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Buckyballs Polymerized Into Buckywires
KentuckyFC writes "Scientists have found a way to join buckyballs together so that they form buckywires. The wires form when buckyballs are dissolved in an aromatic hydrocarbon called 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene. The solvent links the balls together to make wires shaped like a string of pearls, which then precipitate out. This relatively simple procedure opens the door to industrial-scale manufacture. Buckywires ought to be efficient light harvesters because of their great surface area and the way they can conduct photon-liberated electrons. But perhaps the area of greatest interest is drug delivery. The researchers suggest that buckywires ought to be safer than carbon nanotubes because the production method is entirely metal-free. This contrasts with the production of nanotubes, which are formed in a reaction catalyzed by metallic nanoparticles."
Aromatic hydrocarbon, my ass. Those damn kids have been into my Scotch again.
How does this effect computing, I wonder. I've heard that buckyballs have some interesting electrical properties (in passing conversation so I can't recall what they are). Could someone elaborate on how "buckystrings" could be used for electrical applications?
So can I get some cheap fishing line that doesn't break now?
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"Bucky Balls create Pearl Necklace"
Who would have guessed?
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If threads are created and those threads are woven into a fabric, then what kind of ballistic applications could we expect? Could panels be made from strands of buckysballs and into new car skins? Aircraft?
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Metal free production is nice, but in the end, it's not just what is used in production, but how you take out the undesirable things.
Benzene and many derivatives, are just as toxic (if not more so) than a lot of metals.
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This relatively simple procedure opens the door to industrial-scale manufacture
No, it doesn't. There's no specificity, you can't control the polymerization to the extent needed to build something useful at the nanoscale, the wires are precipitating out of solution because they're attracted to themselves and each other more strongly than they're attracted to the solvent, that's a problem because you have no way of actually building anything with them. That's why people have been doing this sort of things with metal colloids for over a decade and there's been no "industrial-scale" use for them discovered in anything but colloidal form because you're basically just creating fancy-shaped aggregates. Until there's a technology available that will selectively aggregate nanoscale materials into arbitrary shapes (rather than a bunch of copies of the same repeating structure in solution) in a manner where certain shapes and functional units can be fixed to where they need to be on a chip or in a machine there isn't going to be a use.
Interesting chemistry, but to imagine that nanotech has any applications that require more synthetic control than bulk colloids or coatings within the next decade (or 5) is pure hype.
IIRC, chains of carbon nanotubes, graphene, buckyballs, and co. are prone to nasty weaknesses do to easily induced flaws in structures. So even if we could make a lot of this stuff, would it even be useful with these methods?
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I believe the item you quoted refers to industrial-scale manufacture of the buckywires themselves.
While a number of possible applications are mentioned, none are anything more than speculation and neither of the two named (photovoltaics and drug-delivery) require the specificity you mention.
One only needs to be able to "selectively aggregate nanoscale materials into arbitrary shapes" if one is making a complex nano-scale object. That is not what is mentioned in this article nor is it even implied.
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Maybe because "buckyballs" is a "pop sci" term and you look funny using it. They are more often called fullerenes.
Example of use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhondite
Fullerenes have little current practical use (they are rather expensive) but a lot of interesting potential uses, because you can trap things inside them: a lot of exotic materials can be made with them. There is even a purely organic compund (a mixed crystal of fullerene and a small organic compound) which exhibits ferromagnetic properties.
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According to the image in the article, the individual buckyballs are linked by SP3 carbons (@-CH2-Phi-CH2-@) from the solvent. This means, there is no pi electron system, and therefore no electrical connectivity, between the buckyball entities. The physical characteristics of this material are vastly different from nanotubes, which are a single extended pi system. I highly doubt that this stuff can be a replacement for any application which requires long-distance electron flow, such as light harvesting, microelectronics, etc.
The bonding is controlled by both the thermodynamics of the multi-bonded fullerenes, as well as the kinetics involved in multiple crosslinkings, forcing fullerenes next to each other. If you read the actual article, the evidence suggests that the fullerenes are slowly polymerizing, and crosslinking - an NMR spectrum after several months implies that it actually is one, big, horrible mess (or not fullerenes anymore, depending on how skeptical you are of this).
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