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The present large interest in carbon nanotubes is really a direct consequence on the synthesis of buckminsterfullerene, C60 , and other fullerenes, in 1985. The discovery that carbon could form stable, ordered structures other than graphite and diamond stimulated researchers worldwide to search for other new forms of carbon. The search was given new impetus when it absolutely was proven in 1990 that C60 could be produced in a straightforward arc-evaporation apparatus readily available in all laboratories. It absolutely was employing such an evaporator that the Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima discovered fullerene-related carbon nanotubes in 1991. The tubes contained at least two layers, generally many additional, and ranged in outer diameter from about three nm to 30 nm. They had been invariably closed at both ends.

Carbon nanotubes, also known as buckytubes, are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1 which is significantly larger than any other material. These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science, as well as potential uses in architectural fields.