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Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures

Posted by Hemos on from the constructing-our-future-atom-by-atom dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Chips holding 10 terabits of data? Copper as strong as steel? Ceramics tough enough to be used in car engines? All this will be true in five years, thanks to two new methods to create self-assembling 3D nanostructures. These methods used pulsed laser deposition to create layers of nanodots organized in a matrix. These arrays of nanodots are consistent in shape and size -- 7 nanometers with nickel for example. But the real beauty of these methods is that they can be applied to almost any material, like nickel for data storage or aluminum oxide for ceramics. These methods also reduce drastically imperfections, leading to future superstrong materials. Read more here for other details and an image of a single nickel nanocrystal, or nanodot."

42 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Mithril blades by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Funny


    So that's it then - the elves had nanotech. It all makes sense now. Looks like steel, feels like steel, but cuts like sinclair molecule chain :-)

    I do remember the UK Science minister at the time (Lord Sainsbury, I think it was) who said "Nanotechnology is going to be really BIG". He didn't quite get it, did he... Oh well, science is anathema to most politicians in the UK :-(

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:Mithril blades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
      While your statement about science and politicians is true in the sense that every lawyer joke is true, actually the UK has one of the more enlightened sceience-friendly governments around. the POST in the UK (parliamentary office of science and tech) is particularly good and people such as gordon brown have been pretty active in promoting science and technology.

      but, of course, what do you know. you're just some dork spouting off about elves on slashdot.

    2. Re:Mithril blades by wtrmute · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, in "The Hobbit", Mithril was described as silver with the strength of triple steel. So it would have to be silver, then? Still expensive...

  2. A bit like whats going on at MIT by Slashbot+Hive-Mind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    last I heard, MIT was working on something like this. Just a rumor - can anyone verify?

    --

    --
    We are the collective Slashbot HiveMind
  3. Spam by soyuz_2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Roland Piquepaille is a blogspammer, every day for over a week now, we've had his rehashings of old stories posted on the frontpage. Don't click on the first and the last link in the story.

    1. Re:Spam by LeBlanc_Joey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I second that, just link straight to the story.

      --

      Everything in moderation, even moderation.

      No, especially moderation.

    2. Re:Spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I see by your high UID number that you've probably only been here a week or two. Roland Piquepaille has been blog-spamming us for a long time now, though it seems that lately he's been getting an article every single day. I'd like to know how much slashdot editors are taking in bribes from this guy. I submit great articles and they get rejected for this. If they'd at least trim out all his spammed radio.weblog.com links I would tolerate him. Now I only read the articles by him in order to comment on what an asshole he is...

    3. Re:Spam by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The OP means that this guy gets a number of stories posted every week, all containing links to (amongst other things) his blog.

      That's rubbing a fair few people here up the wrong way, and personally I'm not surprised. Slashdot gets so many submissions from so many people, that to have so many accepted by the same person seems a little odd, especially given he always promotes his own site in them. Starts to feel like advertising...

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
    4. Re:Spam by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You say not to click on any of the links but don't provide any alternate links for us to click. How are we to RTFA if we don't get any links..... oh wait. Sorry, I forgot where I was momentarily.

    5. Re:Spam by ajna · · Score: 3, Informative

      As I posted earlier on /., block the following regex in your ad-blocker of choice (adblock in Firefox, PithHelmet in Safari) and be gone with your troubles: radio\.weblogs\.com\/0105910.

      Also, the Triangle TechJournal article is not spam, but merely slashdotted. Here is google's cache: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:uVKexn1-BtYJ:ww w.triangletechjournal.com/news/article.html%3Fitem _id%3D666+&hl=en&start=1

    6. Re:Spam by GileadGreene · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Trust me, it's been going on for way more than the last week. Somehow Piquepaille has managed to average 1 story every 2-3 days for the past 6 months or more. I don't know how he does it. Kickbacks to the /. editors maybe?

    7. Re:Spam by danharan · · Score: 2

      Oh, for fuck's sake, enough about Piquepaille's success already. You don't have to read them. Heck, you don't even have to read /.

      Are you people bitter that you haven't had their stories posted? Is it because the man's French?

      WTF is blogspamming anyways, and why do you care?

      --
      Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
  4. Ceramics by tuxter · · Score: 4, Informative

    I haven't RTFA, but ceramics are already used in certain motorcycle engines.

    1. Re:Ceramics by bconway · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And very expensive brakes.

      --
      Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
    2. Re:Ceramics by joib · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Ceramic brakes have been used for a pretty long time on racecars. IIRC at least since the early 90'ies. During night races (e.g. Le Mans 24 h) you can see how the brake discs glow red when they brake into the corners.

    3. Re:Ceramics by RicktheBrick · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ceramics in engines to me means no cooling needed. A engine that can be heated to 2000 degrees without cracking would save alot of energy and polution.

  5. But how does it kill people? by MacFury · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess you could make stronger bullets...How else could it be used to kill people? I'd like to see this technology get funded.

    1. Re:But how does it kill people? by wtrmute · · Score: 2, Funny

      Theoretically, you could make super-strong body armor to outfit your stormtr^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsoldiers. So, indirectly, it can be used to kill people...

      Of course, even super-strong body armor pales before the power of the Force :)

  6. Pffft by frankthechicken · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to have self assembling lego/mechano structures, thanks to my father's need to 'help' me whenever I got a new set.

  7. Ooops by tuxter · · Score: 3, Funny

    I post that and read slashdot? Fucking asshat.

  8. Imperfections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "methods also reduce drastically imperfections"

    Maybe he should have used those methods on his text!

  9. Re:Weeeee by qbzzt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Another Slashdot story that is going to change my life. Why is it after 3 years I'm still doing the same stinking job, same stinking money eh?

    Maybe because you expect /. to change your life? The .com boom is over, get over it. Find a job you enjoy, or one you can stand. Then, to enjoy yourself, get a life. It's amazing how unimportant work is once you have a kid.

    --
    -- Support a free market in the field of government
  10. Space Elevators.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmmm, isn't this just what we need to make space elevators possible?

    1. Re:Space Elevators.... by HiThere · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No. Carbon nanotubes are what you want for that. But we need better production.

      OTOH, this might be jim dandy for the electrical connections. (Might, because I'm not sure how well it conducts electricity, or what conducting electricity does to it's strength.) It's obviously desireable to minimize the parasitic weight that the elevator contains in its lift cable.

      P.S.: To me it seems a poor idea to go directly to a Space Elevator. Starting with an easier design might well be better, say with a pinwheel. You need to fly up to catch the rotating arm, but not too high, and by doing things that way you don't need quite as strong a cable. (You don't even need to do it from a geo-stationary orbit, but you would need to be high enough so that progression is rather sedate. Say, once every 6 hours...and build four of them for less than the price of one in geostationary orbit. (You do need to have the arms reach down far enough to hook the cargo-bay off the plane...say 10 miles up? I didn't look up how high planes can reasonably fly, or what the air resistance is at that height, so that a wild ass guess [WAG].)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  11. You missed the point!!!! by ScottGant · · Score: 3, Funny

    These things are "self-assembling"!! Doesn't this just scare the hell out of you?!?!

    How long will it be before these 3D nanostructures figure out they no long need Mankind to survive...and see us as a threat!?!?

    I for one will welcome our new Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures Overlords!

    --

    "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
  12. Already slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google cache

  13. greatest invention since the lightbulb by Jotham · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why is it that every time I read about a scientific breakthrough, journalists always promise that it could lead to... *drumroll*... an improved lightbulb?

    I wonder if Einstein had this problem.
    E=mc^2... helps us understand the relationship between energy and matter... which could lead to...

  14. Mod parent up! by ScottGant · · Score: 3, Funny

    This isn't redundant man...don't you GET IT?

    Listen. And understand. Those Self-assembling 3D Nanostructures are out there. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, EVER, until we are dead!

    --

    "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
  15. Can we use it for the space elivator project? by bluFox · · Score: 4, Informative

    The space elivator project needs materials strong enough to with stand the tension of its own weight, and we already have carbon nano fibers that provide 60-70% of the strength needed to make it a reality. If this new technique can get us to the magic strength, we are probably in the threashhold of a new era.

    --
    ~561
  16. Ok, after reading the article by nounderscores · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At the moment, "self assembling" means that we don't have to push the nanodots together after we make them. That's all. You still need to ablate a carefully prepared target with a laser to etch the structures we want.

    Personally, I'm excited about their solid state lighting idea.

    from the article The most interesting application may be the development of energy-efficient, low-cost, solid-state lighting. By creating a matrix of layers of varying sizes of nanodots embedded in a transparent medium such as aluminum oxide, Narayan can create a chip that glows with white light. Solid-state lighting would use about one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years.

    Looks like my LCD monitor is about to become obsolete: there's no reason why these solid state can't be made the size of a pixel and tied to active matrix display electronics. Maybe the us military might be able to replace their $30,000+ individual soldier helmet monocles which are currently using 5000 hour MTBF organic led technology with durable, bright and efficient nano-leds and save taxpayer money while we're at it.

  17. new life for LCD tech vs OLED by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > 'chip-light using' one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years

    Well that puts LCD back in the race against the upcoming OLED technology. If they can further reduce bad pixels and failure it may be more environmentally friendly than OLED which may have a shorter life span. The energy used by the backlight was LCDs culprit, with that solved LCD may become our long lasting friend.

    OLED pushers better speed their cheap display printing tech to market before we expect displays to last 40 years.
    --
    Dennis SCP

  18. Re:Terabits? by Tony-A · · Score: 3, Informative

    Isn't bits generally used for data transfer, rather than storage, which is generally bytes?

    Not quite so simple.
    Bits is generally used for the raw basic capability. No provisions for framing, error detection or correction.
    Bytes are generally used for 8 bits of usable information. This is measured after the framing, error detection/correction etc.

    Bandwidth caps are related to data transfer, but probably expressed in bytes instead of bits.
    Memory chip capacity probably expressed in bits. Memory stick capacity probably expressed in bytes, and usually be less than the corresponding number of bits in the chips.
    Disk capacity probably expressed in bytes, but there is a significant difference between raw unformatted capacity and the formatted capacity. The difference is furthered by reserving alternate sectors so the disk behaves as if it were error free.

  19. The Diamond Age by Viking+Coder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, so this has been really bugging me, ever since I first read it. In "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson, he talks about making tiny little diamonds that are lighter than air. They have vaccuum inside, and they're diamond, so they're strong enough to handle the pressure. So, they end up being diamonds that float in our atmosphere.

    Is that possible, or is there something fundamentally flawed about it?

    --
    Education is the silver bullet.
    1. Re:The Diamond Age by mikael · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They have vaccuum inside, and they're diamond, so they're strong enough to handle the pressure. So, they end up being diamonds that float in our atmosphere.
      You'd probably need a good few layers of carbon atoms to make sure no oxygen, nitrogen or even hydrogen atoms sneaked in. Not forgetting the byproducts of cosmic rays. My guess is that the total mass of the casing / volume would exceed the density of the surrounding air.

      Buckminster Fuller has a similar idea, but on a much grander scale. He figured you could could create floating cities from ordinary steel. If you could imagine a geodesic polyhedron 2 miles in radius with steel pipes 2-3 metres in radius for the edges, the force exerted by raising the air temperature inside the pipes by just a couple of degrees would be enough to make the structure float in the air.

      The closest real-world implementation at present is a nyoln fibre airship, with helium gas for lift. Roughly, you get 1 Kg of lift for every cubic metre of Helium. For a 6x2 metre airship with 25 cubic metres, the weight of the skin is around 8 Kg, when inflated, and 25kg of lifting weight.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  20. But when will it work with alchohol by GomezAdams · · Score: 3, Funny
    I'd rather like to see something along this line that would assemble the finest Cuba Libre on the planet, a good cigar, and then assemble some red headed carbon based life form to share it with. That would be nano-technology worth investing in!

    --
    Too lazy to create a sig...
  21. You JUST found that yet? (news.nanoapex.com) by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 3, Informative

    I had known this for months.

    If you really want to be up to date in nano, check out news.nanoapex.com.

    Every day there's a new discovery.

  22. 5 years? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Sounds extremely over-optimistic to me.

  23. Yawn. Nothing to see here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hey slashdot: if someone puts the word nano in front of a sentence it does not mean the material is instantly going to build your nerdy wet dream of a space elevator, coming to take you away from your sad little cubicle/hand jobs.

    More nano hype. It's published in a crappy journal, and he's got nanoparticles to assemble into a lattice, which they've been doing now for, ooh >5 years? Suitably stabilized Nanoparticles do this anyway, it's called CLOSE PACKING and should be familiar to anyone with a modicum of HS chem.

    I have to say, it's a nice trick with the laser ablation though - it generalises exisitng nanoparticle positioning/assembly to a few new materials.

    Revolutionary it ain't.

    See

    http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/~pagrp/

    and

    http://www.ncsu.edu/chemistry/dlf.html

    amongst many many others for better science.

    'Nonymous nanotechnologist.

  24. Rotational Momentum by Boronx · · Score: 2

    Can someone explain to me how the space elevator is going to make up for changes in rotational momemntum as the elevator moves up and down? Are they going to have rockets on it to counter-act coreolis forces?

    --
    Play Command HQ online
    1. Re:Rotational Momentum by HeghmoH · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As the cargo goes up, the elevator will lag slightly behind the earth's rotation because of coriolis forces. This will create a tension in the cable, pulling on the elevator, and causing it to speed back up. This will slow down the earth's rotation by an extremely small amount. The same kind of thing happens when things go back down.

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
  25. Spam? or just lazy editors. by barryp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is Roland actually submitting this stuff to Slashdot? Or are the illustrious Slashdot editors merely mining Roland's excellent site for material to fill whatever story quotas they have?

    Either way, I make a point of checking Roland's site regularly because he manages to have a posting every day that's usually interesting.

  26. Something I've been wondering for a while: by Lazyhound · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What would I be best off majoring in if I wanted to get involved in nanotechnology? Material engineering?