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Nanocarbon cross-field technologies
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At the beginning of July, the NT03 international conference on carbon nanotubes (CNT) was held at Seoul National University in South Korea. This conference emphasized on the fundamental research of carbon nanotubes such areas as carbon nanotube growth and simulations; structural evaluation using Raman spectroscopy, photoabsorption and emission spectroscopies; electronic properties; electron transportation; processing and evaluation of electronic devices; characteristics of gas and bio-molecular adsorption, and also discuss some applications to field emission displays (FEDs); scanning probes; and fuel cells. Carbon nanotube-related conferences in general tend to be characterized by interdisciplinary research across a range of fields from basic to applied research.
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Report on the formation of 6-mm long and 2-nm diameter nanotubes
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Both theoretical and experimental research has revealed the variation of electronic properties of carbon nanotubes depending on their diameter or helical structure. This feature is quite characteristic for carbon nanotubes and is not seen in ordinary materials. As well as being of interest as a natural phenomenon of molecular devices, it also has potential for the future of the electronics industry. One of the research projects that attracted interest at NT03 was a report by Liu et al. from Duke University on the growth of single-wall carbon nanotubes that reach lengths of 6 mm with diameters of around 2 nm. These carbon nanotubes, whose growth direction can be controlled, represent a revolutionary breakthrough. It was shown that the application of this carbon nanotube can lead to more accurate electronic property and transportation experiments, and production of multiple-array of transistors. In addition, there is a sense that structural materials that use the superior mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes (for example, bundled rope out of carbon nanotubes) are now very close. Applications that utilize the nanospace at the inside of carbon nanotubes would include light waveguides and super-ionic conductor tubes. While it is not yet clear when these industrial applications will be realized, carbon nanotube science is advancing steadily.
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Top runner of carbon nanotube display
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In the recess halfway through the conference, four American professors and I were invited to the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), where we took the opportunity to observe at first-hand R&D into field emission displays (FEDs). Our guide was SAIT’s vice-president Dr. Jong Min Kim, who has overall responsibility for FED development. While this was my third visit to SAIT, the six-inch FEDs that I had observed two years before had now developed into 32-inch full-color television screens. Samsung said it hoped to commercialize these within two years, and I am convinced that carbon nanotube FEDs are viable. Plasma displays (PDPs) generate heat similarly to electric ovens but we confirmed that it was naturally possible to touch the glass of a FED screen without getting burned.
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Development of special electron microscope
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To show the perspective of nanotechnology, I would like to briefly introduce research that I am personally interested in. In nanotechnology, it is essential to develop nanoscale material metrology methods in tandem with the nanotechnology development. This is why we develop special electron microscopes that we call “ultimate elemental analysis device”. We have already succeeded in detecting single atoms inserted into the nanospace of carbon nanotubes.
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Expanding fields of nanotube applications
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 Finally, in the nanotech materials field, research is being carried out into fabrication and application to fuel cell electrodes of carbon nanohorns that resemble carbon nanotubes. Applications to biotechnologies that utilize good affinity of nano-carbon material with organisms also fall within the scope of my research. Specifically, I am working on adsorbing bacteriophages that present certain DNA base sequences into the nano-carbon surfaces and evaluating their selective adsorption characteristics.
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