Scientists Observe The Bizarre Self-Assembling Of Carbon Nanotubes Into Long Wires

Scientists at Rice University have witnessed a peculiar self-assembly behaviour of nanotubes, when they were subjected to the action of a strong field emitted by a Tesla coil. The team led by chemist Paul Cherukuri has given this experimental behaviour a name, Teslaphoresis. With this new advancement, the team hopes to go a long way in understanding the scaling properties of nanotubes.

In their laboratory, Cherukuri has customized the Tesla coil, while retaining its original characteristics. The system of nanotubes transforms into a long chain due to the remote oscillation of the negative and positive charges in each nanotube. The Tesla coil generates a tractor beam when the nanotube arrangement is attracted towards the coil.

Previously, scientists had witnessed the controlling or scaling of objects using magnetic properties, but only over a very small distance. Owing to some modifications, the Tesla coil not only amplify the magnetic field effect, but also has the ability to create complicated self-assembling circuits.

Cherukuri reported that his team had observed chain movements far away from the Tesla coil. According to him, it was sheer magic to see non-living objects assemble and move towards a different corner of the room. Going one step ahead, his son had also managed to observe unusual patterns in the assembled structure that might symbolize the nanotubes’ internal characteristics.

The team is looking forward to the greater advancement of nerves like nanowires. The latest controlling methods has doubled the possibility of using it in a regenerative medicine. Also, witnessing such an odd behaviour has added greater importance to their realization. The self-funded research was published in the ACS nano journal.

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