Nanotubes bristle with promise

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a line of brushes whose bristles, made from carbon nanotubes, are so small that a thousand of them could fit inside a strand of hair.

The carbon nanotube brushes have been tested in a variety of tasks that range from cleaning microscopic surfaces to serving as electrical contacts. The brushes eventually could be used in a whole host of electronic, biomedical, and environmental applications, says Pulickel Ajayan, the Henry Burlage Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer, who is heading the research.

The research, in collaboration with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, will be published in the July issue of the journal Nature Materials. Rensselaer postdoctoral associate Anyuan Cao, working with Ajayan, is the lead author of the paper.

The brushes look like microscopic toothbrushes, brooms, and paintbrushes, with handles the diameter of a human hair. Each brush is composed of millions of carbon nanotubes, each about 30 nanometres in diameter. The brushes have been tested manually and with rotating electric motors.