Posted on 02/24/2005 8:49:43 PM PST by phoenix0468
The last decade of the last century in condensed matter physics has been marked by the revival of carbon-based materials. Besides the conventional forms of carbon, the graphite and the diamond, new forms of carbon have been discovered: fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, carbon onions. Although the parent compound of fullerenes, the C60 molecule was discovered in 1985 by Kroto, Smalley and co-workers [1], the full expansion of the activity concerning this material did not truly begin until the mass production of fullerenes was invented by Krätschmer and Huffman [2]. The great euphoria in the fullerene research started with the discovery of "high temperature superconductivity" in 1991, exceeding a critical temperature of 30 K [3] upon alkali metal doping. The search for new carbon nanostructures, higher mass fullerenes has strongly motivated chemists and physicists. Sumio Iijima discovered the multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the same year [4], which was considered at the beginning as a giant fullerene. In 1993 the single walled nanotubes were synthesized giving carbon structures of 1.4 nm in diameter and several microns in length [5]. At the beginning, while the production and purification of these structures were not sufficiently elaborated, the research mainly consisted of "photography", that is of spectacular images obtained by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Around 1994 some of these problems were solved, and the study of the physical properties began.
(Excerpt) Read more at europhysicsnews.com ...
Ping for GenTech!!
Don't forget "caged" molecules. Novel chemical techniques have been used to trap atoms within large geometric structures, and should have interesting properties when made in useful quantities someday.
I could also post some articles on things such as scientist building memory cells and processors with bacteria. It is almost scary what science is coming up with these days. Fortunately most of it is helping us live longer, happier, healthier, more comfortable lives.
When I dream of an energy-stable future, I dream of nanotubes and nuclear. May God bless these scientists and their profound work.
Please ping.
I am trying to find an article about a company from Houston that is trying to patent 31(?) nanotube technologies. It's raising a big stink, since they would control who has access to a good chunk of the nano tech.
This reminds be of the SCO lawsuits, the company will be crushed under the weight of it's own arrogance and greed.
Also current carbon nano-tube reseach is being lead by Georgia Tech.
It's interesting to see individuals waxing orgasmic about laboratory curiosities. Really: no one has a concrete use for them yet and nothing has 'gone to market'.
Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. is the company I was thinking of. Still can't find the exact article I scanned over. I think it was more alarmist, but it eluded to the fact CNI was gobbling up quite a few patents making it hard for other companies to compete. But I haven't followed Nano Tech to much, so I don't how its progressing or who are the big players in the field.
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2004/10/04/daily32.html
http://www.winstead.com/pressroom/inthenews/HBJNanotech.pdf
http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2001/12/03/newscolumn4.html
Goody! A ping list got started. Bump and thanks!
In a nutshell, nanotube is build molecular helix "chicken-wire" that can make very strong building materials and circuitry, while nano-tech is building nanites/nano-machines.
These two types of research overlap in some areas, besides scale.
I will search it as well. That would be a coup on the scale of MS getting their greedy little paws on DOS and getting Intel to help them build their monopoly.
Ping!
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