c



 
c c
Nanotubes have  on the nanoscale, i.e., the diameter of the tube is between 0.1
and 100 nm; its length could be much greater.


Carbon nanotubes, a type of fullerene, have potential in fields such as nanotechnology,
electronics, optics, materials science, and architecture. Over the years new applications have
taken advantage of their unique electrical properties, extraordinary strength, and efficiency in
heat conduction.



Carbon nanotubes have valuable qualities as structural materials. Potential uses include:

¢Ê c ^CNT can make waterproof and/or tear-resistant fabrics

¢Ê £!^
T is working on combat jackets that use CNT fibers to stop bullets and
to monitor the condition of the wearer.Cambridge University developed the fibres and
licensed a company to make them.
¢Ê ^CNT in concrete increase its tensile strength, and halt crack propagation.
¢Ê !"!^ddint CNT to polyethylene can increase the polymer's elastic modulus
by 30%.
¢Ê  #^tronger and lighter tennis rackets, bicycle parts, golf balls, golf
clubs, and baseball bats.
¢Ê  $^CNT are under investigation as possible components of the tether up
which a space elevator can climb. This requires tensile strengths of more than about
70 GPa.
¢Ê !": Due to their high contraction/extension ratio given an electric current,
CNTs are ideal for synthetic muscle.
¢Ê D%"%"^ibers produced with polyvinyl alcohol required 600 J/g
to break.
n comparison, the bullet-resistant fiber Kevlar fails at 27±33 J/g.
¢Ê £%^CNT may be able to replace steel in suspension and other bridges.
¢Ê [!"^The high strength/weight ratio enables very high rotational speeds.
¢Ê [^Thin layers of buckypaper can significantly improve fire resistance due
to the efficient reflection of heat by the dense, compact layer of CNT or carbon fibers.
%

CNT can be fabricated as electrical conductors, insulators, and semiconductors. pplications

include:

¢Ê  ^CNT's have sufficient contractility to make them candidates to

replace muscle tissue.
¢Ê £&!^Thin nanotube sheets are 250 times stronger than steel and 10 times
lighter and could be used as a heat sink for chipboards, a backlight for LCD screens or as
a faraday cage to protect electrical devices/aeroplanes.
¢Ê " ^CNTs can be used to produce nanowires of other
elements/molecules, such as gold or zinc oxide. These nanowires in turn can be used to
cast nanotubes of other chemicals, such as gallium nitride. These can have very different
properties from CNTs^for example, gallium nitride nanotubes are hydrophilic, while
CNTs are hydrophobic, giving them possible uses in organic chemistry.
¢Ê $^Drawing transparent high strength swathes of NT is a functional
production technique and is in use at Canatu of Helsinki, inland, Eikos
nc of ranklin,
assachusetts and Unidym
nc. of ilicon Valley are developing transparent, electrically
conductive CNT films and NanoBuds to replace indium tin oxide (
TO) in LCDs, touch
screens, and photovoltaic devices. Nanotube films show promise for use in displays for
computers, cell phones, Personal digital assistants, and automated teller machines.
¢Ê "^Conductive CNTs are used in brushes for commercial electric
motors. They replace traditional carbon black, which is mostly impure spherical carbon
fullerenes. The nanotubes improve electrical and thermal conductivity because they
stretch through the plastic matrix of the brush. This permits the carbon filler to be
reduced from 30% down to 3.6%, so that more matrix is present in the brush. Nanotube
composite motor brushes are better-lubricated (from the matrix), cooler-running (both
from better lubrication and superior thermal conductivity), less brittle (more matrix, and
fiber reinforcement), stronger and more accurately moldable (more matrix). ince
brushes are a critical failure point in electric motors, and also don't need much material,
they became economical before almost any other application.
¢Ê
%": alternative to tungsten filaments in incandescent lamps.
¢Ê %^ ulti-walled nanotubes ( NT coated with magnetite can generate strong
magnetic fields.
¢Ê
 %^ layer of 29% iron enriched single-walled nanotubes (NT) is
placed on top of a layer of explosive material such as PETN, and can be ignited with a
regular camera flash.
¢Ê ^GE's CNT diode exploits a photovoltaic effect. Nanotubes can replace
TO
in some solar cells to act as a transparent conductive film in solar cells to allow light to
pass to the active layers and generate photocurrent.
 ¢Ê ^Nanotubes have been shown to be superconducting at low
temperatures.
¢Ê ^
T is researching the use of nanotubes bound to the charge plates of
capacitors in order to dramatically increase the surface area and therefore energy storage
ability.
¢Ê !^CNTs can be used as extremely fine electron guns, which could be used as
miniature cathode ray tubes in thin high-brightness, low-energy, low-weight displays.
This type of display would consist of a group of many tiny CRTs, each providing the
electrons to hit the phosphor of one pixel, instead of having one giant CRT whose
electrons are aimed using electric and magnetic fields. These displays are known as field
emission displays (EDs).
¢Ê c^CNT transistors have been developed at Delft,
B , and NEC.
¢Ê % ^CNTs can act as antennas for radios and other
electromagnetic devices.


¢Ê
&^
n November, 2008 Tsinghua-oxconn Nanotechnology Research Centre
in Beijing announced that it had created loudspeakers from sheets of parallel CNT,
generating sound similar to how lightning produces thunder. Near-term commercial uses
include replacing piezoelectric speakers in greeting cards.

"
¢Ê   ^CNT membranes can filter carbon dioxide from power plant
emissions.
¢Ê £"^CNT can be filled with biological molecules, aiding biotechnology.
¢Ê D!%%^CNT have the potential to store between 4.2 and 65% hydrogen by
weight.
f they can be mass produced economically, 13.2 litres (2.9 imp gal; 3.5 U gal)
of CNT could contain the same amount of energy as a 50 litres (11 imp gal; 13 U gal)
gasoline tank. ee Hydrogen Economy.
¢Ê  ^CNT membranes can aid in filtration. This can purportedly reduce
desalination costs by 75%. The tubes are so thin that small particles (like water
molecules) can pass through them, while blocking larger particles (such as the chloride
ions in salt).

"
¢Ê
^Oscillators based on CNT have achieved higher speeds than other
technologies (> 50 GHz).
 ¢Ê ^Liquid flows up to five orders of magnitude faster than predicted
by classical fluid dynamics.
¢Ê &^ome CNT-based fabrics have shown lower friction than Teflon.
¢Ê ^ome CNT-fabrics are waterproof.
¢Ê ^
¢Ê  ^The reflectivity of the buckypaper produced with "super-growth"
chemical vapor deposition method is 0.03 or less, potentially enabling performance gains
for pyroelectric infrared detector.

¢Ê ^s a standard of the black.

¢Ê c"^or thermal emission in space such as space satellites.
¢Ê "^bsorbance is high in wide ranges from UV to 
R.



 nanotube formed by joining two nanotubes of different diameters end to end can act as a
diode, suggesting the possibility of constructing computer circuits entirely of nanotubes. Because
of their good thermal transmission properties, CNT can potentially dissipate heat from computer
chips. The longest electricity conducting circuit is a fraction of an inch long.

abrication difficulties are major hurdles for CNT. tandard
C fabrication processes use
chemical vapor deposition to add layers to a wafer. CNT can so far not be mass produced using
such techniques.

Researchers can manipulate nanotubes one-by-one with the tip of an atomic force microscope in
a time-consuming process. Using standard fabrication techniques would still require designers to
position one end of the nanotube. During the deposition process, an electric field can potentially
direct the growth of the nanotubes, which tend to grow along the field lines from negative to
positive polarity. nother technique for self-assembly uses chemical or biological techniques to
move CNT in solution to determinate places on a substrate.

Even if nanotubes can be precisely positioned, engineers have been unable to control the types
(conducting, semiconducting, NT, NT) of nanotubes that appear.



etallic carbon nanotubes have aroused research interest for their applicability as very-large-
scale integration (VL
) interconnects because of their high thermal stability, high thermal
conductivity and large current carrying capacity. n isolated CNT can carry current densities in
excess of 1000 /sq-cm without damage even at an elevated temperature of 250 °C (482 °),
eliminating electromigration reliability concerns that plague Cu interconnects. Recent modeling
work comparing the two has shown that CNT bundle interconnects can potentially offer
advantages over copper. Recent experiments demonstrated resistances as low as 20 Ohms using
different architectures, detailed conductance measurements over a wide temperature range were
shown to agree with theory for a strongly disordered quasi-one-dimensional conductor.

Hybrid interconnects that employ CNT vias in tandem with copper interconnects offers
advantages from a reliability/thermal-management perspective.

c

emiconducting CNTs have been used to fabricate field effect transistors (CNTETs), which
show promise due to their superior electrical characteristics over silicon based OETs. ince
the electron mean free path in CNTs can exceed 1 micrometer, long channel CNTETs
exhibit near-ballistic transport characteristics, resulting in high speed devices. CNT devices are
projected to operate in the frequency range of hundreds of Gigaherz. Recent work detailing the
advantages and disadvantages of various forms of CNTETs have also shown that tunneling
CNTET offers better characteristics compared to other CNTET structures. This device has
been found to be superior in terms of subthreshold slope - a very important property for low
power applications.

Nanotubes are usually grown on nanoparticles of magnetic metal (e, Co) that facilitates
production of electronic (spintronic) devices.
n particular control of current through a field-
effect transistor by magnetic field has been demonstrated in such a single-tube nanostructure.

%%

lthough CNT devices and interconnects separately have been shown to be promising in their
own respects, there have been few efforts to combine them in a realistic circuit. ost CNTET
structures employ the silicon substrate as a back gate. pplying different back gate voltages
might become a concern when designing large circuits out of these elements. everal top-gated
structures have also been demonstrated, which can alleviate this concern. Recently, a fully
integrated logic circuit built on a single nanotube was reported. This circuit employs a back-gate.
everal process-related challenges need to be addressed before CNT-based devices and
interconnects can enter mainstream VL
manufacturing. Remaining problems include
purification, separation, control over length, chirality and desired alignment, low thermal budget
and high contact resistance.
nnovative ideas have been proposed to build practical transistors out
of nano-networks. ince lack of control on chirality produces a mix of metallic as well as semi-
conducting CNTs from any fabrication process and it is difficult to control the growth direction
of the CNTs, easily-produced random arrays of CNTs have been proposed to build thin film
transistors. This idea can be further exploited to build practical CNT based transistors and
circuits without the need for precise growth and assembly.

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'uantum dots are particularly significant for optical applications due to their high extinction co-
efficient.
n electronic applications they have been proven to operate like a single-electron
transistor and show the Coulomb blockade effect. 'uantum dots have also been suggested as
implementations of qubits for quantum information processing.

The ability to tune the size of quantum dots is advantageous for many applications. or instance,
larger quantum dots have a greater spectrum-shift towards red compared to smaller dots, and
exhibit less pronounced quantum properties. Conversely, the smaller particles allow one to take
advantage of more subtle quantum effects.

Being zero dimensional, quantum dots have a sharper density of states than higher-dimensional
structures. s a result, they have superior transport and optical properties, and are being
researched for use in diode lasers, amplifiers, and biological sensors. 'uantum dots may be
excited within the locally enhanced electromagnetic field produced by the gold nanoparticles,
which can then be observed from the surface Plasmon resonance in the photoluminescent
excitation spectrum of (Cde)Zn nanocrystals. High-quality quantum dots are well suited for
optical encoding and multiplexing applications due to their broad excitation profiles and
narrow/symmetric emission spectra. The new generations of quantum dots have far-reaching
potential for the study of intracellular processes at the single-molecule level, high-resolution
cellular imaging, long-term in vivo observation of cell trafficking, tumor targeting, and
diagnostics.

%

'uantum dot technology is one of the most promising candidates for use in solid-state quantum
computation. By applying small voltages to the leads, the flow of electrons through the quantum
dot can be controlled and thereby precise measurements of the spin and other properties therein
can be made. ith several entangled quantum dots, or qubits, plus a way of performing
operations, quantum calculations and the computers that would perform them might be possible.

£%!

n modern biological analysis, various kinds of organic dyes are used. However, with each
passing year, more flexibility is being required of these dyes, and the traditional dyes are often
unable to meet the expectations. To this end, quantum dots have quickly filled in the role, being
found to be superior to traditional organic dyes on several counts, one of the most immediately
obvious being brightness (owing to the high extinction co-efficient combined with a comparable
quantum yield to fluorescent dyes) as well as their stability (allowing much less photobleaching).

t has been estimated that quantum dots are 20 times brighter and 100 times more stable than
traditional fluorescent reporters. or single-particle tracking, the irregular blinking of quantum
dots is a minor drawback.

The usage of quantum dots for highly sensitive cellular imaging has seen major advances over
the past decade. The improved photostability of quantum dots, for example, allows the
acquisition of many consecutive focal-plane images that can be reconstructed into a high-
resolution three-dimensional image. nother application that takes advantage of the
extraordinary photostability of quantum dot probes is the real-time tracking of molecules and
cells over extended periods of time. ntibodies, streptavidin, peptides, nucleic acid aptamers, or
small-molecule ligands can be used to target quantum dots to specific proteins on cells.
Researchers were able to observe quantum dots in lymph nodes of mice for more than 4 months.

emiconductor quantum dots have also been employed for in vitro imaging of pre-labeled cells.
The ability to image single-cell migration in real time is expected to be important to several
research areas such as embryogenesis, cancer metastasis, stem-cell therapeutics, and lymphocyte
immunology.

cientists have proven that quantum dots are dramatically better than existing methods for
delivering a gene-silencing tool, known as siRN, into cells.

irst attempts have been made to use quantum dots for tumor targeting under in vivo conditions.
There exist two basic targeting schemes: active targeting and passive targeting.
n the case of
active targeting, quantum dots are functionalized with tumor-specific binding sites to selectively
bind to tumor cells. Passive targeting utilizes the enhanced permeation and retention of tumor
cells for the delivery of quantum dot probes. ast-growing tumor cells typically have more
permeable membranes than healthy cells, allowing the leakage of small nanoparticles into the
cell body. oreover, tumor cells lack an effective lymphatic drainage system, which leads to
subsequent nanoparticle-accumulation.

One of the remaining issues with quantum dot probes is their potential in vivo toxicity. or
example, Cde nanocrystals are highly toxic to cultured cells under UV illumination. The energy
of UV irradiation is close to that of the covalent chemical bond energy of Cde nanocrystals. s
a result, semiconductor particles can be dissolved, in a process known as photolysis, to release
toxic cadmium ions into the culture medium.
n the absence of UV irradiation, however,
quantum dots with a stable polymer coating have been found to be essentially nontoxic. Then
again, only little is known about the excretion process of quantum dots from living organisms.
These and other questions must be carefully examined before quantum dot applications in tumor
or vascular imaging can be approved for human clinical use.

nother potential cutting-edge application of quantum dots is being researched, with quantum
dots acting as the inorganic fluorophore for intra-operative detection of tumors using
fluorescence spectroscopy.

"$$

'uantum dots may be able to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of today's typical silicon
photovoltaic cells. ccording to an experimental proof from 2006 (controversial results),
quantum dots of lead selenide can produce as many as seven excitons from one high energy
photon of sunlight (7.8 times the bandgap energy). This compares favorably to today's
photovoltaic cells which can only manage one exciton per high-energy photon, with high kinetic
energy carriers losing their energy as heat. This would not result in a 7-fold increase in final
output however, but could boost the maximum theoretical efficiency from 31% to 42%.
'uantum dot photovoltaics would theoretically be cheaper to manufacture, as they can be made
"using simple chemical reactions." The generation of more than one exciton by a single photon
is called multiple exciton generation ( EG) or carrier multiplication.

%"%$

There are several inquiries into using quantum dots as light-emitting diodes to make displays and
other light sources, such as "'D-LED" displays, and "'D-LED" (hite LED).
n June, 2006,
'D Vision announced technical success in making a proof-of-concept quantum dot display and
show a bright emission in the visible and near infra-red region of the spectrum. 'uantum dots are
valued for displays, because they emit light in very specific gaussian distributions. This can
result in a display that more accurately renders the colors that the human eye can perceive.
'uantum dots also require very little power since they are not color filtered. dditionally, since
the discovery of "white-light emitting" 'D, general solid-state lighting applications appear closer
than ever.  color liquid crystal display (LCD), for example, is usually powered by a single
fluorescent lamp (or occasionally, conventional white LEDs) that is color filtered to produce red,
green, and blue pixels. Displays that intrinsically produce monochromatic light can be more
efficient, since more of the light produced reaches the eye.
 
c c
  is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic
(micrometer-sized) structures.
n describing nanostructures it is necessary to differentiate between
the number of dimensions on the nanoscale. The terms nanoparticles and ultrafine particles
(UP) often are used synonymously although UP can reach into the micrometre range. The
term 'nanostructure' is often used when referring to magnetic technolog



 
c c
Nanotextured surfaces have   on the nanoscale, i.e., only the thickness of the
surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm. 
 

  is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometer (10í9 meters).
lternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter
constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. t these scales, quantum
mechanical effects are important ^ which coined the term "quantum wires". any different
types of nanowires exist, including metallic (e.g., Ni, Pt, u), semiconducting (e.g., i,
nP,
GaN, etc.), and insulating (e.g., iO2, TiO2). olecular nanowires are composed of repeating
molecular units either organic (e.g. DN) or inorganic (e.g. o69-x
x).

The nanowires could be used, in the near future, to link tiny components into extremely small
circuits. Using nanotechnology, such components could be created out of chemical compounds.


Nanowires still belong to the experimental world of laboratories. However, they may
complement or replace carbon nanotubes in some applications. ome early experiments have
shown how they can be used to build the next generation of computing devices.

To create active electronic elements, the first key step was to chemically dope a semiconductor
nanowire. This has already been done to individual nanowires to create p-type and n-type
semiconductors.

The next step was to find a way to create a p-n junction, one of the simplest electronic devices.
This was achieved in two ways. The first way was to physically cross a p-type wire over an n-
type wire. The second method involved chemically doping a single wire with different dopants
along the length. This method created a p-n junction with only one wire.

fter p-n junctions were built with nanowires, the next logical step was to build logic gates. By
connecting several p-n junctions together, researchers have been able to create the basis of all
logic circuits: the ND, OR, and NOT gates have all been built from semiconductor nanowire
crossings.

t is possible that semiconductor nanowire crossings will be important to the future of digital
computing. Though there are other uses for nanowires beyond these, the only ones that actually
take advantage of physics in the nanometer regime are electronic.

Nanowires are being studied for use as photon ballistic waveguides as interconnects in quantum
dot/quantum effect well photon logic arrays. Photons travel inside the tube, electrons travel on
the outside shell.

hen two nanowires acting as photon waveguides cross each other the juncture acts as a
quantum dot.

Conducting nanowires offer the possibility of connecting molecular-scale entities in a molecular

computer. Dispersions of conducting nanowires in different polymers are being investigated for
use as transparent electrodes for flexible flat-screen displays.

Because of their high Young's moduli, their use in mechanically enhancing composites is being
investigated. Because nanowires appear in bundles, they may be used as tribological additives to
improve friction characteristics and reliability of electronic transducers and actuators.

Because of their high aspect ratio, nanowires are also uniquely suited to dielectrophoretic
manipulation.

  is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic

(micrometer-sized) structures.

n describing nanostructures it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensions on

the nanoscale. Nanotubes have  on the nanoscale, i.e., the diameter of the tube is
between 0.1 and 100 nm; its length could be much greater. inally, The terms nanoparticles and
ultrafine particles (UP) often are used synonymously although UP can reach into the
micrometre range. The term 'nanostructure' is often used when referring to magnetic technology.