Armchair Quantum Wire To Reduce Electricity Transmission Losses

Armchair Quantum Wire (AQW) may solve the problem that's been haunting electrical engineers for several decades. The US copper based electric grid is estimated to have electric loss at 5% every 160 kilometers. Usually, the power houses are situated far away from the actual consumption places such as industrial areas and cities. A weave of metallic nanotubes called "AQW" could be an ideal solution to prevent the electric losses. The AQW can carry electricity to longer distances without significant loss in the form of leakages. The major problem in implementing AQW is that the mass production is very difficult and there's no solution to it yet.

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Electric Transmission Lines & Electricity Losses

The armchair quantum wires are made from metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCN). There's no technique available to produce SWCN in bulk as each of these nanotube is 50k times thinner than human hair. These can be developed in batches along with other types of nanotubes but separating them is again a difficult task. Rice University's Andrew R. Barron & Alvin Orbaek are carrying out research initiated by Nobel Laureate, Richard Smalley who's the pioneer of nanotechnology. Smalley wanted to create an energy efficient grid which would solve world's energy transmission problems. The researchers have found a ray of hope in making the nanotubes dramatically longer. They are working on making the nanotubes longer so that they can be cut, re-seeded with a catalyst and re-grown indefinitely. It would enable the researchers to build the cables which would ultimately help in efficient energy transfer.

We believe efficient electric energy transmission is the need of the hour. Lot of attention is being paid to clean energy, however, reducing the losses in transmission will enable us utilize the existing sources of energy in a better and efficient manner.

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