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Methanol nixes metallic nanotubes
A vapor of ethanol, methanol, argon and hydrogen in a furnace produces single-walled carbon nanotubes. Most methods of growing carbon nanotubes produce a mix of semiconducting and metallic nanotubes. Adding methanol to the process assures that 95 to 98 percent of the nanotubes are semiconducting.
Semiconducting carbon nanotubes grown on a quartz surface are straight and closely packed, which makes them usefull as dense transistor arrays. Metallic nanotubes cause short circuits that limit the number of usable transistors.
The transistor arrays can be used to make sensors, and they could lead to new types of high-speed computer chips.
Research paper:
Selective Growth of Well-Aligned Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Nano Letters, published online January 20, 2009
Researchers' homepage:
Jie Liu Laboratory, Duke University
Related stories and briefs:
Quartz keeps nanotubes in line -- precursor research
Soapy nanotube sorter -- related research
DNA sorts nanotubes -- related research
Back to TRN February 2/9, 2009
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