A lot of you have heard me talk about carbon nanotubes. The other day, I was using the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and was able to get a really good image of them. The nanotubes are the string-like objects that are scattered all over. The scale of the entire image is 500 nanometers, which means the tubes themselves are on the order of about 2 nanometers (2 billionths of a meter) in diameter. The nanotubes are only a few atoms wide, which means you are probably as close to "seeing" atoms as you can be.The term Microscope in Atomic Force Microscope is actually a misnomer because it implies that you are looking at the sample. Instead of trying to magnify the image with light, as do typical microscopes, the AFM actually probes the sample's surface. In essence, the microscope feels the surface and then generates an image based on what was felt.
The nanotubes are on a silicon oxide substrate, which is an extremely flat, smooth surface. If the surface was too rough, the nanotubes would blend right in and you would't get the great contrast that you see in this image. It actually takes quite a bit of preparation and tweaking to get an image this clear.
Well, now you can say that you've "seen" carbon nanotubes!
2 comments:
cool nanotubes david.
I knew this had to be a David post.
Nano tubes would have been from the show Mork and Mindy. I know you don't know that show but they always said Nanu Nanu. So funny. It was somewhat interesting. Joking. It was basically way over my head.
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