'Nanoparticles' can help shrink devices

Some technical devices - like iPods and laptops - are getting smaller. Scientists are trying to reduce them even further by applying small parts by one-millionth of the width of human hair. However, creating these parts is not easy.

Nano plants through scanning electron microscope.(Photo: AAAS / Science)

Researchers working on this issue say they have discovered a potentially useful process that can create beautiful structures: 'tree-shaped structure' from strings just one several hundred atoms.

"From the beginning we saw pictures of two trees, and we said 'So what's going on here?'" Says chemist Song Jin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison .

Scientists say these plants are thought to represent a new way of making 'nanowires' , which could bring new and better 'nanomaterials' to many applications.

Nanomaterials are so small that they have structures designed to be as small as or smaller than a few hundred atoms. They have potential applications in devices including electronic circuits, bio-sensory devices, solar cells, light-emitting diodes and laser devices.

The structures created by Jin and the students look like pine trees with a tree trunk and branches around the body like a spiral staircase. The team created a forest, each vertical up to the width of several human hairs.

Previously, most nanowires were made of catalysts and materials enhanced the growth of nanomaterials in one direction to form bundles of whips. However, Jin said that these trees seem to be forming themselves without the help of such help. The researchers also attributed this ability to very small irregularities or 'mismatches' in the middle of each body weight - where the trunk is twisted like a screw. They explained that this would support the development of branches around the trunk.

A different image with clearer details is presented.The large white bar corresponds to 10 nanometers, or one billionth of a meter.(Photo: AAAS / Science)

Jin said that 'mismatches' or errors in a crystal structure are fundamental to the development and characteristics of all crystal materials, but this is the first time that people have demonstrated them. support the development of one-dimensional nanostructures basically.

He added that the creation of such breaks could not only help scientists build nanostructures, but also help to study the basic characteristics of 'mismatch'.

His team created nanotech plants that applied the miniaturization of a technique called chemical vapor deposition for lead sulfide. However, chemists believe that this new mechanism will become easy to apply to many other materials as well.

'We think these findings will motivate many people to conduct purposeful research, in order to create a ' mismatch 'and try to create nanowires around it,' Jin said. 'Or maybe the creators and the challengers will read our paper and say' Hey, we see something like in our system, so maybe now Now we have found a solution. ''

These findings are detailed online in the Science research journal on May 1. Jin said, 'These are beautiful and really interesting structures, but behind them is also a basic science. really amazing.'