| HOME >> BIOLOGY >> TECHNOLOGY |
Nanotubes and nanowires are promising building blocks for future integrated nanoelectronic and photonic circuits, nanosensors, interconnects and electro-mechanical nanodevices. But some fundamental issues remain to be resolved among them, how to position and manipulate the tiny tubes.
Publishing in the journal Nature Materials this week, researchers from four different institutions report measuring different friction forces when a carbon nanotube slides along its axis compared to when it slides perpendicular to its axis. This friction difference has its origins in soft lateral distortion of the tubes when they slide in the transverse direction.
The findings not only could provide a better understanding of fundamental friction issues, but from a more practical standpoint, offer a new tool for assembling nanotubes into devices and clarify the forces acting on them. Asymmetries in the friction could potentially also be used in sorting nanotubes according to their chirality, a property that is now difficult to measure with other means.
When an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip is scanned transversely across a multi-walled carbon nanotube, the amount of friction measured is twice as much as when the same tube is scanned longitudinally, along the length of the tube. The researchers attribute this difference to what they call "hindered rolling" additional effort required to overcome the nanotube's tendency to roll as the AFM tip strokes across it rather than along it.
"Because the energy required to move in one direction is twice as much as required to move in the other direction, this could be an easy way to control the assembly of carbon nanotubes for nanoelectronics, sensors and other applications," said Elisa Riedo, co-author of the study and an associate professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "To assemble nanotubes on a surface, you need to know how they interact and what fo
'/>"/>
| Contact: John Toon jtoon@gatech.edu 404-894-6986 Georgia Institute of Technology Research News Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology technology :
1. Heavier hydrogen on the atomic scale reduces friction
2. Liko Introduces Two Additions to Its Stat Family of Low Friction Sheets
3. Models present new view of nanoscale friction
4. Roche Joins Forces With Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church to Provide Free Hepatitis C Testing to the Community
5. Cephalon Reinforces Important Prescribing and Dosing Information for FENTORA
6. European Expert Consortium Combines Forces to Develop a Novel Pandemic Influenza Vaccine
7. New force-fluorescence device measures motion previously undetectable
8. Empire Genomics and Reprogenetics Join Forces to Improve Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
9. ForceLogix, Innovex Win Sales Operational Performance Award
10. Neurocrine Announces Work Force Restructuring
11. Workforce Alliance Concludes Three-Year Biotech Training Program
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |