Nanotechnology is advancing materials science, which breaks through the limitations that once seemed impossible. The TRY2004 pyramid super city concept has greatly contributed to the development of Tokyo, but due to the difficulty of the project, it can only be completed with the help of carbon nanotubes.
When used in combination with high-strength concrete, nano-materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) will produce a highly stretchable material, making the building no longer require reinforcing steel, thus speeding up the construction process. There are many more possibilities, and other developments include ultra-light (super-strong) materials and another self-healing concrete.
Carbon nanotubes are currently the materials with the highest specific strength that can be prepared and can be stretched over a million times their thickness.
One nanometer (nm) is only one billionth of a meter, which is very small. The thickness of a piece of paper is 100,000 nm. The growth rate of human nails is about 1nm per second, even if the human DNA chain is only 2.5nm wide. In this way, it seems impossible to construct "nano" grade materials. But scientists and engineers have successfully created carbon nanotubes with a wall thickness of only 1 nm by using cutting-edge technologies such as electron beam lithography.
When large particles become smaller, their surface area is increasing. These carbon nanotubes have a higher specific strength than any other material on earth, and can stretch over a million times their thickness. The light weight and high strength of carbon nanotubes enable them to be embedded in other metal, concrete, wood and glass construction materials to increase the density and tensile strength of the materials. Engineers even try to add nano-sensors to building materials so that they can be monitored before the material breaks and cracks.