DigInfo - (http://movie.diginfo.tv) Fujitsu Laboratories has made a breakthrough in carbon nanotube research. The company has combined carbon nanotubes and graphene, both of which are nano-scale carbon structures, to self-form a new nano-scale carbon composite, at the relatively low temperature of 510 degrees Celsius. Graphene is a honeycomb crystal lattice of carbon atoms. In experiments using chemical vapor deposition, a technique to synthesize thin films and structures on a substrate by thermally decomposing a feedstock gas in a vacuum chamber, Fujitsu Labs discovered that several to dozens of layers of graphene were formed self-organizingly on the vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes in such a way that they are connected perpendicularly. It is known that carbon nanotubes are linear, one-dimensional structures, and therefore they nearly lack thermal or electrical conductivity between tubes in the two-dimensional directions perpendicular to the tube axis. As attention has been paid to heat, how to increase heat radiation is becoming an important issue. The carbon nanotube composite is expected to be a material with high heat radiation capability. Since graphite flows electrons very smoothly, it can also function as a semiconductor. As an electronics company, Fujitsu Labs aims to use the new structure to improve today's LSI performance by applying it to dealing with LSI heat radiation and using it in transistors.

• published: 22 Apr 2008
• views: 17086