Carbon pipes
Carbon nanotubes, long, thin (a diameter of close to 1nm) cylinders of carbon, were discovered in 1991 by S. Iijima (NEC, Tsukuba, Japan)
Nanotubes, depending on their structure, can be metals or semiconductors. They are also extremely strong materials and have good thermal conductivity. They can be used as nano-wires or as active components in electronic devices such as the field-effect transistor.
Nanotubes can be opened and filled with biological molecules. They can be also used to dissipate heat from tiny computer chips.
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Copyright: NASA Ames Center for Nanotechnology
Properties of nanotubes depend on their structure. A semiconductor diode can be formed by joining two nanoscale carbon tubes with different electronic properties.