BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Brush up on your nanotechnology http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4085214.stm
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Brush up on your nanotechnology
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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Brush up on your nanotechnology http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4085214.stm
By Roland Pease SEE ALSO:
BBC science correspondent Citizens' jury to tackle nanotech
23 May 05 | Science/Nature
The world's smallest Nanotech promise for global poor
11 Apr 05 | Science/Nature
brushes, with bristles
UK orders another nanotech
more than a thousand review
times finer than a human 25 Feb 05 | Science/Nature
hair, have been created Small science to be big in 2005
by researchers in the US. 20 Jan 05 | Science/Nature
Lecture sings praises of nanotech
The brushes can be used for 27 Apr 05 | Technology
Myths and realities of nano futures
sweeping up nano-dust,
28 Jul 04 | Science/Nature
painting microstructures and A nano brush gets to work
even cleaning up pollutants RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
in water. More details Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Nature Materials
The bristles' secret is carbon nanotubes, tiny straw-like Royal Society and Royal
molecules just 30 billionths of a metre across. Academy's Nanotechnology and
Nanoscience report
They are incredibly tough and yet flexible enough that NanoJury UK
they will yield when pushed from the side. The BBC is not responsible for the
content of external internet sites
The researchers behind the brushes were led from TOP SCIENCE/NATURE STORIES
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Their Elephants sense 'danger' clothes
work is reported in the journal Nature Materials. 'World's smallest radio' unveiled
Farm bird numbers 'hit new low'
Flexible tools
| News feeds
The group of lead scientist Pulickel Ajayan has previously
shown how carbon nanotubes can be grown controllably,
and the team has now used the trick to make
nanobrushes shaped like toothbrushes, bottle brushes
and cotton-buds.
The scientists grow bristles
from hot, carbon-laden gas
on to threads of carbon
silicide finer than baby's hair.
Thin coats of gold steer the
carbon away from the brush
handle and on to the brush
head.
Like normal brushes, the
nano varieties have many
uses.
In their Nature Materials
paper, the researchers show
how the brushes can sweep
up piles of nano-dust -
though so far they have Bottle power: A nanobrush with bristles
omitted to supply the just 30 nm across, and 10s of microns
nano-pan to collect it in. long
They have also shown the brushes can be used to paint
microstructures - dipped into a solution of iron oxide
(rust), the minute brush hairs will pick up the red oxide
particles which can then be wiped on to a bare surface.
Fast work
2 of 4 10/18/2007 3:49 PM
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Brush up on your nanotechnology http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4085214.stm
One of the great strengths of nanotubes, says group
member Dr Anyuan Cao, is their extraordinarily high
surface area per gram of material - a result, he explains,
of their remarkable fineness.
In another of their CARBON NANOTUBES AND BALLS
demonstrations, the
researchers show that with
the bristles coated in
absorbent materials, the
brushes will soak up toxic
silver ions from
contaminated water.
And the carbon brushes
could end up with Closed cages of carbon atoms
larger-scale uses, too. Appear as spheres and tubes
Extremely tough and resistant
Many electric motors use Electrical properties tuneable
Could form tiny circuit wires
metal brushes to conduct One nanometre (nm) is the
electricity to their spinning same as a billionth of a metre
metal components.
Carbon nanotubes conduct electricity, and still do so on
these brushes, the Rensellaer team proves.
Because of their strength, resistance to abrasion, and
pliability, the nanobrushes may prove superior to
macroscopic metal brushes in high-power motors.
Body clean-up
Dr Cao speculates the invention will also have medical
uses.
However, the scientists will have to make sure their
brushes do not shed bristles first - as there are concerns
about possible health effects of nanotubes when loose in
the environment - and have already started testing how
easily they can be pulled off.
But tiny nanotube-tipped
medical brushes might be
used either to coat protective
substances on to damaged
surfaces in our bodies - for
example veins - or to clean
up unwanted deposits.
With appropriate chemical
coatings, they might be able
to pick out biomolecules
such as DNA, specific
proteins, or even whole
viruses.
It seems likely that brushes,
along with stone axes, were
among the first inventions of The world's smallest toothbrush?
our ancestors, if only as prehistoric fly swats.
3 of 4 10/18/2007 3:49 PM
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Brush up on your nanotechnology http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4085214.stm
The oldest surviving example dates from 30,000 years
ago - the property of some ancient cave artist.
It seems fitting that miniature versions of these should
adorn the burgeoning field of nanotechnology.
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