Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Manipulating Carbon Nanotubes

September 16, 2006

Manipulating Carbon Nanotubes

Photo: At left, the high conductance state has two molecular orbitals, shown in green. Some molecules even let the nanotube switch between highly conductive, left, and poorly conductive. MIT materials scientists tame tricky carbon nanotubes:

Now Young-Su Lee, an MIT graduate student in materials science and engineering, and Nicola Marzari, an associate professor in the same department, have identified a class of chemical molecules that preserve the metallic properties of carbon nanotubes and their near-perfect ability to conduct electricity with little resistance.

Using these molecules as handles, Marzari and Lee said, could overcome fabrication problems and lend the nanotubes new properties for a host of potential applications as detectors, sensors or components in novel optoelectronics.

by curiouscat Tags: Engineering, Nanotechnology, Research, Science, Students, Universities
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One Response to “Manipulating Carbon Nanotubes”

CuriousCat: Carbon Nanotechnology in an 17th Century Damascus Sword Says:
October 1st, 2008 at 8:32 am
“It isn’t clear how ancient blacksmiths produced these nanotubes, but the researchers believe that the key to this process lay with small traces of metals in the wootz including vanadium, chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel…”