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> proven. Weaving carbon nanotube may be difficult because Van der
Walls
> forces between the tubes are quite weak. It may be possible to
> functionalize the nanotubes with other molecules so they bind with
each
> other, but getting the functional groups in between tubes in an
> individual rope may be very difficult.
>
> Finally, recent results suggest that carbon nanotubes are not as
strong
> as we once thought. I haven't looked at this material in much depth
> though as I'm not doing carbon nanotube research anymore.
>

The strength of the tubes go down by nearly an order of magnitude
because of imperfection in the crystal. a perfect crytal is a helical
tube. during growth a second helix starts growing at site in on the
tube and the interweaving of two helices starts. This creates strain
in the tube. The imperfection I describe is thermodynamicaly stable so
there is no way to stop it from happening. It was first observed in
England on tubes much smaller than 1/2 mm.

Bill