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A nanotube is a nanometer-scale tube-like structure. A nanotube is a kind of nanoparticle, and may be large enough to serve as a pipe through which other nanoparticles can be channeled, or, depending on the material, may be used as an electrical conductor or an electrical insulator.
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History
The first nanotubes to be discovered were carbon nanotubes. In 1952 L. V. Radushkevich and V. M. Lukyanovich published clear images of 50 nanometer diameter tubes made of carbon in the Soviet Journal of Physical Chemistry. This discovery was largely unnoticed, as the article was published in Russian, and Western scientists' access to Soviet press was limited during the Cold War. Before they came to be known as carbon nanotubes, in 1976, Morinobu Endo of CNRS observed hollow tubes of rolled up graphite sheets synthesised by a chemical vapour-growth technique. The first specimens observed would later come to be known as single-celled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The three scientists have been the first ones to show images of a nanotube with a solitary graphene wall.