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A D V A N C E D
M A T E R I A L S
&
P R O C E S S E S | J U N E
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NANOTECHNOLOGY
BRIEFS
Aleris, Cleveland, offers a new 7017 aluminum alloy in North America for commercial plate and defense
uses. After extensive review and testing, the U.S. Army Research Lab issued MIL-DTL-32505 for use in armor
applications. 7017 offers high strength, good weldability, and corrosion resistance. It is currently used in
Europe and Asia on combat vehicles to achieve superior ballistic protection. aleris.com.
SCALING UP GRAPHENE
PRODUCTION
Researchers from the Univer-
sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
developed a one-step, facile method
to pattern graphene by using stencil
mask and oxygen plasma reactive-ion
etching, and subsequent polymer-free
direct transfer to flexible substrates.
“In conjunction with the recent evolu-
tion of additive and subtractive man-
ufacturing techniques, we developed
a simple and scalable graphene pat-
terning technique using a stencil mask
fabricated via a laser cutter,” says Pro-
fessor SungWoo Nam. “Our approach
to patterning graphene is based on a
shadow mask technique that has been
employed for contact metal deposi-
tion. Not only are these stencil masks
easily and rapidly manufactured for
iterative rapid prototyping, they are
also reusable, enabling cost-effective
pattern replication. And because our
approach involves neither a polymeric
transfer layer nor organic solvents, we
are able to obtain contamination-free
graphene patterns directly on various
flexible substrates.” For more informa-
tion: SungWoo Nam,
.
NEW MATERIAL OUTSHINES
DIAMOND
Researchers from the Univer-
sity of Vienna, Austria, led by Thomas
Pichler, developed a novel approach
to grow and stabilize carbon chains
with a record length of 6000 carbon
atoms, improving the previous record
by more than one order of magnitude.
They use the confined space inside a
double-walled carbon nanotube as a
nanoreactor to grow ultra-long carbon
Schematic of confined ultra-long acety-
lenic linear carbon chains inside different
double walled carbon nanotubes. Cour-
tesy of Lei Shi, University of Vienna.
BRIEF
The National Science Foundati n selected Geo gi Tech’s Institute for Electronic
and Nanotechnology (IEN), Atlanta, to serve as the coor inating office of the Nat onal
Nanotec nology Coordinated Infr structure (NNCI) program. Th NNCI will train a globally
c mpetitive nanotechnology workfo ce and provide fficient access to resources for inno-
vation and commercialization of nanotechnology. .
Optical microscope images and photographs of various stencil masks with sophis-
ticatedmicroscale features (top row) and corresponding graphene array patterns
transferred onto SiO2 substrate and flexible Kapton film (bottom row). Scale bars:
300 µm. Courtesy of University of Illinois.
chains on a bulk scale. The existence
of the chains was confirmed by using
a multitude of sophisticated, comple-
mentary methods including tempera-
ture dependent near- and far-field
Raman spectroscopy with different
lasers to investigate electronic and
vibrational properties, high resolution
transmission electron spectroscopy to
directly observe carbyne inside carbon
nanotubes, and x-ray scattering to con-
firm bulk chain growth. According to
theoretical models, carbyne’s mechan-
ical properties exceed all known mate-
rials, outperforming both graphene and
diamond. Further, carbyne’s electrical
properties suggest novel nanoelec-
tronic applications in quantum spin
transport and magnetic semiconduc-
tors.
Cleanroom resources at
Georgia Tech.