Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and - Center for ...

Enrique Barrera
James Tour
Robert Vajtai
Boris Yakobson
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Radiation Shielding
Professor Barrera examines the radiation
shielding properties of various nanocomposites.
Radiation shielding is critically
important for space exploration vehicles
and personal protective equipment for first
responders and military personnel.
Professor Tour investigates nanoparticles
for in vivo radiation protection. By loading
a carbon nanotube with known radio-protectants,
more medicine can be delivered
to cells. Some nanoradio-protectants
have been shown to reverse the cellular
damage caused by radiation. This technology
is important for first responders and
military personnel, as well as long-duration
space flight.
Electronics and Wiring
Electronics and copper wire account for
approximately 15 percent of an aircraft’s
weight. Employing nanoelectronics and
the armchair quantum wire (Page 26)
could reduce aircraft weight by 5–10 percent,
thereby increasing maneuverability,
fuel efficiency and payload capacity.
Faculty Fellow Robert Vajtai discovered
that thin films of nanotubes created with
ink-jet printers offer a new way to make
field-effect transistors (FETs), the basic
element in integrated circuits. Vajtai has
reported that circuits can scale down to
about 100 microns — about the width of
a human hair — with a channel length of
about 35 microns — the size of the print
head. Nanotube-based FETs will be good
for logic-based applications that can be
printed on a flexible surface but don’t need
a large number of circuits.
Professor Boris Yakobson discovered
that acoustic waves traveling along ribbons
of graphene might be just the ticket
for removing heat from nano electronic
devices. The power density of current
microelectronics would, on a macro scale,
be enough to heat a teapot to boiling in
seconds, so it’s becoming increasingly
important to remove heat from sensitive
instruments and release it to the air in a
hurry. Finding a way to deal with transmitting
heat away from ever-smaller devices
is critical to sustaining Moore’s Law, which
accurately predicted (so far) that the number
of transistors that could be placed on
an integrated circuit would double about
every two years.