FED-TVs with carbon nanotube technology could supersede plasma and LCD fl...( Just as silicon is the wonder mate...)

Just as silicon is the wonder material for the computer age, carbon nanotubes will most likely be the materials responsible for the next evolutionary step in electronics and computing. Their extraordinary properties have identified them as having the potential to revolutionise many technologies.

In particular, it is widely believed that carbon nanotubes will take electronic devices to the next level. Many people expect the hugely popular LCD and plasma screens of today to be replaced by field emission flat screen displays (FED-TV). FED-TVs take all the best aspects of CRTs, LCDs and plasma TVs and roll them into a single package. While the technology exists, manufacturers are at present unable to compete with LCDs and plasma displays on a cost basis. However, carbon nanotubes have the ability to change all that.

In order to incorporate carbon nanotubes into devices like these field emission flat screen displays, an intimate knowledge of the properties of various forms of carbon nanotubes is invaluable. Researchers from University of Latvia, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, University of London and Mid Sweden University have just published work characterizing the conductive and field emission properties of single and multi walled carbon nanotubes.

The work by Jana Andzane, Joseph M. Tobin, Zhonglai Li, Juris Prikulis, Mark Baxendale, Hkan Olin, Justin D. Holmes and Donats Erts has been published in a special edition of the open access journal, AZoJono* and is available in its entirety at http://www.azonano.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=2038. This special edition of AZoJono features a number of papers from DESYGN-IT, the project seeking to secure Europe as the international scientific leader in the design, synthesis, growth, characterisation and application of nanotubes, nanowires and nanotube arrays for industrial technology.

In their work, the condu
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