Bucky Balls and Tubes:
Fullerene Pieces of a Future Nanotechnology
Rice University
This is an abstract
for a talk to be given at the
Fifth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
Much of the technological promise of carbon nanotubes derives
from the very high degree of perfection of the single-wall
nanotubes that are the subject of this symposium. In fact, to
distinguish them from their more defective multiwalled cousins,
we have begun to call single-wall nanotubes fullerene
nanotubes, as a reminder of their definite structure, which
is that of a fullerene (with opened or closed ends). The
definiteness of their structure demands that these fullerene
nanotubes be treated as the macromolecules they
are—super-polymers of pure carbon, and further offers the
possibility of deriving short lengths—fullerene
capsules—which would rightly be considered molecules, each
one precisely resembling the others. Obtaining fullerene capsules
requires developing methods for purifying, cutting, and sorting
by size and type raw fullerene nanotube material. Progress toward
these goals will be presented and discussed in this seminar.
*Corresponding Address:
Leah Benard-Boggs, Assistant to Dr. R.E. Smalley
Telephone: (713)527-4845 or (713)527-8750 x3250
Fax Number: (713)285-5320
Rice University, Center
for Nanoscale Science and Technology
6100 Main Street, MS-100, Houston, TX 77005-1892
RES Website: http://cnst.rice.edu/reshome.html
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