Carbon Nano Tubes: Fundamentals and Applications

Sunday May 20, 2007, 8:00 am - 6:00 pm, Santa Clara, California

Technology Focus

The small scale and the one dimensional structure of carbon nanotubes are directly related to their unique properties which find more and more applications as the understanding and progress in synthesis advances. Carbon nanotubes represent an exemplary system where the bottoms-up approach to synthesis results in perfect structures with sizes less than 10nm, a range which remains inaccessible for advanced projection lithography techniques.

Applications of carbon nanotubes range from reinforcement of composites or conductive plastics to electrodes for batteries or flat screens, field effect transistors, chemical or force sensors and electromechanical memory. These applications have been demonstrated in bulk, on surfaces and on individual tubes.

This course is focused on the fundamental properties of carbon nanotubes and provides the basic knowledge needed to follow the important developments in this field.

Couse Objectives

We will show how the helical structure of the tube influences the electronic properties of the tube in a fundamental way. In the first part we will explain the structural peculiarities, give an overview of the main synthesis techniques and then show how, starting from the known electronic properties of graphite, how those of the nanotubes can be described.

The second part of the course covers electronic transport, electron emission properties, optical properties, mechanical properties and composites. We will show to what extend analytical techniques can provide information about individual tubes and we will see the importance of the immediate environment of the nanotube surface.

In summary the goal of the course is:

• To give an introduction to the elementary properties of carbon nanotubes.
• To give the context and current status of the scientific research on carbon nanotubes.
• Synthesis Methods
• Characterization Methods
• CNT Based Materials
• Carbon Nano Industrial Applications

Course Outline

Overview

• Introduction: history
• Context, excitement and potential of CNT applications

Topics

• Synthesis
• CVD
• HiPCO
• Supported Catalysts
• Large-Scale
• Vertically Oriented CNT

Fundamentals

• CNT structure: MWNT, SWNT, DWNT
• CNT synthesis: basic growth processes and bulk, localized growth, functionalisation
• Electronic structure
• One dimensional electronic transport
• Electronic emission
• Optical properties and light emission
• Mechanical properties, sensors
• Composites
• Synthesis Methods
• Characterization Methods
• Carbon Nano Structure based Materials
• Conclusions and outlook

Applications

• Overview and recent progress
• Examples of potential applications and real applications
• CNT/polymer composites
• Conductive Nanotube Films
• Fuel Cell Electrodes
• Field Emission for Flat Panel Displays

Course Instructors

Wolfgang S. Bacsa, Ph.D., Professor at the Solid State Physics Laboratory at the Université Paul Sabatier, France and visiting Research Professor at Boston University, USA. Dr. Wolfgang Bacsa is an expert in the emerging field of Nano-Optics and Carbon Nanotubes. He has a Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich in Physics and has extensive experience in condensed matter physics, optics, microscopy, synthesis of ultra-thin films and nanostructured carbon. Dr. Bacsa worked at ETH Zürich, Penn State University and EPFL Lausanne. He is currently a professor at the Solid State Physics Laboratory at the University of Toulouse in southern France and a visiting Research Professor at Boston University. His research interests are in interference scanning optical probe microscopy and carbon nanotubes. He has more than 15 years of research experience and published more than 60 scientific papers. He received an Innovation prize in 1998 and has been an invited visiting scientist at SRI Menlo Park CA and University of Osaka, Japan.

Meyya Meyyappan, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Nanotechnology as well as Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. He is a founding member of the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology (IWGN) established by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The IWGN is responsible for putting together the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Dr. Meyyappan’s group, consisting of about 60 scientists, has been engaged in various aspects of nanotechnology (see http://www.ipt.arc.nasa.gov). He has published over 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has given over 100 Plenary/Keynote/Invited Presentations in nanotechnology subjects at various national and international technical, business and educational conferences and numerous Invited Talks at universities, non-profit organizations and companies across the world. He has edited and authored a text book “Carbon Nanotubes: Science and Applications”, published by CRC Press in 2004.

Dr. Meyyappan is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (ECS). In addition, he is a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Materials Research Society (MRS), American Vacuum Society (AVS) and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He is the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer on Nanotechnology and ASME’s Distinguished Lecturer on Nanotechnology. He is currently the President-elect of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council.

For his work and leadership in nanotechnology, he has been awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal and Arthur Flemming Award by the Arthur Flemming Foundation and George Washington University. For his contributions to nanotechnology education and training, he has been awarded the 2003-2004 Engineer of the Year award by the San Francisco section of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). In November 2004, he has been awarded President’s Meritorious Award for his contributions to nanotechnology