'Cloning' Could Make Structurally Pure Nanotubes for
Nanoelectronics From NIST Tech Beat: November 14, 2012 Contact:
Michael Baum Researchers from the University of Southern
California (USC) and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a technique for growing
virtually pure samples of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
with identical structures, a process they liken to "cloning" the
nanotubes.* If it can be suitably scaled up, their approach
could solve an important materials problem in nanoelectronics:
producing carbon nanotubes of a specific structure to order.
Single-wall carbon nanotubes are hollow cylinders of carbon
atoms bound together in a hexagonal pattern, usually about a
nanometer in diameter. One fascinating feature of nanotubes is
that there are many ways to wrap the hexagon sheet into a
cylinder, from perfectly even rows of hexagons that wrap around
in a ring, to rows that wrap in spirals at various
angles—"chiralities," to be technical. Even more interestin