THE accidental discovery that carbon nanotubes can be set alight with nothing more than a bright light could lead to a more efficient way of igniting car and rocket fuel.
Three years ago, a student working in Pulickel Ajayan’s lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York inadvertently ignited the pile of carbon nanotubes he was photographing (New Scientist, 4 May 2002, p 27). Researchers think that the nanotubes ignite because they absorb light more efficiently than they can dissipate the energy as heat. The phenomenon only happens when iron impurities are present, although the exact process is uncertain.…
