US: Carbon Nanotubes and Inorganic Nanowires: Technology and Applications

Monday June 21, 2010, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Anaheim, California

Technology Focus

The small scale and the one dimensional structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are directly related to their unique properties which find more and more applications as the understanding and progress in synthesis continue to advance. CNTs represent an exemplary system where the bottom-up approach to synthesis results in perfect structures with sizes less than 10nm, a range which remains inaccessible for advanced projection lithography techniques.

Applications of carbon nanotubes range from reinforcement of composites or conductive plastics to electrodes for batteries or flat screens, field effect transistors, chemical and bio sensors and electromechanical memory.

In recent years, the demonstrated ability to grow a variety of semiconductor, oxide and other inorganic materials in the form of nanowires with controlled properties and orientation also provides a competitive avenue for applications in logic, memory, data storage, sensors, instrumentation and others. Interestingly, growth of the inorganic nanowires and carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition follows a common basis of vapor-liquid-solid mechanism.

This course first introduces the fundamental properties of carbon nanotubes and inorganic nanowires and then focuses on applications.