Nano-what?
Scientists at the University of Cincinnati have just put a new twist on the infinitely agile carbon nanotube.
In layman's terms, carbon nanotubes are extremely condensed carbon molecules with peculiar properties.
At a diameter 1/50,000 of a human hair and a length of up to several millimeters – for a length-to-diameter ratio up to 28,000,000:1 – carbon nanotubes show potential for use in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, architectural technology and other materials sciences.
By spinning these fibers – which serve as excellent conductors – into strong threads, researchers Vesselin Shanov and Mark Schulz of the UC College of Engineering NanoWorld Lab opened the door to a host of exciting new possibilities for this emerging technology.
When David Mast, Associate Professor of Physics in UC's McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, glimpsed the threads, a light bulb went off.
In MacGyver-like fashion, Mast used double-sided transparent tape and silver paste to transform a 25-micron nanotube into a dipole antenna capable of receiving radio signals.
“It transmitted almost as well as the copper did, but at about one ten-thousandth of the weight,” Mast says.
AM, FM, NPR local radio – all moved through the antenna with ease.
"Then I decided to dismantle my cell phone," Mast says.
In another MacGyver-like move, Mast tore off the back of his own cell phone, took out the original antenna and used carbon nanotube thread and tape to create a cell phone antenna, which he installed and successfully used with ease.
The homemade antenna gave Mast's cell phone four to five service bars, to be exact.
“That was a very pleasant surprise, how easy it was to do,” Mast says. “The hardest thing is to manipulate them. They float on ambient air.”
Why stop now? Next, Mast took to video. Score again.
“I want to now set up a wireless webcam for the lab using these thread antennas so that others can see how well they work,” Mast says.
Mast credits Shanov and Schulz with these applications.
"They spin thread that is of such high quality, it opens the door to incredible possibilities," Mast says. "This is just one of many potential applications."
One field ripe with potential uses for carbon nanotubes is aerospace – commercial, military and space.
The team plans to explore these possibilities, as well as commercializing them.
Funding for this research came from the National Science Foundation and North Carolina A&T SU, through their NSF-ERC and ONR-CNN projects.
Writer: Jonathan DeHart
Source: Wendy Beckman, University of Cincinnati, David Mast
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