Aiming to make a multi-core cable to compete with nerves, researchers at the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory have processed carbon nanotubes with glass fibre drawing techniques.
The result is a fibre under 0.5mm in diameter with 19,600 conductive channels.
"Each carbon nanotube-containing channel is electrically insulated from its neighbours by glass, so it can be used as an individual communication channel," said the Lab.
The researchers filled glass tubes with carbon nanotubes, heated the combination to softening point, and pulled.
"We make this material in a way similar to what you may have done in school when making a glass capillary over a Bunsen burner," said scientist Ilia Ivanov. "There, you would take the glass tube, heat it up and pull, or draw, as soon as the glass became soft."
A fibre with several cores was made by paralleling lengths of the resulting single-core fibre, and pulling the assembly as it was softened.
Repeating the parallel-soften-pull process produced the 20,000 core cable.
"The human hand has a density of receptors at the fingertips of about 2,500/cmsuper3 and about 17,000 tactile receptors in the hand," said scientist Ilia Ivanov. "So in terms of density of channels, we are already in the range needed for 17,000 receptors in the hand."
Other potential uses include aeronautics and space applications where low weight of conducting wires is important.
The next steps are to improve the channel conductivity and demonstrate communication through individual channels, said the Lab.