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."

Comments

Stamping them out

[Megane]

I prefer to stamp them out with the sole of my shoe,

Nasty little nanodevices, always getting under the baseboards. Good riddance.

Getting rid of?

[j-beda]

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

Wet-embossing?

[Gibbs-Duhem]

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.

Re:Wet-embossing?

[gr8_phk]

DIffraction gratings by themselves are rather boring...

And CDs have been stamped since the 1980s.

Re:Wet-embossing?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's nanoimprint lithography ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoimprint_lithography ), but replacing the polymer normally used to record the pattern with a porous material that is crushed.

The images show various materials - (1) is porous gold, with a feature pitch of 750 nm; (2) is porous silicon with a pitch of 400 nm; (3) is porous titanium dioxide, with the distance from the bottom of the pictures to the start of the pores about 1 micron; (4) isn't in the paper; and (5) is porous silicon with the cube side about 2 microns.

The substrates (under the porous films) aren't entirely clear from the paper but seem to have been silicon for the silicon, glass or silicon for the gold, and titanium for the TiO2. They also had Al2O3 on Al.

Nano Letters ?

[giorgist]

"The article was published in the latest issue of the journal Nano Letters"

It's one thing not to be able to see the patterns created ... but to post in nano letters is a bit arogant me thinks !!

Re:Replacing Pigment Coatings?

[Hylandr]

I want nano devices with teleporters to hang out in my intestines, transporting in food where it needs to go, and down lower, transporting the results out. These same nano bots can clean my house and maintain my engine at the microscopic level. Working together they could manage my lawn and keep it precisely 3 inches and transport water in as needed. For that matter, with enough of them, we could live in nanite-buildings.

I see all this coming to a hysterical end the first time someone cracks the system though. That couldn't happen could it?

*Ducks*

- Dan.

Re:Nano-Tattoos?

[Agent0013]

Painless and self-renewing (or maybe reprogrammable!) nano-tattoos coming soon to flesh near you?

It's certainly been a staple of cyberpunk.

It's already here. Think geek has a wand that changes an e-Ink tatoo to a new picture.