Applicability of carbon nanotube materials in present-day and future electrical machines

The conductivity of carbon-nanotube-based yarns is developing gradually. Individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer very high conductivity levels but yarns spun of them still are in their infancy and develop slowly. Currently, CNTs are typically grown with chemical vapour deposition from methane, methanol or other carbon-rich hydrocarbons. Theoretical ideas of using graphene as a basic material to create high-conductivity nanotubes have also been presented lately. However, already present-day CNT-based yarns demonstrate conductivity levels that are considered good in principle for certain applications. This paper studies the applicability of CNT-based winding materials in electrical machine design.