Researchers figure out how to 'grow' carbon nanotubes with specific atomic structures

Move over, silicon. In a breakthrough in the quest for the next generation of computers and materials, researchers at USC have solved a longstanding challenge with carbon nanotubes: how to actually build them with specific, predictable atomic structures.

We are solving a fundamental problem of the carbon nanotube," said Chongwu Zhou, professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and corresponding author of the study published August 23 in the journal Nano Letters. "To be able to control the atomic structure, or chirality, of nanotubes has basically been our dream, a dream in the nanotube field."

If this is an age built on silicon, then the next one may be built on carbon nanotubes, which have shown promise in everything from optics to energy storage to touch screens. Not only are nanotubes transparent, but this research discovery on how to control the atomic structure of nanotubes will pave the way for computers that are smaller, faster and more energy efficient than those reliant on silicon transistors.

"We are now working on scale up the process," Zhou said. "Our method can revoutionize the field and significantly push forward the real applications of nanotube in many fields."