Nanotubes wreak havoc with heat Mar 2, 2009 Physicists in the US
have discovered that electrons flowing in carbon nanotube-based
circuits dissipate energy in very different ways from electrons
flowing through devices made from conventional semiconductors
such as silicon. The findings reveal processes of heat
conduction that were never previously thought important and
could influence the types of materials chosen for the next
generation of electronic devices in order to prevent them from
overheating. In conventional semiconductor devices, different
layers of material are always joined by chemical bonds. This
provides continuity for heat flowing through such devices,
making them relatively easy to cool. Many researchers believe
that future generations of electronic devices could be made from
carbon nanotubes — tubes with walls just one atom thick — which
could enable much smaller feature sizes and hence much better
computing performance. However, nanotubes do not bond chemically
to adjoining structures, which s