How can you weigh a single atom? European
researchers have built an exquisite new device
that can do just that. It may ultimately allow
scientists to study the progress of chemical reactions, molecule by molecule.
Carbon nanotubes are ultra-thin fibres of carbon
and a nanotechnologist's dream.
They are made from thin sheets of carbon only one
atom thick known as graphene rolled into a a
tube only a few nanometres across. Even the
thickest is more than a thousand times thinner than a human hair.
Interest in carbon nanotubes blossomed in the
1990s when they were found to possess impressive
characteristics that make them very attractive
raw materials for nanotechnology of all kinds.
"They have unique properties," explains Professor
Pertti Hakonen of Helsinki University of
Technology. "They are about 1000 times stronger
than steel and very good thermal conductors and good electrical conductors."
Hakonen is coordinator of the EU-funded CARDEQ
project
(<http://www.cardeq.eu/>http://www.cardeq.eu/)
which is exploiting these intriguing materials to
build a device sensitive enough to measure the masses of atoms and molecules.
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630075614.htm>Link
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