Carbon nanotubes developed in microsystems at VUC

And of course, this is not nanoscience just as basic science: the goal is to have nanomaterials directly integrated on microsystems for combined micro-/ nano-functionality.

Carbon nanotubes is one of the strongest materials we know. It consists of fibres 1/50.000 as wide as a human hair, and is traditionally produced in a very expensive and complicated way.

What Bao Quoc Ta has managed, is to have these tubes “grown” in specified locations in a microsystem here at the VUC. Bao has designed a silicon microsystem with tiny heating elements (same principle as electric heating ovens), so the positions he wants can reach a temperature of 800-1000 degrees. When he adds a gas containing carbon (common welding gas), the carbon nanotubes start growing.

- I spent two months at Berkeley in USA last summer. There I worked in a world-class research group working on similar problems, Bao explains. – Here at VUC I have used a different catalyst, and shown that this is possible with the facilities available here at VUC, and I am very, very happy with this breakthrough!

Associate Professor Knut Aasmundtveit at the VUC is also very impressed with his student. – This is a major break through for our ambitions to be also in the nano research area, he says. – By developing carbon nanotubes this way, Bao has shown a way of integrating the tubes in micro systems that is much cheaper than alternative solutions. Integration of nano materials in real systems is very difficult to implement. This is a process that has potential for real, industrial applications.

Because the carbon nano tube has a huge surface compared to its volume, it is also very sensitive, and therefore very useful in e.g. sensors for detecting gases or chemicals.