New Energy Conversion Based on Carbon Nanotubes

A group at MIT recently published work in Nature Materials on a new energy conversion mechanism. Their work uses a carbon nanotube as a shell that is coated with a chemical fuel. A laser is used to spark the exothermic chemical reaction at one end, which then propagates rapidly along the length of the nanotube. In addition to the release of thermal energy, a measurable electrical pulse is detected. The exact efficiency, i.e. how much of the stored chemical energy is converted to electrical energy, remains unclear, but significant achievements in specific power are achieved due to the lightweight nature of the carbon nanotubes. Much work still needs to be done in order to understand the advantages, disadvantages, and practicalities of this new system, but this work represents an exciting new area of research. A press story on the publication can be found here, and the original publication can be found here.