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Friday, 2nd November 2007 (4346 views)

The interaction of gold nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubules has produced a chemical reaction that make the nanotubules glow, according to new research from a team of Japanese and Indian scientists.

As reported in Chemistry World, the research has made a groundbreaking development in the use of nanotubules in optoelectronics, as well as their potential use as chemical sensors.

Thalappil Pradeep of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, who led the study, said that adding gold nanoparticles to the carbon nanotubules caused a reaction that enabled visual fluorescence by making the entire bundle of nanotubules into a semiconductor.

"The emission requires direct interaction of nanotubules with nanoparticles," he told the publication, adding that the fluorescence disappears when molecular spacers come between the nanotubules and nanoparticles.

According to Mr Pradeep's collaborator in Bangalore, Chandrabhas Narayana of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre of Advanced Scientific Research, the scientists will now attempt to test the response of the nanotubule bundles to electrical currents.

Gold nanoparticles have a range of scientific applications, including targeted treatment for tumour destruction and enhanced x-ray contrast.

 

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