| NANOWIRES + BLOCK COPOLYMER TEMPLATES |
|
| Researchers Find Way To Grow Silicon Nanowires And Carbon Nanotubes At Room Temperature The steps used in creating nanowires and nanotubes are essentially the same, though different chemicals and temperatures may be used. "It's like a recipe," said Englander. "Different ingredients are used depending upon whether you want to make a chocolate chip muffin or a banana nut muffin, but the steps are more or less the same." The UC Berkeley researchers, in this case, used a gold-palladium alloy with silane vapor to create silicon nanowires, and a nickel-iron alloy with acetylene vapor to create carbon nanotubes. The typical nanowire or nanotube production process occurs in a furnace at temperatures of 600 to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,112 to 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit). The procedure begins with a 1 square centimeter silicon wafer that is coated thinly with a metal alloy. A vapor is then directed towards the substrate, and the metal alloy acts as a catalyst in a chemical reaction that eventually forms billions of nanowire or nanotube precipitates. Article |
| UPDATED DECEMBER 10, 2005 |
| Nanowires might also form the basis of high-definition televisions. PDF file RB posting Follow-up RB posting |
| Applied Nanotech - University of Massachusetts at Amherst ANI can create ultra-high density metallic nanowire arrays grown in self-assembled die block copolymer templates Link to SEC 8-K Link to RB message Ultrahigh-Density Nanowire Arrays Grown in Self-Assembled Diblock Copolymer Templates Link to Science article Link to US patent filing Nano Patterning IBM brings closer to reality chips that put themselves together Link to article on Diblock Copolymer/Nano Fabrication/Russell/Amherst/IBM Link to RB message |
| Mark Tuominen/U of Mass at Amherst/FE Display/Nanowires The three dimensional nanostructured arrays described herein can be used in of technologies, including: display technology, cooling technology, magneto-electronic technology, data storage technology, sensor technology, biomolecular array technology, molecular electronic technology, waveguide technology, and other technologies. The techniques presented here are general and provide advances to a variety of research materials systems. Link to RB message Link to US patent filing Nanotechnology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Massachusetts Nanotechnology Initiative January 22, 2004 Mark Tuominen and Jim Watkins, Co-Directors Tom Russell, Associate Director MassNanoTech, UMass Amherst Link to PDF file |
| Thomas P. Russell - U Mass Amherst - Self Assembly Block Copolymer Templating Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Link Thomas P. Russell Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering Director of Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Link Self assembly - "The system does everything by itself!" "If we can place a bias to the lateral ordering of the copolymer arrays, it will be possible to have a system that will self-assemble into a highly-ordered, highly-aligned array of nanoscopic elements where the exact positioning of each element is known," said Russell. "This is precisely what is necessary to produce addressable media that will allow access to each element of the array, fully utilizing the ultra-high density afforded by the copolymer array. Potential applications include addressable high-density magnetic media, ultra-high resolution field-effect devices for displays, and high-resolution sensors." Link |
| Carnegie Mellon/Kowalewski Zone Casting/Block Copolymer/Data Storage/Field Emission Arrays "We've found that zone casting produces highly organized polymer films that could serve as templates for creating ordered nanopatterns with other materials," said Tomasz Kowalewski, an assistant professor of chemistry who is leading the Carnegie Mellon team. "The technique could, for example, help produce data storage arrays with increased density and reliability." Kowalewski also expects that zone casting could produce materials for other nanoelectronic devices, like field emission arrays. To create long-range-ordered films, Kowalewski's team used "block copolymers," which are made of long-chain molecules with distinct "blocks" of chemically different repeating units. Link |