Improved carbon materials for nanomanufacturing applications

As a constituent of many raw materials and manufactured products, carbon has always interested scientists and engineers. Those involved with nanomanufacturing have now specific reasons to re-examine this multifaceted element. First, exotic new forms of carbon, such as carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, have appeared in recent years as crucial building blocks of nanodevices such as addressable memories and sensor arrays, for example. Second, biological systems often advocated as model systems for nanotechnology are essentially built of carbon backbones. Third, the properties of carbon depend on nanoscale heterogeneity, voids, crystalline defects, secondary bonds, and dangling bonds. Obviously, as the device’s dimensions shrink down, the role of these heterogeneities, and their control, becomes of paramount importance.