Nano-patterns use Silly Putty component
DB: This is Earth and Sky, with a story from the world of nanotechnology – the emerging science of the very small.
JB: We spoke with Teri Odom, a chemist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Teri Odom: Part of what we’re trying to do, at least in our research, is to create new types of nanostructures on surfaces that show unusual optical or physical properties.
DB: In the laboratory, Odom and her colleagues create what are called “nano–patterns” – patterns on the molecular level – with a chemical polymer called “PDMS,” or polydimethylsiloxane. PDMS is the primary component of Silly Putty – a rubbery yet moldable toy.
Teri Odom: And why that is useful in the type of nano–patterning that we do is that we can make a master, which is a pattern that we want to replicate many, many times, and we can use this PDMS to replicate the very expensive master.
JB: This research relates to a current stumbling block in nanotechnology – that structures on the smallest scale, the scale of atoms and molecules aren’t easy to make. Odom’s master pattern – which might be used, for example, in communications technology – will let nanoscience make faster progress.
DB: That’s our show. Thanks today to the National Science Foundation. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
DB: And I’m Deborah Byrd for Earth and Sky
Our thanks to:
Teri Odom
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Dupont Young Professor
Northwestern University
