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Stamping Out Low-Cost Nanodevices
RogerRoast writes "Vanderbilt University scientists report that they have developed a simple technique for stamping patterns invisible to the human eye onto a special class of nanomaterials. According to the article, the method works with materials that are riddled with tiny voids that give them unique optical, electrical, chemical and mechanical properties. 'It's amazing how easy it is. We made our first imprint using a regular tabletop vise,' Sharon M. Weiss the lead author said. The article was published in the latest issue of the journal Nano Letters."
I prefer to stamp them out with the sole of my shoe,
Nasty little nanodevices, always getting under the baseboards. Good riddance.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
The title made me think it would be about a way of getting rid of unwanted nanodevices in the environment - maybe some sort of vacuum combined with a filter. Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" has the problems of unwanted nano-machines as one of its themes.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Neal_Stephenson
It will be interesting to see if nano-suface treatment to give colour and patterns will one day be able to replace traditional pigment coatings where the coating is purely cosmetic. Time will tell.
Hopefully someone who is on an academic IP address can explain why this is any different than the standard wet-embossing techniques that we've been using to do this kind of thing for the last decade and a half... those SEM images sure look awfully similar to the stuff I was doing back in 2001. Maybe they're just saying that they crush the porous substrate whereas with standard techniques we suck up solvents in substrate inks? That would be kind of neat, although it seems like it'd be limited in utility so I imagine it's more clever than that... do they crush some porous substrate and then manage to lift off the pattern or otherwise remove the crushed portion? Do they have a technique to deposit different substrates on the same device? Otherwise, it's not really going to be useful for most electronics right? I mean, making a pattern of n-type silicon isn't going to make a useful device unless you can deposit p-type and conductor on the same device and manage high degrees of alignment... maybe they mean that this can be used as memory? DIffraction gratings by themselves are rather boring...
A shame that the article doesn't say what the substrates actually are. I do like the photos of the little tubes, although without a scale bar I'm not sure what I'm looking at.
"The article was published in the latest issue of the journal Nano Letters"
... but to post in nano letters is a bit arogant me thinks !!
It's one thing not to be able to see the patterns created
Painless and self-renewing (or maybe reprogrammable!) nano-tattoos coming soon to flesh near you?
It's certainly been a staple of cyberpunk.
The right to offend is central to the right to free speech.
"I walked into the room, and he was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. My every desire was to interface my nanite cortex into his receptacle beacon. Things started to heat up, he slid off my outer layers, I recharged his core and we were one. Until I heard a noise at the door, who could that be I wondered? It was Sheila, that freshly stamped tramp of an ex girlfriend...."
Welcome our new nano-overlords!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
imagine a world where any surface can be used as a screen. The possibilities are endless. Unfortunately the marketeers will think exactly the same thing.
Neal Stephenson already mentioned this in his SF novel "Diamond Age". The end result when every surface was coated with marketing animations was that nothing stood out, so no one noticed anything. Call it the "Geocities effect" or, better, the "Altavista effect".
Perhaps many don't remember it, but before Google the main search site was Altavista. Its home page was loaded with ads, every one trying to catch your attention with the most obnoxious animation effect. Then Google came with its clean home page and the rest is history.