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|Since its first discovery in 1991, the existence of a new form of carbon as nanotubes, has
excited scientists the world over. Carbon in the form of nanotubes has the potential to form a material of
great mechanical strength (hundred times stronger than steel) as well as displaying remarkable electrical
properties. Depending on the arrangement of the atoms within the nanotubes, they can either be conducting,
insulating or act as semiconductors: and as the tubes are so small, with diameters of the order of 1nm (ten
thousand times less than a human hair) whilst still being extremely good conductors of electricity the
implications for miniaturisation and speeding up of electronic components are immense.
The stumbling block to date has been how to fabricate the tubes in such a way as to produce the required properties. All the known methods of fabrication produced a disordered mass of tubes with correspondingly random structures and properties. That is all about to change, with a major breakthrough made in the Department's Nanoscale Science Laboratory (NSL) headed by Professor Mark Welland, in conjunction with Professor Jim Gimzewski at UCLA and Dr. Maria Seo at IBM, Zurich.
The work has been described by other workers in the field as the most stunning result in 'buckytube' research in a year. "It was so unexpected to fabricate perfect crystalline arrays of nanotubes in this way, when all previous attempts have shown nanotubes wrapped together looking like plates of spaghetti" says Professor Mark Welland. "We couldn't believe it at first, and it has taken six months before we were convinced that what we were seeing was real. I am still amazed at the beautiful images of these crystals."
The team will now continue their research into the electrical and mechanical properties of the various
crystalline forms of the new material, and will look towards developing applications.
Copies of the article 'Single Crystals of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Formed by Self-Assembly' (published on 5th April) are obtainable from Science Express.
This research has also recently been featured in the Financial Times
For further information, contact Professor Mark Welland, Department of Engineering, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ. Tel:01223 332676.
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