Thursday, September 7, 2006

Motorola, ASU Make Carbon Nanotube Advancement

Motorola Labs and Arizona State University have made what the firm is calling a key advancement in the use of carbon nanotube technology, in the area of using transistors to sense biological and chemical agents. The lab and university said Wednesday that their joint research teams have created Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs) in Field Effect Transistors (FETs), which allow for the creation of chips that can detect very small amounts of heavy metal ions. The teams said that the advance may enable nanosensors which can be embedded into networks to detect biological and chemical agents at very low concentrations, a key interest in the area of public safety and homeland security.