Self-Assembly of Metals Achieved
5 July 2008, 14:54
Categories: self-assembly techniques
For approximately 5,000 years the only way to shape metal has been by the “heat and beat” technique. Even with modern nanotechnology, metalworking involves carving metals with electron beams or etching them with acid.
Now Cornell researchers have developed a method to self-assemble metals into complex configurations with structural details about 100 times smaller than a bacterial cell by guiding metal particles into the desired form using soft polymers.
“I think this is ingenious work that takes the fundamental concepts of polymer science and applies them to make metals in a totally novel way,” said Andrew Lovinger, the director of the Polymers Program at the National Science Foundation. “In so doing, it opens the door to all kinds of new possibilities.”
Posted by: The Editors
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