The mammoth potential of tiny nanotubes
JB: This is Earth and Sky. In his lab at Cornell University in New York, Paul McEuen, Professor of Physics, is checking out the properties of nanotubes.
DB: Nano means “billionth.” A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A nanotube is a single sheet of carbon atoms rolled into a cylinder. The longest nanotube so far measures about a centimeter – about half an inch. But nanotubes are skinny – just a few atoms in diameter. A one–centimeter nanotube is ten million times longer than it is wide.
Paul McEuen: They’re very thin, but they’re also very stiff. So maybe think of a steel guitar string…. a guitar string has some rigidity, but it’s pretty flexible. But it’s not flexible because it’s weak; it’s flexible because it’s really long and skinny so that it bends…
JB: Nanotubes are stronger than steel and have electrical properties that rival the best semiconductors.
Paul McEuen: We just want to play with them, and do curiosity–driven science – what are these little things like, and what kinds of little widgets we can make with them . . . and I think it’s important for people to understand that there’s a discovery ad fundamental playing–around stage in which you don’t want to hamper your instincts, your creativity, your desire to just sort of wander around in the scientific landscape – and later comes a period where you start to say, okay, let’s think about what this is good for.
DB: Come to earthsky.org – with your questions and comments about nanotechnology. With thanks to the National Science Foundation, we’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
Tell us what you think about nanotechnology!
From howstuffworks, “”How Will Nanotechnology Work?””:http://science.howstuffworks.com/nanotechnology.htm
Scientific American’s nanotechnology page
More on Paul McEuen’s research
More from Paul McEuen:
Nanotubes can be grown very long. They can be grown up to centimeters long…it’s long when you think that it’s a nanometer across…. that’s ten million times longer that it is wide… Suffice it to say, nanotubes are so unusual in their incredible mechanical strength and their remarkable electronic properties and their interesting geometry that it’s hard to believe that they’re not going to find applications in a number of different areas.
Thanks to:Paul McEuen
Professor of Physics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
