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Scientists Sort Semiconducting Nanotubes by Size
SuperGrads writes "Scientists working at Rice University have developed the world's first method for not only sorting semiconducting carbon nanotubes from their metallic brethren, but also for arranging them by diameter size. This ability is essential for building devices from these tubes and paves the way for high-speed nanoscale electronics."
Rice does some pretty amazing stuff with nanotech-- I got a tour a few months ago of one of their interdisciplinary labs where electrical engineers are working alongside chemists who are collaborating with bioengineers. Really amazing stuff that's way beyond my scope (at least as a sophomore computer engineering major).
Students at Rice are constantly drilled with the buzzword, though, and are probably more tired of hearing it than the rest of the technology world. It's hard to pick up a copy of the school newspaper without finding "NANOTECH" in big, bold letters somewhere on the first three pages.
Now if only we could get our football team on par with the rest of the collegiate world...
The Resasco group at University of Oklahoma is getting pretty close to selectively producing semiconducting nanotubes of a fixed size. http://www.ou.edu/engineering/nanotube/