Carbon nanotubes: Challenges and opportunities

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the wonders of modern science discovered. CNTs have been regarded as the stiffest and the strongest material ever developed and received considerable interest in research because of their unique atomic structure, dimension and attractive properties. In the past decade, researchers made several attempts and efforts exploiting the exceptional properties of CNTs toward the development of CNTs applications. Nowadays the carbon nanotubes-derived products have smeared into our life step by step, and before long, they will function as essential components for technological innovations. A recent direction of research has been to try to gain further understanding by the use of computational methods and models which appeared with the advancement of computer technology. In this paper, a summary of recent research achievements related to the carbon nanotubes and their applications in nanomaterials. Several important aspects that influence the properties of carbon nanotube will also be discussed.