Posted: February 8, 2008 |
Researchers produce nanowires easier, faster than before |
(Nanowerk News) Sometimes simpler is better.
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Engineering researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a new way to produce ultra-thin electricity-conducting wire that is simpler and faster than existing processes.
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"Other methods used to produce nanowires use high temperatures and high pressure," said Subrata Kundu, a post-doctoral researcher in the research group of Hong Liang, an associate professor in Texas A&M's Department of Mechanical Engineering. "This method is much simpler and faster."
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A section of nanowire produced by Texas A&M mechanical engineering researchers postdoctoral researcher Subrata Kundu and associate professor Hong Liang. The electrically conducting nanowire is about 1/1,000 the width of a human hair and could be used in developing nanoscale electronic devices.
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Kundu and Liang described the process in an article in the current issue of the journal Advanced Materials.
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The process developed by Kundu and Liang works by shining ultraviolet light on a mixture of strands of DNA, cadmium sulfate and thioacetamide for about six hours. UV light breaks thioacetamide to produce sulfide ions (S2-). Chemical changes produced by the UV light allow the cadmium sulfate molecules to bind to the DNA. The resulting nanowires — about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair — conduct electricity and could be used in the development of so-called nano-scale electronic devices like small chips to make tiny computer or medical devices.
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Nano-scale devices range in size from the size of a molecule to about 100 nanometers. One meter is 1 billion nanometers long.
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Liang and Kundu plan to continue research in this area using different metals — lead, zinc and molybdenum — to produce the nanowires. Kundu said working with the other metals will give the researchers important information about how the process works.
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The UV process also allows nanowires to be built on DNA arranged in two or three dimensions, t-joints and cubes, for example. This opens the possibility of using the process to build entire nano-scale circuits.
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