Methods of producing carbon nanotubes using peptide or nucleic acid micropatterning

• Main Author: SU XING,SUNDARARAJAN NARAYAN,YAMAKAWA MINEO,BERLIN ANDREW,SUN LEI,ZHANG YUEGANG
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 08.08.2007
• Subjects: APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBONFILAMENTS; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMICAL FEATURES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FILAMENTS,THREADS, FIBRES, BRISTLES OR RIBBONS; CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOIDCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS OR TEST PAPERS THEREFOR; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; CONDITION-RESPONSIVE CONTROL IN MICROBIOLOGICAL ORENZYMOLOGICAL PROCESSES; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ENZYMOLOGY; INORGANIC CHEMISTRY; MEASURING OR TESTING PROCESSES INVOLVING ENZYMES, NUCLEICACIDS OR MICROORGANISMS; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL THREADS OR FIBRES; NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; PROCESSES OF PREPARING SUCH COMPOSITIONS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SPINNING; SPIRITS; TEXTILES; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS; TRANSPORTING; VINEGAR; WINE

The methods, apparatus and systems disclosed herein concern ordered arrays of carbon nanotubes. In particular embodiments of the invention, the nanotube arrays are formed by a method comprising attaching catalyst nanoparticles (140, 230) to polymer (120, 210) molecules, attaching the polymer (120, 210) molecules to a substrate, removing the polymer (120, 210) molecules and producing carbon nanotubes on the catalyst nanoparticles (140, 230). The polymer (120, 210) molecules alignment techniques. The nanotube arrays can be attached to selected areas (110, 310) of the substrate. Within the selected areas (110, 310), the nanotubes are distributed non-randomly. Other embodiments disclosed herein concern apparatus that include ordered arrays of nanotubes attached to a substrate and systems that include ordered arrays of carbon nanotubes attached to a substrate, produced by the claimed methods. In certain embodiments, provided herein are methods for aligning a molecular wire, by ligating the molecular wire to a double stranded DNA molecule.