 |
|
Sandia researchers construct carbon nanotube device that can detect colors of the rainbow
May 01, 2009LIVERMORE, Calif. - Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are long thin cylinders composed entirely of carbon atoms. While their diameters are in the nanometer range (1-10), they can be very long, up to centimeters in length.
The carbon-carbon bond is very strong, making carbon nanotubes very robust and resistant to any kind of deformation. To construct a nanoscale color detector, Sandia researchers took inspiration from the human eye, and in a sense, improved on the model.
When light strikes the retina, it initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical impulses that ultimately trigger nerve impulses. In the nanoscale color detector, light strikes a chromophore and causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube.
"In our eyes the neuron is in front of the retinal molecule, so the light has to transmit through the neuron to hit the molecule," says Sandia researcher Xinjian Zhou. "We placed the nanotube transistor behind the molecule-a more efficient design."
Zhou and his Sandia colleagues François Léonard, Andy Vance, Karen Krafcik, Tom Zifer, and Bryan Wong created the device. The team recently published a paper, "Color Detection Using Chromophore-Nanotube Hybrid Devices," in the journal Nano Letters.
The idea of carbon nanotubes being light sensitive has been around for a long time, but earlier efforts using an individual nanotube were only able to detect light in narrow wavelength ranges at laser intensities. The Sandia team found that their nanodetector was orders of magnitude more sensitive, down to about 40 W/m2-about 3 percent of the density of sunshine reaching the ground. "Because the dye is so close to the nanotube, a little change turns into a big signal on the device," says Zhou.
LIVERMORE, Calif. - Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are long thin cylinders composed entirely of carbon atoms. While their diameters are in the nanometer range (1-10), they can be very long, up to centimeters in length.
The carbon-carbon bond is very strong, making carbon nanotubes very robust and resistant to any kind of deformation. To construct a nanoscale color detector, Sandia researchers took inspiration from the human eye, and in a sense, improved on the model.
When light strikes the retina, it initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical impulses that ultimately trigger nerve impulses. In the nanoscale color detector, light strikes a chromophore and causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube.
"In our eyes the neuron is in front of the retinal molecule, so the light has to transmit through the neuron to hit the molecule," says Sandia researcher Xinjian Zhou. "We placed the nanotube transistor behind the molecule-a more efficient design."
Zhou and his Sandia colleagues François Léonard, Andy Vance, Karen Krafcik, Tom Zifer, and Bryan Wong created the device. The team recently published a paper, "Color Detection Using Chromophore-Nanotube Hybrid Devices," in the journal Nano Letters.
The idea of carbon nanotubes being light sensitive has been around for a long time, but earlier efforts using an individual nanotube were only able to detect light in narrow wavelength ranges at laser intensities. The Sandia team found that their nanodetector was orders of magnitude more sensitive, down to about 40 W/m2-about 3 percent of the density of sunshine reaching the ground. "Because the dye is so close to the nanotube, a little change turns into a big signal on the device," says Zhou.
Sandia National Laboratories
When light strikes the retina, it initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical impulses that ultimately trigger nerve impulses. In the nanoscale color detector, light strikes a chromophore and causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube.
"In our eyes the neuron is in front of the retinal molecule, so the light has to transmit through the neuron to hit the molecule," says Sandia researcher Xinjian Zhou. "We placed the nanotube transistor behind the molecule-a more efficient design."
Zhou and his Sandia colleagues François Léonard, Andy Vance, Karen Krafcik, Tom Zifer, and Bryan Wong created the device. The team recently published a paper, "Color Detection Using Chromophore-Nanotube Hybrid Devices," in the journal Nano Letters.
The idea of carbon nanotubes being light sensitive has been around for a long time, but earlier efforts using an individual nanotube were only able to detect light in narrow wavelength ranges at laser intensities. The Sandia team found that their nanodetector was orders of magnitude more sensitive, down to about 40 W/m2-about 3 percent of the density of sunshine reaching the ground. "Because the dye is so close to the nanotube, a little change turns into a big signal on the device," says Zhou.
LIVERMORE, Calif. - Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are long thin cylinders composed entirely of carbon atoms. While their diameters are in the nanometer range (1-10), they can be very long, up to centimeters in length.
The carbon-carbon bond is very strong, making carbon nanotubes very robust and resistant to any kind of deformation. To construct a nanoscale color detector, Sandia researchers took inspiration from the human eye, and in a sense, improved on the model.
When light strikes the retina, it initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical impulses that ultimately trigger nerve impulses. In the nanoscale color detector, light strikes a chromophore and causes a conformational change in the molecule, which in turn causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube.
"In our eyes the neuron is in front of the retinal molecule, so the light has to transmit through the neuron to hit the molecule," says Sandia researcher Xinjian Zhou. "We placed the nanotube transistor behind the molecule-a more efficient design."
Zhou and his Sandia colleagues François Léonard, Andy Vance, Karen Krafcik, Tom Zifer, and Bryan Wong created the device. The team recently published a paper, "Color Detection Using Chromophore-Nanotube Hybrid Devices," in the journal Nano Letters.
The idea of carbon nanotubes being light sensitive has been around for a long time, but earlier efforts using an individual nanotube were only able to detect light in narrow wavelength ranges at laser intensities. The Sandia team found that their nanodetector was orders of magnitude more sensitive, down to about 40 W/m2-about 3 percent of the density of sunshine reaching the ground. "Because the dye is so close to the nanotube, a little change turns into a big signal on the device," says Zhou.
Sandia National Laboratories
Carbon Nanotube Current Events and Carbon Nanotube News RSSNanotech in Space: Rensselaer Experiment To Weather the Trials of Orbit
Novel nanomaterials developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are scheduled to blast off into orbit on November 16 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Caltech scientists develop DNA origami nanoscale breadboards for carbon nanotube circuits
In work that someday may lead to the development of novel types of nanoscale electronic devices, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has combined DNA's talent for self-assembly with the remarkable electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, thereby suggesting a solution to the long-standing problem of organizing carbon nanotubes into nanoscale electronic circuits.
A recipe for controlling carbon nanotubes
Nanoscopic tubes made of a lattice of carbon just a single atom deep hold promise for delivering medicines directly to a tumor, sensors so keen they detect the arrival or departure of a single electron, a replacement for costly platinum in fuel cells or as energy‐saving transistors and wires.
Friction force differences could offer a new means for sorting and assembling nanotubes
Nanotubes and nanowires are promising building blocks for future integrated nanoelectronic and photonic circuits, nanosensors, interconnects and electro-mechanical nanodevices. But some fundamental issues remain to be resolved - among them, how to position and manipulate the tiny tubes.
Carbon nanotubes could make efficient solar cells
Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops.
Nanotubes take flight
With products that range from carpets to kites, you'd think Rice University chemist Bob Hauge was running a department store.
A Billion Year Ultra-Dense Memory Chip
When it comes to data storage, density and durability have always moved in opposite directions - the greater the density the shorter the durability.
Inexpensive plastic used in CDs could improve aircraft, computer electronics
If one University of Houston professor has his way, the inexpensive plastic now used to manufacture CDs and DVDs will one day soon be put to use in improving the integrity of electronics in aircraft, computers and iPhones.
UCLA researchers develop new method for producing transparent conductors
Researchers at UCLA have developed a new method for producing a hybrid graphene-carbon nanotube, or G-CNT, for potential use as a transparent conductor in solar cells and consumer electronic devices.
UCLA physicists create world's smallest incandescent lamp
In an effort to explore the boundary between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics - two fundamental yet seemingly incompatible theories of physics - a team from the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy has created the world's smallest incandescent lamp.
More Carbon Nanotube Current Events and Carbon Nanotube News Articles
 |
Carbon Nanotubes: Basic Concepts and Physical Properties by Stephanie Reich (Author), Christian Thomsen (Author), Janina Maultzsch (Author) Carbon nanotubes are exceptionally interesting from a fundamental research point of view. Many concepts of one-dimensional physics have been verified experimentally such as electron and phonon confinement or the one-dimensional singularities in the density of states; other 1D signatures are still under debate, such as Luttinger-liquid behavior. Carbon nanotubes are chemically stable, mechanically very strong, and conduct electricity. For this reason, they open up new perspectives for various applications, such as nano-transistors in circuits, field-emission displays, artificial muscles, or added reinforcements in alloys. This text is an introduction to the physical concepts needed for investigating carbon nanotubes and other one-dimensional solid-state systems. Written for... |
 |
Carbon Nanotubes: Advanced Topics in the Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications (Topics in Applied Physics) by Ado Jorio (Author), Ado Jorio (Editor), Gene Dresselhaus (Editor), Mildred S. Dresselhaus (Editor) The carbon nanotubes field has evolved substantially since the publication of the bestseller Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications . The present volume builds on the generic aspects of the aforementioned book, which emphasizes the fundamentals, with the new volume emphasizing areas that have grown rapidly since the first volume, guiding future directions where research is needed and highlighting applications. The volume also includes an emphasis on areas like graphene, other carbon-like and other tube-like materials because these fields are likely to affect and influence developments in nanotubes in the next 5 years. |
 |
Easton MonkeyLite XC CNT Carbon Fiber MTB Riser Bicycle Handlebar (660mm Wide, 40mm Rise) by Easton Low and high rise (8° sweep | 4° upsweep) |
 |
Carbon Nanotube Science: Synthesis, Properties and Applications by Peter J. F. Harris (Author) Carbon nanotubes represent one of the most exciting research areas in modern science. These molecular-scale carbon tubes are the stiffest and strongest fibres known, with remarkable electronic properties, and potential applications in a wide range of fields. Carbon Nanotube Science is the most concise, accessible book for the field, presenting the basic knowledge that graduates and researchers need to know. Based on the successful Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures, this new book focuses solely on carbon nanotubes, covering the major advances made in recent years in this rapidly developing field. Chapters focus on electronic properties, chemical and bimolecular functionalisation, nanotube composites and nanotube-based probes and sensors. The book begins with a comprehensive... |
|
|
Easton MonkeyLite SL CNT Carbon Fiber MTB Riser Bicycle Handlebar (31.8mm Diameter, 635mm Wide, 20mm Rise) by Easton New carbon unidirectional design |
 |
Carbon Nanotubes: Properties and Applications by Michael J. O'Connell (Editor) Since their discovery more than a decade ago, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have held scientists and engineers in captive fascination, seated on the verge of enormous breakthroughs in areas such as medicine, electronics, and materials science, to name but a few. Taking a broad look at CNTs and the tools used to study them, Carbon Nanotubes: Properties and Applications comprises the efforts of leading nanotube researchers led by Michael O’Connell, protégé of the late father of nanotechnology, Richard Smalley. Each chapter is a self-contained treatise on various aspects of CNT synthesis, characterization, modification, and applications. The book opens with a general introduction to the basic characteristics and the history of CNTs, followed by discussions on synthesis methods and the... |
 |
Physical Properties of Carbon Nanotubes by R. Saito (Author) This text is intended for researchers who want to perform theoretical analysis of carbon nanotubes. It can be used by graduate students in a solid state physics to learn how to investigate the structure of carbon nanotubes, its electronic and vibrational properties. |
|
|
Easton MonkeyLite XC CNT Carbon Fiber MTB Riser Bicycle Handlebar (685mm Wide, 40mm Rise) by Easton Low and high rise (8° sweep | 4° upsweep) |
 |
Carbon Filaments and Nanotubes: Common Origins, Differing Applications? (NATO Science Series E: Applied Sciences, Volume 372) by L.P. Biró (Editor), Carlos A. Bernardo (Editor), G.G. Tibbetts (Editor), Ph. Lambin (Editor) Carbon filament, vapor grown carbon fibers and carbon nanotubes have been discovered to have remarkable properties, opening they way for their use in intriguing and novel applications in electronics, chemistry and materials science. There are many similarities between nanotubes and filaments, leading many researchers to critically compare the two materials, their production, and potential applications. The two materials are compared and contrasted in depth in the present book, which is a comprehensive review of current research activity, growth mechanisms, physical properties, industrial production, and applications. The structures are discussed using a unified approach, which helps to compare growth mechanisms, contrasting morphological differences, and detailing how novel ... |
 |
Easton MonkeyLite XC CNT Carbon Fiber MTB Riser Bicycle Handlebar (660mm Wide, 20mm Rise) by Easton Low and high rise (8° sweep | 4° upsweep) |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |