Monthly Archives: January 2021

A little friction goes a long way toward stronger nanotube fibers

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Rice model may lead to better materials for aerospace, automotive, medical applications

Carbon nanotube fibers are not nearly as strong as the nanotubes they contain, but Rice University researchers are working to close the gap.

A computational model by materials theorist Boris Yakobson and his team at Rice’s Brown School of Engineering establishes a universal scaling relationship between nanotube length and friction between them in a bundle, parameters that can be used to fine-tune fiber properties for strength.

The model is a tool for scientists and engineers who develop conductive fibers for aerospace, automotive, medical and textile applications like smart clothing. Carbon nanotube fibers have been considered as a possible basis for a space elevator, a project Yakobson has studied.

The research is detailed in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.

– See more at Rice News

2D compound shows unique versatility

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Multifunctional nanomaterial proposed by Rice could enhance solar energy, quantum computing

An atypical two-dimensional sandwich has the tasty part on the outside for scientists and engineers developing multifunctional nanodevices.

An atom-thin layer of semiconductor antimony paired with ferroelectric indium selenide would display unique properties depending on the side and polarization by an external electric field.

The field could be used to stabilize indium selenide’s polarization, a long-sought property that tends to be wrecked by internal fields in materials like perovskites but would be highly useful for solar energy applications.

Calculations by Rice materials theorist Boris Yakobson, lead author and researcher Jun-Jie Zhang and graduate student Dongyang Zhu shows switching the material’s polarization with an external electric field makes it either a simple insulator with a band gap suitable for visible light absorption or a topological insulator, a material that only conducts electrons along its surface.

Turning the field inward would make the material good for solar panels. Turning it outward could make it useful as a spintronic device for quantum computing.

The lab’s study appears in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

– See more at Rice News