2nd PALENC Conference and 28th AIVC Conference on Building Low Energy Cooling and
Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, September 2007, Crete island, Greece
The combination of clay and nanotube carbon as an innovative and sustainable
material
P. Shahmohamadi, F. Soflaee
Islamic Azad University, Iran
ABSTRACT
The idea of using one-dimensional fillers as a reinforc-
ing agent is nothing new: straw has been used to rein-
force mud bricks since about 4000 BC. Mud brick is
sustainable and traditional material which is used in
large scales of building houses in hot-arid climate, so it
is identity of these areas and it is not able to be ignored.
Finding some solutions for reinforcing mud brick or in
other word, creating innovative materials for the climate
is the aim of this article.
This paper describes a first approach towards the appli-
cation of Carbon Nanotube as replacement for traditional
reinforcements such as straw, date fibers, cinder, in mud
brick houses. Carbon Nanotubes are molecular-scale
tubes of graphitic carbon with outstanding properties.
This article discusses about the way of combination of
Clay and Carbon Nanotube, their properties and can this
combination replace inside of mud brick or no. In addition,
because of existing the hexagonal forms of Carbon Nan-
otube can increase the sustainability of this new material.
In fact a mud brick as a building material have been
remained during different periods of history, is still used
as a building material and a configuring element to any
architectural structure but with a modern vision.
Therefore, it is imperative to find a low cost industrial
replacement for the cane, capable of providing the ado-
be masonry with sufficient confinement as to withstand
a severe earthquake without collapse. The combination
of clay and Nanotube Carbon, because of some prop-
erties is introduced as potential alternative to reinforce
masonry elements. Hence, its use is attractive for the
reinforcement of adobe structures since it could become
a replacement for the cane reinforcement.
Because the hexagonal form is one of the sustainable
forms in nature. Finally, this innovative
Material can be used in building with low energy cool-
ing and new technologies. It is the theoretical develop-
ment of this idea that here we are paying attention.
1. INTRODUCTION
Construction of houses with mud bricks is one of the
most traditional construction techniques in Iran and
many other countries. In the past, mud brick was used
PALENC 2007 - Vol 2.indd 959
959
as the most current and the cheapest material in differ-
ent hot-dry regions in Iran. In order to make it possible
for a building to be built by mud brick more resistant
and stable, some provisions and methods were used by
traditional architects.
The making of mud brick buildings were commonly
considered at every time because since the past time it
has been always tried to supply requires materials for
construction buildings from the nearest place to where a
building was being constructed.
In traditional mud brick architecture is fulfilled a build-
ing identity by considerate to the available factors in
nature and according to what are affected by climate.
Adaptability of a building to the environment and cli-
mate is a pre-requisite to the formation of it.
2. THE DEFINITION AND PROPERTIES OF CAR-
BON NANOTUBES
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon. A
carbon nanotube is a one-atom thick sheet of graphite
(called graphene) rolled up into a seamless cylinder with
diameter of the order of a nanometer. This results in an
essentially one-dimensional nanostructure where the
length-to-diameter ratio exceeds 10,000. Such cylindrical
carbon molecules have novel properties that make them
potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in na-
notechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of ma-
terials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and
unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors
of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.
7/9/2007 1:25:29 µµ
 960 2nd PALENC Conference and 28th AIVC Conference on Building Low Energy Cooling and
Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, September 2007, Crete island, Greece
Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural fami-
ly, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs
are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at
least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the
buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their
size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of
a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller
than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to
several millimeters in length.
Since their discovery in 1991, carbon nanotubes have
generated huge activity in most areas of science and
engineering due to their unprecedented physical and
chemical properties. No previous material has displayed
the combination of superlative mechanical, thermal and
electronic properties attributed to them. These proper-
ties make nanotubes ideal, not only for a wide range of
applications but as a test bed for fundamental science.
In particular, this combination of properties makes them
ideal candidates as advanced filler materials in com-
posites. In another area, it is thought that their massive
thermal conductivity can be exploited to make ther-
mally conductive composites. However, probably the
most promising area of composites research involves
the mechanical enhancement of plastics using carbon
nanotubes as reinforcing fillers.
Carbon nanotubes are molecular-scale tubes of graphitic
carbon with outstanding properties. They are among the
stiffest and strongest fibers known and have remarkable
electronic properties and many other unique characteristics.
3. THE TYPE AND STRUCTIRE OF CARBON
3.1 Silicon – Natural Forms, Ancient Uses
Rarely do we think about silicon as a simple and natu-
ral element in the world around us: sand on the beach,
black clear remnants of a volcanic eruption, or essential
domestic artifacts like the transparent pane occupying
the nearest window frame or the glass you drink from at
each meal and how many of us would think about silicon
as the main element comprising the sharp, strong obsid-
ian blades or arrowheads in humans’ most ancient tools?
As common as silicon is in today’s world, many of us
PALENC 2007 - Vol 2.indd 960
would be surprised to learn that it is the second most
abundant element on earth, making up almost a third
of the earth’s crust, and the main ingredient in even the
tiniest grains of sand or the hardest samples of natural
glass and quartz crystals. But it can be said, with its
myriad applications, that this nonmetallic element has
almost single handedly redefined our notion of “ma-
chine” in the second half of this century, rapidly becom-
ing an increasingly transparent, weightless, ephemeral
analogue of human life. Even so, we still closely guard
our outmoded concept of machines as hard, and hol-
low metallic shells or cold crankshafts, solid, smooth
pistons and notched metal gears, connotations which
continue to weigh down and polarize the relationship
between humans and their technologies.
3.2 Carbon the Basis of Life
Harold Kroto said:
“The carbon in our body originated in space. Indeed,
we now know that it was ejected from some star a long,
long time ago and then was reprocessed and ended up
on the Earth’s biosphere. What is absolutely fascinat-
ing and certainly something that excited me when I first
discovered it, is that every one of us is made of carbon,
therefore every one of us is made of stardust... “One
thing they are not so sure of is what is the form of that
dust, what is the structure. How does the carbon nucle-
ate to form these that form these little wudges that go on
to grow into planets?”   
Carbon, known now in its three forms, graphite, dia-
mond and buckminsterfullerene, is the basis of organic
chemistry, the fundamental element of all biological life
as we have come to know it. Yet carbon is closer to sili-
con than to any other single element.
Carbon and silicon have more similarities in their respec-
tive properties and structures than differences. Because
of the placement on the periodic table, each containing
four electrons in their outer shells, they are found right
next to each other in the same vertical family. Because of
their tendency to easily bond with other elements, both
can be found or combined into numerous other forms.
It is easy to compare these two abundant elements so
central to everyday life. Although silicon is only slight-
ly more metallic than carbon because it tends to lose
electrons more easily, it is safe to say that silicon is con-
sidered inorganic while carbon is organic. If we wanted
to compare carbon with silicon as analogues of the ani-
mate and inanimate world, we need only look to their
molecular structures and the functions they fulfill.
The three allotropes of carbon: diamond, graphite and
buckminsterfullerene exhibit many of the same struc-
tural characteristics as various forms of silicon. These
three pure forms of carbon vary from one another by
7/9/2007 1:25:30 µµ
 2nd PALENC Conference and 28th AIVC Conference on Building Low Energy Cooling and
Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, September 2007, Crete island, Greece
the crystal structure the atoms take. It is possible to
compare each with a form of silicon that has similar
properties or fulfills similar functions in our everyday
world. For the purposes of this qualitative comparison,
graphite’s analog could easily be mica, diamond’s ana-
log, quartz crystal and buckyball’s could be silicones or
even the recently discovered silicon.
3.3 Comparison between Silicon and Carbon
Graphite, the simplest form of pure carbon, is so soft
it can be cleaved at any point. Each atom is bonded to
three others forming layers of flat sheets of hexagons
which can easily slide back and forth over one another.
Mica, mineral containing atoms of silicon, aluminum
and oxygen (S02) also has a flat hexagonal structure and
can be easily cleaved into thin sheets like graphite.
Graphite is one of our most common communication
tools, its name meaning “to write.” It is soft and “greasy”
so it can easily be used to lubricate moving machine
parts. Mixed with clay, graphite forms the “lead” in pen-
cils, simple instruments. Its longevity, as well its ability
to be erased lends pencil lead nicely to marks on paper
artifacts. This gives graphite an intrinsically functional
and lasting value in the varied manuscripts and docu-
ments found in every archive in the world. Graphite,
like mica also has many industrial uses.
Diamond is the strongest natural substance known, is
often used to grind and polish other materials to the fin-
est degree. A precut diamond can be identified by its
octahedral outer shape and its atoms are arranged in a
dense, tetrahedral framework or lattice. Each carbon
atom of diamond is the center of one tetrahedron and
the vertex of another. By the same token, quartz crys-
tal’s molecular structure is a also a dense and strong
tetrahedral network. Although not as hard as diamond,
quartz’s crystalline structure is very similar to it. In ad-
dition, while diamonds are formed in molten lava by the
heat and pressure deep in the earth, obsidian, a form of
silicon, is the hard black glass formed of lava when it
meets oxygen and hardens in the outer atmosphere.
Diamonds come from the core of the Earth. Quartz crys-
tal is also one of the hardest minerals. Its conductivity
enables an electric current to ride through this beautiful
silicon-based quartz crystal. Both diamond and crystal
have been used liberally for tools used in making lenses
for microscopes and telescopes.
Buckminsterfullerene, the most recently discovered al-
lotrope of pure carbon, is a hollow cage molecule with
flexibility and strength, exhibiting perfect spherical
symmetry. Buckminsterfullerene’s 60 atoms are bonded
together in a stable, yet flexible hexapent cage. Its most
unique property is that it can be bonded both from the
inside and the outside. Silicon and oxygen combine to
PALENC 2007 - Vol 2.indd 961
961
form silicones, a cross between organic materials such
as oil, rubber and plastics and inorganic materials such
as sand, glass and quartz crystal. Buckyballs on the oth-
er hand, also carry structural characteristics of both the
organic fivefold world and the inorganic crystal world.
The links in the molecular skeleton of alternating silicon,
oxygen and other atoms in silicones have bond strength
about one and a half times as great as the carbon bond
that holds organic molecules together, thus giving them
organic properties such lubrication, water repellence
and flexibility, the same properties of buckyballs. Both
buckyballs and silicones both form polymers.
Buckyballs are just beginning, in theory and in their
first real applications, to revolutionize the already ex-
isting computer industry. Silicones, the most flexible
materials when used in rubber-like compounds, have
myriad applications in various technologies. They are
often used in the body as well.
4. TYPES OF CARBON NANOTUBES
4.1 Single-walled
Most single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) have a diameter
of close to 1 nanometer, with a tube length that can be
many thousands of times longer. Single-walled nano-
tubes with length up to orders of centimeters have been
produced. The structure of a SWNT can be conceptu-
alized by wrapping a one-atom-thick layer of graphite
called graphene into a seamless cylinder. Single-walled
nanotubes are a very important variety of carbon nano-
tube because they exhibit important electric properties
that are not shared by the multi-walled carbon nanotube
(MWNT) variants. Single-walled nanotubes are the
most likely candidate for miniaturizing electronics past
the micro electromechanical scale that is currently the
basis of modern electronics. The most basic building
block of these systems is the electric wire, and SWNTs
can be excellent conductors. One useful application of
SWNTs is in the development of the first intramolecu-
lar field effect transistors (FETs). The production of the
first intramolecular logic gate using SWNT FETs has
recently become possible as well. Single-walled nano-
tubes are still very expensive to produce, and the devel-
opment of more affordable synthesis techniques is vital
to the future of carbon nanotechnology.
4.2 Multi-walled
Multiwalled nanotubes (MWNT) consist of multiple
layers of graphite rolled in on themselves to form a
tube shape. There are two models which can be used
to describe the structures of multiwalled nanotubes.
The interlayer distance is close to the distance between
graphene layers in graphite. The special place of Dou-
7/9/2007 1:25:30 µµ
 962 2nd PALENC Conference and 28th AIVC Conference on Building Low Energy Cooling and
Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, September 2007, Crete island, Greece
ble-walled Carbon Nanotubes (DWNT) must be em-
phasized here because they combine very similar mor-
phology and properties as compared to SWNT, while
improving significantly their chemical resistance. In the
case of SWNT, covalent functionalisation will break
some C=C double bonds, leaving “holes” in the struc-
ture on the nanotube and thus modifying both its me-
chanical and electrical properties. In the case of DWNT,
only the outer wall is modified.
4.3 Fullerite
Fullerites are the solid-state manifestation of fullerenes
and related compounds and materials. Being highly in-
compressible nanotube forms, polymerized single walled
nanotubes (P-SWNT) are a class of fullerites and are
comparable to diamond in terms of hardness. However,
due to the way that nanotubes intertwine, P-SWNTs
don’t have the corresponding crystal lattice that makes
it possible to cut diamonds neatly. This same structure
results in a less brittle material, as any impact that the
structure sustains is spread out throughout the material.
4.4 Torus
A nanotorus is a theoretically described carbon na-
notube bent into a torus (donut shape). Nanotori have
many unique properties, such as magnetic moments
1000 times larger than previously expected for certain
specific radii. Many properties such as magnetic mo-
ment, thermal stability, etc. vary widely depending on
radius of the torus and radius of the tube.
5. PROPERTIES OF TYPES OF CARBON NANO-
TUBES
5.1 Strength
Carbon nanotubes are one of the strongest and stiffest
materials known, in terms of tensile strength and elas-
tic modulus respectively. This strength results from the
covalent sp2 bonds formed between the individual car-
bon atoms.
Under excessive tensile strain, the tubes will undergo
plastic deformation, which means the deformation is per-
manent. This deformation begins at strains of approxi-
mately 5% and can increase the maximum strain the tube
undergoes before fracture by releasing strain energy.
CNTs are not nearly as strong under compression. Be-
cause of their hollow structure and high aspect ratio,
they tend to undergo buckling when placed under com-
pressive, torsional or bending stress.
5.2 Kinetic
Multiwalled carbon nanotubes, multiple concentric na-
notubes precisely nested within one another, exhibit a
PALENC 2007 - Vol 2.indd 962
striking telescoping property whereby an inner nano-
tube core may slide, almost without friction, within its
outer nanotube shell thus creating an atomically perfect
linear or rotational bearing. This is one of the first true
examples of molecular nanotechnology, the precise po-
sitioning of atoms to create useful machines. Already
this property has been utilized to create the world’s
smallest rotational motor and a nanorheostat.
5.3 Thermal
All nanotubes are expected to be very good thermal con-
ductors along the tube, exhibiting a property known as
“ballistic conduction,” but good insulators laterally to
the tube axis. It is predicted that carbon nanotubes will
be able to transmit up to 6000 watts per meter per kelvin
at room temperature; compare this to copper, a metal
well-known for its good thermal conductivity, which
only transmits 385 W/m/K. The temperature stability of
carbon nanotubes is estimated to be up to 2800 degrees
Celsius in vacuum and about 750 degrees Celsius in air.[32]
5.4 Defects
As with any material, the existence of defects affects
the material properties. Defects can occur in the form
of atomic vacancies. High levels of such defects can
lower the tensile strength by up to 85%.[33] Another
well-known form of defect that occurs in carbon nano-
tubes is known as the Stone Wales defect, which creates
a pentagon and heptagon pair by rearrangement of the
bonds. Because of the almost one-dimensional structure
of CNTs, the tensile strength of the tube is dependent on
the weakest segment of it in a similar manner to a chain,
where a defect in a single link diminishes the strength
of the entire chain.
The tube’s electrical properties are also affected by the
presence of defects. A common result is the lowered
conductivity through the defective region of the tube.
Some defect formation in armchair-type tubes (which
are metallic) can cause the region surrounding that de-
fect to become semiconducting. Furthermore single
monoatomic vacancies induce magnetic properties.
The tube’s thermal properties are heavily affected by
defects. Such defects lead to phonon scattering, which
in turn increases the relaxation rate of the phonons. This
reduces the mean free path, and reduces the thermal
conductivity of nanotube structures.
6. CONCLUSION
The biggest advantage of modern composite materials
is that they are light as well as strong. By choosing an
appropriate combination of matrix and reinforcement
material, a new material can be made that exactly meets
7/9/2007 1:25:30 µµ
 2nd PALENC Conference and 28th AIVC Conference on Building Low Energy Cooling and 963
Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, September 2007, Crete island, Greece

the requirements of a particular application. Composites Global Abundance. Cambridge: The MIT Press. 1996. p. 94-95.
also provide design flexibility because many of them
can be moulded into complex shapes. They exhibit ex-
traordinary strength and unique electrical properties,
and are efficient conductors of heat.
These properties make nanotubes ideal, not only for a
wide range of applications but as a test bed for funda-
mental science.
In particular, this combination of properties makes them
ideal candidates as advanced filler materials in com-
posites. In another area, it is thought that their massive
thermal conductivity can be exploited to make ther-
mally conductive composites. However, probably the
most promising area of composites research involves
the mechanical enhancement of plastics using carbon
nanotubes as reinforcing fillers.
As a matter of fact, the combination of clay and nano-
tube carbon provide new material for reinforcing the
mud brick. Because the exist of hexagonal form of car-
bon as a two layers inside of clay make mud brick rein-
forcement and sustainable because of carbon properties.
Graphite, the simplest form of pure carbon, is so soft
it can be cleaved at any point. Each atom is bonded to
three others forming layers of flat sheets of hexagons
which can easily slide back and forth over one another.
Hexagonal structure and can be easily cleaved into thin
sheets like graphite.
Buckminsterfullerene, the most recently discovered
allotrope of pure carbon, is a hollow cage molecule
with flexibility and strength, exhibiting perfect spheri-
cal symmetry. Buckminsterfullerene’s 60 atoms are
bonded together in a stable, yet flexible hexapent cage.
The main aim of this product is the development of a ma-
terial system with a high degree of integration between
its design and performance. This integration is inherent
to natural material systems for they have been devel-
oped through evolutionary means which intricately tie
together the form, growth, and behavior of the organism.
As a result, design a sustainable and flexible materials
that incorporates energy saving measures that include
optimizing the use of daylight, sunlight and wind buoy-
ancy to reduce the requirement for electric light, heating
and mechanical ventilation. These will provide a low en-
ergy building within the cost constructions of the project.

REFRENCES

Shokohfar, Ali, 2005, An Introduction to Nanotechnology, Te-

hran: Nashrgostar.
Laszlo forro, Christian Schonenberger, 2001, Carbon Nanotubes;
Materials for the Future, Europhysics News, Vol. 32, No.3.
Tavasoli, Mahmood, 2001, Construction City and Architecture in
Hot-arid Climate, Tehran, Payam Press.
Crandall, B.C., ed. Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on

PALENC 2007 - Vol 2.indd 963 7/9/2007 1:25:30 µµ