Scientists create the world’s smallest chemistry set
Nanotubes create contaminant-free environment for chemical experiments
Researchers at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, have created a minute test tube laboratory using nanotubes, which are hollow cylinders made of carbon atoms with a diameter about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. The work allows scientists to use an environment totally free of contaminants to carry out experiments.
The size of the nano test tube is much smaller than the conventional laboratory test tube and therefore allows chemical experiments to be prepared with molecular precision.
Hidetsugu Shiozawa, of the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey, said: ‘The new tiny research lab will help scientists create the next generation of high technology. The Holy Grail in carbon nanotube research is the search to grow the perfect single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) with pre-specified properties. We are partly there by confining the available ways in which nanotubes of different diameters can be rolled, as shown in this study.’
In a paper published in Advanced Materials, the advantages of using such a small-scale environment are explored. The controlled growth of carbon nanotubes is presented within the interior of single-wall carbon nanotubes. Selections of metal catalysts and carbon sources are provided in designer proportions, and factors affecting the growth, such as changes in temperature and tube diameter, can be altered experimentally.
Such information is fundamental when the size of the carbon nanotube is a requirement that needs to be controlled on a bulk scale and, therefore, the growth mechanism needs to be well understood.
Only studies that utilise the nano-test tube allow the growth parameters to be determined for a given atomic structure with high accuracy, the authors state. Hence, the outcome of this study opens a pathway for the control of the growth of carbon nanotubes for better compatibility with electronics.
Prof Ravi Silva, director of the Advanced Technology Institute and co-author, said: ‘The creation of new technologies and businesses are highly dependent on this ability to create designer materials of the highest quality. This technique of confining the diameter of the SWCNT to obtain the chiral indices of choice brings us one step closer to the perfect growth environment.’
