Chemists Find Way To Highly Pure Carbon Nanotubes

Little Rock, AR (AHN) - Chemists at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) have developed a procedure for creating highly pure carbon nanotubes needed for the development of the next generation of electronic devices.

Dr. Wei Zhao, professor in UALR's Department of Chemistry in the College of Science and Math, and his graduate student Xiaomin Tu, now a postdoctoral fellow at DuPont Central Research and Development, Wilmington, Del., developed the technique that involves combining selective growth of a few nanotubes with chromatographic separation to achieve near single type purity nanotube production.

An an article about the procedure is in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Chemistry Society.

The UALR professor said semi-conducting single-walled carbon nanotubes with diameter of about one nanometer have attracted the most attention as a new generation material, a possible replacement for silicon for nanoelectronics. However, scientists have been unable produce the kind of uniform type of nanotubes the electronic systems would need.

Dr. Michael Gealt, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at UALR, said, "Dr. Zhao's technique promises to provide industry with a critical starting material for development of manufactured goods with greater electrical efficiency, thereby helping to conserve electricity while making products that work better."