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COMPUTER SIMULATION:
Electrifying nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes have the potential to be used
for smaller and faster computer chips, but static electricity
poses serious problems with nanoscale elements in a circuit.
 Static
electricity has long been a problem for conventional chips and
electronic devices, but it’s especially severe for nanotubes
because of their extreme shape—nanotubes are often micrometers
long and only a few billionths of a meter in diameter. A small
zap of static electricity destabilizes the nanotubes, making them
useless as a semiconductor.
To find out how severe the problem is, Pawel Keblinski,
assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and
Saroj Nayak, assistant professor of physics, combined quantum
mechanics in theoretical computer simulations with classical electrostatics
analysis. They found that the electrostatic charge is concentrated
at the tube ends. The charge eventually destroys the entire nanotube.
The researchers then calculated the maximum charge
the tube can adopt before its ends become unstable. Besides providing
a guide to “safe” operational conditions for nanotubes,
this so-called “tube charging” technique could be used
to open nanotube ends without damaging them. This allows carbon
atoms to react directly with other elements, such as oxygen, boron,
and nitrogen.
Since carbon nanotubes in their purest form may
not be the answer to building smaller, more efficient computer
chips, the addition of elements such as nitrogen could provide
new electrical characteristics to the tubes or could be used to
increase the bonding between the tubes and other materials.
“It was exactly the same way with silicon
technology. Silicon is not very useful in pure form. Other elements
have to be added to provide proper electrical characteristics,”
Keblinski says.
CONTACT: Theresa Bourgeois, (518) 276-2840,
bourgt@rpi.edu
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