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Anti-bioterrorism applications with carbon nanotubes

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis and is highly lethal in some forms. Anthrax spores can and have been used in biological warfare. "Weaponizing" the spores requires a process to make an aerosol form of anthrax so that they easily can enter the lungs. Inhalation is the most lethal form of anthrax infection. Consequently there has been significant interest in the surface structure and characteristics of anthrax spores as related to their binding by molecular species. The investigation of such binding is obviously important to the development of countermeasure technologies for the detection and decontamination of anthrax spores. A group of researchers at Clemson University have come up with an agent that clings to the anthrax spores to make their inhalation into the lungs difficult.

Oct 10th, 2006

Sulfur as a promoter for growing intrinsic functional carbon nanotube elements

Individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of different structural and thus electronic characteristics can be joined to build up three-terminal logic devices. However, today this can only be achieved using highly sophisticated nanomanipulation processes. The direct growth of intrinsic functional CNT elements such as Y-shaped CNTS (YCNTs) and helical CNTs (HCNTs) can be considered as an important alternative. YCNTs already have proven to show rapid and nonlinear transistor action without the need for external gating, while HCNTs could be used as inductive elements offering rapid signal processing. Additionally, HCNTs have shown operational functionality as high sensitivity force and mass sensors and are of great interest for nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). A research group in Spain now reports that sulfur may be used as a highly efficient additive in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes, allowing enhanced selectivity in the synthesis of helical and Y-shaped CNTs.

Sep 29th, 2006

Carbon nanotube forests as non-stick workbenches

The ubiquitous static friction (stiction) and adhesion forces comprise a major obstacle in the manipulation of matter at the nanoscale. In order to realize the potential of nanotubes and nanowires as components in electronic devices or other microsystems, methods for reliable pick-and-place assembly must be established. A major obstacle here is the delicate balance required between the adhesion forces acting between the object to be manipulated, and the surface and the manipulation tool, respectively. A group od Danish and UK researchers found that self-assembled organic nanofibers, which are otherwise totally impossible to remove from any normal surface, can be lifted straight off from a nanotube forest. It means that the notorious stickiness of even the most soft and fragile materials, which immobilizes them and prevent handling, is a problem that now can be solved.

Sep 26th, 2006

Light sensors made from carbon nanotube macrobundles

The photoconductivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been studied theoretically in a nanotube p?n junction, a single SWNT transistor, and thin SWNT films. While individual nanotubes generate discrete fine peaks in optical absorption and emission, macroscopic structures consisting of many CNTs gathered together also demonstrate interesting optical behavior. For example, a millimeter-long bundle of aligned multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs) emits polarized incandescent light by electrical current heating, and recently researchers in China have made multi-walled nanotubes (SWNT) bundles giving higher brightness emission at lower voltage compared with conventional tungsten filaments. Recent achievements in fabricating self-assembled centimeter-long bundles of CNTs have greatly facilitated study on the macroscopic behavior of these bundle structures. Preliminary results such as an optical polarizer and a light bulb based on CNT macrobundles have been reported.

Sep 14th, 2006

Low temperature fabrication of CNTs for field emission displays

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered the most promising material for field emitters and a practical example are CNTs as electron emitters for field emission displays (FED). CNT emitters are generally fabricated by indirect growth methods such as screen-printing and electrophoresis. These methods show advantages in lowering the coating temperature and scale-up of the substrate size, but the direction of CNTs cannot be well controlled and a post-treatment process is generally necessary to enhance the performance of CNT emitters. In contrast to the indirect method, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a common technique for growing nanotubes directly on the substrate with the assistance of metallic catalysts. With the CVD method, CNTs can be grown at desired locations with a specified direction. However,most synthesis technologies such as conventional thermal CVD or plasma enhanced CVD are performed at temperatures over 500 C, which may restrict the application of CNTs on plastic substrates. Therefore, lowering the growth temperature for CNTs is one of the important directions for facilitating CNT applications.

Sep 1st, 2006

The flip side of using carbon nanotubes for environmental pollutants removal

Carbon nanomaterials have been studied as superior sorbents for their potential environmental applications to remove pollutants such as organic pollutants, metals, fluorides and radionuclides. Most of these studies focused on the adsorption process and few dealt with the interfacial interactions of organic contaminants with carbon nanomaterials in aqueous media. However, understanding their desorption behavior as well is critical to evaluating environmental and health impacts of carbon nanomaterials. New research looks at the high adsorption capacity and reversible adsorption of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), many of which are suspected carcinogens, on CNTs. The findings imply the potential release of PAHs if PAH-adsorbed CNTs are inhaled by animals and humans, leading to a high environmental and public health risk.

Aug 30th, 2006

The challenge of separating and sorting carbon nanotubes after production

Current production methods for carbon nanotubes result in units with different diameter, length, chirality and electronic properties, all packed together in bundles, and often blended with some amount of amorphous carbon. The separation of nanotubes according to desired properties remains a technical challenge. Especially single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) sorting is a challenge because the composition and chemical properties of SWCNTs of different types are very similar, making conventional separation techniques inefficient.

Aug 21st, 2006

Quantum dot nanodevices with carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes are attractive materials as the building block of quantum-dot based nanodevices. In particular, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are interesting because they become metallic and semiconducting, depending on how they are rolled up from the graphene sheet, and they could be applied to various devices such as ultrasmall field-effect transistors, single-electron devices, quantum computing devices, and light-emitting devices. A research group at the Japanese Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) has made extensive experimental efforts to apply SWCNTs to single-electron devices and quantum computing devices (spin qubit) with a single quantum dot as a basic structure.

Aug 4th, 2006