A great deal of our civilization’s happiness depends on a steady stream of electrons. Global demand for these quantum mechanical physics darlings is insatiable, and 20th century electron production and storage methods are getting expensive and dangerously unsustainable.
Fortunately, nanoscientists are working hard to address this persistent need.
Carbon nanotubes have been a hot area of materials science research for a couple of decades now. Yet, recent news from MIT declares that a new dimension of novel properties related to carbon nanotubes may be emerging, which may lead to tantalizing new applications for those yearning for better battery life, or perhaps more precisely – a solution for those in need of their daily electron fix.
Researchers Wanjoon Choi and Michael Strano have taken advantage of a combustion phenomenon called *thermopower waves* where they have found a new method to propagate an electrical current along a surface. In fact, it produces an energy yield 100 times greater when comparing it to a block of lithium ion of proportional weight. A report of their work is featured in Nature Materials.
While applications for this discovery is still in the early stages, its safe to say that research potential of carbon nanomaterials is quite robust and accelerating. This is especially true in addressing energy demand and storage. Who knows where similar studies may lead when applying this newly discovered phenomenon to molecular cousins like graphene, graphane, and fullerenes.
Exciting new physics is exciting.
