Carbon nanotubes have shown promise for everything from microelectronics to aviation to energy storage. Researchers think this material might one day fulfill the science fiction dream of creating an elevator to space.
So why aren't they used more often?
University of Cincinnati chemist Noe Alvarez said one obstacle has been the frustrating inability to link carbon nanotubes to metal surfaces in a robust connection for sensors, transistors and other uses. These hollow tubes have a diameter of just a billionth of a meter but can be many centimeters long.
"We want our experiments to be reproducible and consistent, but that's not easily possible with nanotubes because we can't control how well they're connected to metal surfaces," he said.
But he and his collaborators have demonstrated a new chemical process that grafts nanotubes to metal surfaces to create a strong, consistent, conductive link. The study was published in the journal Nanoscale Advances.
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