New nanotube technology to boost screen, memory chip capability

By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- A new nanotube separation technology that can help enhance the capabilities of existing displays and memory chips has been developed by South Korean scientists, the government said Thursday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said scientists at the Korea
Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have used a special solution and an
electrical field to separate the metallic and semiconducting qualities of
nanotubes, which are made from carbon molecules.
Separation is important because most products that use nanotubes require that
they be either metallic or semiconductor oriented.
"The buffer solution 'melts' the molecules that are then passed through a
microfluidics chip and an electric field that permits high grade metallic and
semiconductor oriented nanotubes to be made," said Han Chang-soo, the senior
researcher of the development project.
Han also said this method is a considerable leap in technology compared to
existing methods of separating the two main qualities of nanotubes and has the
advantaged of allowing sustained production.
At present, engineers have to either physically break up the two parts or use a
centrifuge machine, but both methods can only produce low grade nanotubes or very
limited quantities of carbon molecules with purity of over 90 percent. Neither
method is conducive to sustained production.
"The technology is expected to be put to industrial use in about three years and
can open new horizons for many products that use the material," he said.
Metallic oriented carbon nanotubes can be used to make very advanced touch
screens and flexible displays as well as components for LCDs, secondary batteries
and field emission displays. Semiconductor oriented nanotubes could be employed
in making next generation cells for memory chips, hydrogen storage devices and
various nano censors.
Han said that the discovery has been published in the latest online issue of the
international Nano Letters journal with three patents being requested in the
United States, Japan and the European Union.
Nanotubes have gained considerable importance in the component and material
fields because they have 1,000 times the electrical conductivity of copper, are
stronger than steel and have heat transfer capabilities similar to diamonds,
which makes them attractive materials for the development of advanced products.