carbonnanotubes
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Graphene chip could hit 1,000GHz, make your Core i7 feel totally inadequate
8GHz (with the help of liquid nitrogen) not quick enough? Leave it to the folks at MIT to make sure your zaniest desires are well taken care of. As research forges ahead on graphene, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs (remember those?), gurus at the university have discovered a breakthrough that could eventually lead to microchips that make existing silicon-based CPUs weep. In fact, the research could lead to practical systems in the 500 to 1,000 gigahertz range. The magic all ties back to advancements on a graphene chip known as a frequency multiplier, and while the nitty-gritty of all this is far too complicated for the layperson to grasp, all you really need to know is this: finally, you can rest assured that you'll one day own a chip capable of handling Duke Nukem Forever.[Via InformationWeek]
Carbon nanotubes could be used in film-like flat speakers
Seriously, is there anything carbon nanotubes can't do? We've got shock absorbers, flexible displays, atypically small eating utensils and now, film-like speakers. For times when NXT flat drivers simply aren't thin enough, a team of Chinese researchers have reportedly found a way to create sound from a thin sheet of carbon nanotubes. The film, which could be stretched and placed on PMPs, HDTVs or even clothing, can generate sound when "zapped with a varying electric current." Great, the perfect recipe for a new wave of Milli Vanilli copycats. A video of the tech can be seen after the jump.[Via Physorg]
Ultra-tough buckypapers could build planes, trains and automobiles
Not to get too nano-technical on you this Saturday afternoon, but you're probably going to want to be briefed on these newfangled macroscopic aggregates commonly referred to as buckypapers. The devices, which are reportedly involved in a long-term undercover relationship with those buckyballs you discussed in 10th grade chemistry class, are ridiculously tough (albeit lightweight) sheets of matter made from intertwined carbon nanotubes. Put simply, these composites could see uses in making more efficient heat sinks, lighter background illumination material for displays and (at least in theory) transportation of the future. For now, buckypapers are being made exclusively in university laboratories, but Florida State is already in the process of spinning out a firm to make them commercially. Do we see the makings of a new and improved Project Grizzly suit? Our signs are pointing to yes.[Via Yahoo!]
Samsung & LG HDTV prototypes battle for supremacy
Samsung and LG are locked in a tight race for "best HDTV you won't be buying this year or next" this week at the International Meeting on Information Display 2008, trading shots with OLEDs, LCDs and more. Samsung brought along an upgraded version of its true 240Hz 15-inch Blue Phase LCD panel with improved image quality, some fresh carbon nanotube-based color electronic paper, plus slimmed-down versions of its 40- and 50-inch LCDs. Then it got busy with the OLEDs, dropping in a 14-inch HD display, 31-inch 1080p display and 5-inch VGA panel, to which LG could only respond with the above 19-inch OLED powered by amorphous silicon TFT. More stills of the carnage exist beyond the read link, but in the battle of display tech streeting in 2011 at the earliest, we just hope LG is holding back a few surprises for CES.[Via OLED-Display, thanks Erik]
Shock-absorbing carbon springs to protect falling gizmos
The Tigers down at Clemson University are doing more than deciding whether an all-purple uniform really sends a sense of fear to the opponent, as they're also crafting shock-absorbing carbon springs which could theoretically protect gadgets when they crash to the ground. In working with researchers at UC San Diego, the crew has determined that layers of tiny coiled carbon nanotubes can act as "extremely resilient shock absorbers." The team envisions their discovery finding its way into body armor, car bumpers, bushings and even in shoe soles, but we're hoping that cellphones and PMPs get lined with this stuff to protect from those butter-finger moments. [Via Physorg]
Another flexible circuit project emerges, carbon nanotubes to blame
Yeah, we get it, flexible electronics -- sans application -- are about as exciting as the circuitry under your keyboard. But it's Friday, and this here story has real-live carbon nanotubes, so you know it's a winner. Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo has built for himself a stretchy, flexible conducting material using carbon nanotubes mixed with a polymer. The nanotubes are mixed into a compound called "bucky gel" to prevent clumping, and after some rubber-like flourinated copolymer is mixed in and it's all poured onto a glass plate, holes are punched in the material to better flexibility. Apparently it ends up looking a bit like a nylon stocking, but we won't hold that it against it, since it can be stretched up to 38%, while also managing to be 100 times more conductive than any other elastic material. The possibilities for such technology is pretty much endless, but we'd say "nylon stocking that is also, conveniently, a computer" is the first product category worth felling.[Via I4U]
Networks of carbon nanotubes find use in flexible displays
Carbon nanotubes may very well kill you (okay, so that's very much a stretch), but you'll have a hard time convincing the dutiful scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop their promising research. Put simply (or as simply as possible), said researchers have discovered that "networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes printed onto bendable plastic perform well as semiconductors in integrated circuits." So well, in fact, that the nanotube networks could one day "replace organic semiconductors in applications such as flexible displays." Granted, there is still much to do before these networks are ready for product integration, but you can bet these folks aren't hitting the brakes after coming this far.
Japanese scientists craft planet's smallest ramen bowl
Now that just looks extra scrumptious, doesn't it? What you're peering at above is believed to be the world's tiniest ramen bowl, created by a clever bunch of scientists from the University of Tokyo. Reportedly, Masayuki Nakao and his students "used a carbon-based material to produce a noodle bowl with a diameter 1 / 25,000 of an inch in a project aimed at developing nanotube-processing technology." In other words, they carved a bowl out of nanotubes, which can now only be viewed through a microscope. Best of all, they didn't stop with just the dinnerware, as they managed to insert a number of inedible noodles to round things off -- each of which measured "one-12,500th of an inch in length with a thickness of one-1.25 millionth of an inch." Don't get any bright ideas here, McDonald's, ditching SuperSize was bad enough.
Graphene-polymer hybrid composites look to oust carbon nanotubes
We're pretty certain the world's big enough for the both of 'em, but a graphene-polymer hybrid developed by a brilliant team from Northwestern University could prove to be a suitable -- and much cheaper -- alternative to polymer-infused carbon nanotubes. Put simply, graphite can be purchased for dollars per pound, while single-walled nanotubes are hundreds of dollars per gram. A breakthrough has found that tough, lightweight materials can be created by "spreading a small amount of graphene, a single-layer flat sheet of carbon atoms, throughout polymers," and these composites could eventually be used to make lighter car and airplane parts (among other things). We won't kid you, there's a lot of technobabble in the read link below, but it's well worth the read if your inner nerd is up for it.
Carbon nanotubes causing asbestos-like effects in lab mice
The scientific and engineering possibilities of carbon nanotubes are hard to overestimate, but a study out of the UK might put a damper on the small-scale party for a while: mice injected with certain lengths of nanotubes developed lung problems similar to those caused by asbestos. Apparently the long, straight shape of the nanotubes causes problems for the lining of the lungs designed to deal with particulate matter, which can cause scarring, inflammation, and "probably cancer in the long term." That's a big "probably," however -- researchers say they're a long way from actually proving the link between long nanotubes and cancer, but no one's denying that it's troublesome, including the Nanotechnology Industries Association, which told the BBC that "there could be reason for concern... but it needs to be validated." It also seems like the focus is on handling the tech correctly, which is promising -- we'll keep an eye on how this plays out.[Thanks, TC]
UCLA researchers create self-healing, power-generating artificial muscle
We've seen self-healing materials and artificial arms, but a team of researchers hailing from UCLA have taken two fabulous ideas and wed them together to create "an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity." Put simply, the contracting / expanding of the material can generate a small electric current, which can be "captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery." The scientists have relied on carbon nanotubes as electrodes rather than metal-based films that typically fail after extended usage, and in an ideal world, the research could eventually lead to (more) walking robots and highly advanced prosthetics. Integrate an AC adapter in there and we're sold.[Via CNET]
Boron nanotubes beat carbon at its own game
If 2007 was the year of the carbon nanotube, it looks like 2008 could be the year for boron nanotubes to shine. Carbon nanotubes have been sprouting up in all sorts of tech that requires strong building blocks and fast electronics at the microscopic scale, but boron nanotubes, which were discovered in 2004, are looking even better at electronics, while matching carbon in the strength department. Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China have proved in simulation that the boron nanotubes can have variable electrical properties, which could make boron the jack of all trades at the nano scale, but that's about as far as we go with this whole "science" thing. Bill Nye would be so disappointed in us.
Berkeley researchers develop world's smallest radio
Move over, UC Irvine: your colleagues across the state at UC Berkeley have just one-upped your nano-scale radio by not only using nanotechnology for the demodulator, but actually "stuffing" all the components into a single carbon nanotube. By utilizing mechanical -- rather than electrical -- vibrations of a nanotube protruding from an electrode, the team from Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were able to mimic the tuner, antenna, amplifier, and demodulator which compose traditional radios. Their prototype nano-radio, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, has already been used to broadcast and receive such classic tunes as Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys and Eric Clapton's Layla; a video of this latter transmission, whose poor quality will make you long for the relative clarity of AM radio, is available after the break...[Via San Francisco Chronicle, image and video courtesy of Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley]
Nanotube breakthrough creates scalable transistors
Nanotubes have certainly played their part in various forms of swank gadgetry over the years, but researchers at the University of Illinois, Lehigh University, and Purdue University seem to have upped the ante for future nanotube implementations. Their approach utilizes "dense arrays of aligned and linear nanotubes as a thin-film semiconductor material suitable for integration into electronic devices," which essentially means that the arrays can be transferred into devices where silicon isn't entirely comfortable, such as "flexible displays, structural health monitors, and heads-up displays." Interestingly, the creators aren't expecting their discovery to overtake silicon, but they did mention that the linear arrays could be "added to a silicon chip and exploited for particular purposes, such as higher speed operation, higher power capacity, and linear behavior for enhanced functionality." Sounds like these gurus are just the type Intel would be scouting right about now, eh?[Via TechnologyReview]
Intel researching "carbon nanotubes" for chip design
While Moore's Law has held up pretty well over the last 40 years, it may not be able to stay true forever. It turns out that as the components inside semiconductors get smaller and smaller, electrical resistance goes up, thereby reducing performance; experts say that eventually there will be a breaking point for "copper interconnects," reaching the point where Moore's Law falls apart. Scientists have been well aware of this roadblock, and have invested heavily in everything from quantum computing to optical processors. Intel is also working on a solution for this electrical engineering problem by attempting to determine whether these semiconductor interconnects can be replaced by carbon nanotubes. The ubiquitously researched microscopic tubes can conduct electricity far better than metals, due to their "ballistic conductivity," a property where no electrons are dispersed or blocked. But, the problem with carbon nanotubes, as CNET reports, is that they're really tough to mass produce; once created, some act as great semiconductors, while others don't. So now, Intel has to figure out how to get carbon nanotubes to act more uniformly, or to separate the bad ones from the good. Thankfully, consumers won't have to worry about this problem for about another decade, which is why Intel has brainiacs working on a solution as we speak.[Via Slashdot]
Carbon nanotubes manage 1080p on a 0.7-inch microdisplay
We can't say it was love at first sight for us and carbon nanotube displays, with the first screen cap resembling a Lite-Brite a lot better than a next generation display technology. Well, now we're ready to give this nano tech another chance, since Syscan Imaging has just managed to squeeze a 1920 x 1080 resolution onto a 0.7-inch LCoS microdisplay for use in projection TVs. It's even at a lower cost than competing technologies, and should hopefully overcome some of the current problems with the low yields and color inconsistencies of LCoS. Carbon nanotube displays also run cooler and have zero ghosting, so we're pretty stoked, but we'll have to wait until 2007 for these to make it to shelves.[Via HD Beat]
