Purdue research suggests 'nanotubes' could make better br...( . The tube-shaped molecules of...)

The tube-shaped molecules of carbon have unusual properties that make them especially promising for these and other applications. Researchers theorize that electrons might flow more efficiently over extremely thin nanotubes than they do over conventional circuits, possibly enabling scientists to create better brain probes as well as non-silicon-based transistors and more powerful, compact computers.

"Nano" is a prefix meaning one-billionth, so a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or roughly the length of 10 hydrogen atoms strung together. The nanotubes were about 100 nanometers wide, or roughly 1,000 times as thin as a human hair.

The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Webster also plans to test the effectiveness of silicon that contains the same sort of nanometer-scale features as the nanotubes, which could increase the performance of silicon probes and implants. In work with Spire Biomedical Inc. (Nasdaq:SPIR) in Bedford, Mass., Purdue researchers will analyze silicon that contains numerous pores, unlike conventional silicon, which has no such porous features. That research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the federal Small Business Innovation Research Program.

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Contact: Emil Venere
venere@purdue.edu
765-494-4709
Purdue University
7-Jan-2004