SOLDERING WITH NANOTUBES
A carbon nanotube has been turned into a tiny soldering iron for the first time, potentially giving researchers a new way to assemble the parts of nanomachines. Alex Zettl at the University of California in Berkeley sprayed carbon nanotubes with indium metal gas, which formed 10-nanometre-wide solid bumps along the nanotube’s surface. Applying a current to the tube heated the carbon and melted the indium bumps, forming droplets that scurried along the nanotube’s surface and collected as a molten blob at one end. Zettl predicts it might be possible to wick them off and use them to…
