[Many Letters] Save energy? Charcoal computer!

A place where the tireless pulse of the computer industry beats, not without reason aptly nicknamed "Silicon Valley." Since the 1960s, computer chips have been made from silicon. But scientists from the University of Southern California seem to have found a way to end the half century of silicon in electronics, replacing it with… the most common coal. While some are creating miniature computers, others are looking for ways to change the very approach to the production of these indispensable human helpers.

In fact, the idea of ​​using carbon nanotubes in transistors is not new. Back in 1998, Delft University created the first transistors of coal nanotubes. If we were able to bring the matter to the end and create chips from this material, it would save energy, which our civilization and so excessively absorbs, especially in recent years.

So why is it still using uneconomical silicon in computer chips !? The main reason for this “flaw” is that so far the process of producing nanotubes was unpredictable. It was not possible to accurately determine the diameter, type, and especially chirality. The latter figure affects the electromechanical properties of the material.

To bring some clarity, we give the simplest example. Roll a sheet of office paper into a tube. The resulting construction will have a definite chirality. Now turn it at an angle. The chirality will be different. You will say: “So what problems! You just have to fold correctly. ” But, if you roll a sheet of paper at the right angle does not make the slightest problem, then the thinnest nanomaterial is not so easy to "roll up."

The solution was found by a group of scientists led by Professor Chongwu Zhou from the University of Southern California in collaboration with the Ming Zheng group from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland. The new technology allows you to create carbon nanotubes with predictable diameter and chirality.

Professor Zhou is proud to find the solution and considers it a true scientific breakthrough, about which his distinguished predecessors who worked in this direction could only dream of:

The ability to control the chirality of carbon nanotubes was a dream of many researchers. Now this dream comes true.

Usually carbon nanotubes were produced using a chemical evaporation system. Under the influence of a catalyst from metal nanoparticles, the gas acquired the structure of a nanotube. It was assumed that the diameter of a nanotube depends on the size of metal nanoparticles. But attempts to go through the control of the size of the nanoparticles that make up the catalyst did not lead to the expected success.

Scientists from the University of Southern California decided to abandon work on the catalyst. Instead, it was decided to sort the grown particles of carbon nanotubes by chirality using the technology developed at the university. These particles are used as the basis for the growth of longer tubes, which are produced according to the technology of chemical vapor deposition. The tube itself eventually has the same chirality (and, therefore, the same electromechanical properties) as the prototype base.

This technological process is now called the process of "nanotube cloning". The next step in the research will be a thorough study of the mechanism of growth of nanotubes in the system described above. This will allow in the future to increase production volumes to an industrial scale.

Source: Esciencenews.com

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/computers/mnogobukv-ekonomim-energiyu-ugolnyj-kompyuter.html.