Microtubes made of carbon nanotubes

Microtubes made of multi-walled carbon nanotubes were prepared via infiltration of CNT-suspension through a microfiltration hollow fiber membrane. Shrinking of the entangled CNT network during the drying allows withdrawal of CNT-microtubes from the hollow fiber. Currently, microtubes have a length of ∼50 cm, outer diameter of ∼1.7 mm and scalable inner diameter by varying the infiltration time resulting in wall thicknesses of 130–320 μm. The BET surface area is 200 m2/g with a porosity of 48–67% and an electrical conductivity ∼20 S/cm. We propose to use such novel CNT-microtubes for the fabrication of tubular electrochemical cells and membrane filtration processes.