What are carbon nanotubes? Carbon nanotubes are different structural modifications of carbon. They are also cylindrical carbon molecules that have interesting properties that make them potentially very useful in many applications in many industrial fields such as nanotechnology, semiconductors, optics and many other fields of materials science, as well as architectural uses. They can exhibit extraordinary strength and astonishing electrical properties and are efficient conductors of electrical current and heat. Their end use may be limiting due to their unknown toxicity. There are many different types of carbon nanotubes. However, there are 2 very important types of carbon nanotubes. There needs to be a clear picture so that single-walled (SWCNT) can be easily distinguished from multi-walled (MWCNT). It is quite clear that the formation of SWCNT was first reported in the June 17 issue of NATURE in 1993 by two differently published papers, one of them by Iijima and Ichihashi and the other done by Bethune (from IBM, California). way carbon nanotubes can be s...