ability to get deeply involved until now.

Contrast this to fuel cells, which are a long way from any common application since a lot of theory still has to be worked out to make them better than many of the alternatives.  A lot of the problems facing fuel cells are more than just engineering problems.