Carbon nanotubes are attractive candidates for use as the active elements in the next generation of electronic devices. However, it has proven incredibly difficult to align nanotubes within device architectures.
Most of the approaches for lining up carbon nanotubes reported
Carbon nanotubes are attractive candidates for use as the active elements in the next generation of electronic devices. However, it has proven incredibly difficult to align nanotubes within device architectures.
Most of the approaches for lining up carbon nanotubes reported until now are only applicable to discrete devices and are not readily scalable to the levels required for the mass production of nanotube-based chips. Now, this seemingly intractable problem has been overcome by a collaborative team of researchers from Seoul National University and Sungkyunkwan in South Korea.
Kahp Suh and his colleagues have developed a technique for aligning nanotubes over large areas based on the flow of a nanotube-containing solution through nanochannels. This technique is especially attractive because of its simplicity; no external stimuli such as the application of an electric field or syringe pumping are required to align the nanotubes.
This novel approach for aligning carbon nanotubes is based on the simple flow of a nanotube solution through a nanochannel fabricated from 