Nanotube electronics: large-scale assembly of carbon nanotubes.
Nanoscale electronic devices made from carbon nanotubes, such as transistors and sensors, are much smaller and more versatile than those that rely on conventional microelectronic chips, but their development for mass production has been thwarted by difficulties in aligning and integrating the millions of nanotubes required. Inspired by biomolecular self-assembly processes, we have created chemically functionalized patterns on a surface, to which pre-grown nanotubes in solution can align themselves in huge numbers. This method allows wafer-scale fabrication of millions of carbon-nanotube circuits with single-nanotube precision, and may enable nanotube-based devices, such as computer chips and high-density sensor arrays, to be produced industrially.
Rao
Saleem G
SG
Department of Physics, Center for Materials Research and Technology and Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA.
Huang
Ling
L
Setyawan
Wahyu
W
Hong
Seunghun
S