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Carbon nanotubes will make a broad range of technologies possible - from denser computer chips to sensors that can detect bioweapons |
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Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor and NanoCenter member YuHuang Wang has been awarded the prestigious NSF CAREER Award for his research in double-walled carbon nanotubes. Wang, one of four NanoCenter members to receive this award, was granted $585,000 for a five-year project. Prof. Wang and his students will develop new functionalization chemistry for double-wall carbon nanotubes, which will retain the remarkable optical and electronic properties of pristine single-walled carbon nanotubes. This outerwall concept represents a significant departure from current approaches that utilize single wall carbon nanotubes and focus on protecting their properties through delicate surface modifications. Prof. Wang and his students will measure the optical and electrical transport properties of the inner tube of double wall carbon nanotubes and benchmark them against those of pristine single-walled nanotubes, double-wall nanotubes and functionalized single-walled nanotubes. These efforts will shed new light on carbon nanomaterials chemistry and afford researchers new chemical and nanometrology tools to reveal and control how local chemical environments mediate the electronic properties of nanostructures. Successful completion of the proposed study will enable the use of double-wall carbon nanotubes in a wide range of applications for example as coatings in electronic devices and solar cells and as biomedical imaging probes and drug delivery carriers. The CAREER educational plans of Prof. Wang involve the development of an innovative curriculum in nanomaterials and outreach activities for high school students including students from under-represented groups in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. For more information on the NSF CAREER Award, visit the NSF website.
February 24, 2011
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