Making big screen TVs, surfboards from same new material may soon be a reality

Trinity College researchers have made a significant advance towards using nanotechnology to provide strength to polymers in an ideal manner.

Washington, November 22 : Trinity College researchers have made a significant advance towards using nanotechnology to provide strength to polymers in an ideal manner.

The researchers have revealed that they have developed a scalable inexpensive technique to produce grid patterns of carbon nanotubes (CNT) arrays, which allow adjusting the strength of polymer composites.

With this advancement, it may soon become possible to make big screen televisions, flexible electronics, sport goods like surfboards etc. from the same material.

There is nothing new about combining two materials to make a composite material with more desirable properties than the originals, as fibreglass has been a mainstay of the marine industry for decades and the construction industry is built on reinforced concrete.

However, the new technique will enable the maximisation of the effect of CNT reinforcement on a polymer thin film, while minimizing nanotube content.

The researchers say that with their technique, the inter-grid spacing can be tailored as required giving a simple method of controlling the volume fraction of nanotubes grown on substrates.

The study has been published in a special edition of the open access journal, AZoJono. The journal also features a number of papers from DESYGN-IT, the project seeking to secure Europe as the international scientific leader in the design, synthesis, growth, characterisation and application of nanotubes, nanowires and nanotube arrays for industrial technology.

ANI