the preferred range of compositions for invention embodiments an important additional advantage of using hipco nanotubes in coagulation spinning is that the range of spinable nt suspension compositions in the water nanotube sodium dodecyl sulphate sds system is expanded to a wider range of nt concentrations and to a wider range of sds concentrations than in the known cs process using impure carbon arc produced nts this is illustrated in fig3 which shows that aqueous suspensions of hipco nanotubes containing up to 0 5 wt nts and up to 3 wt sds can be spun into continuous fibers the increased nt concentrations in these hipco nanotube suspensions are advantageous in that they lead to stronger more easily processed filaments in the wet state the invention is not restricted to spinning nanotube dispersions that use sodium dodecyl sulphate as a surfactant other sodium alkyl sulfates can be used in the range of sodium c 8 u2014 c 30 alkyl sulphate examples of these sodium alkyl sulphates include sodium nonyl sulphate sodium decyl sulphate sodium undecyl sulphate sodium tetradecyl sulphate sodium hexadecyl sulphate sodium lauryl sulphate sodium stearyl sulfate and sodium cetyl sulphate sodium alkyl sulfates based upon coconut oil tallow or tall oil may be used besides the anionic surfactants cationic and nonionic surfactants can be used cationic surfactants include alkylpyridinium halides and quaternary ammonium.