Transplanting Assembly of Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The manufacture of nanotechnology products requires assembly of nano scale components to macro/micro-scale systems, which is a major challenge in attempting to industrialize nanotechnologies. A new approach to assemble nanostructures is developed with a control of individual nanostructure's location and alignment in a long-range order. A concept of transplanting assembly has been developed to embed carbon nanotubes into micro-scale polymer blocks, which then serve as carriers for the embedded carbon nanotubes, facilitating the handling and assembly of them. This technique includes vertical growth of carbon nanotubes, nanopellet casting, planarization, nanopellet separation, transplantation and bonding. This assembly technology can be broadly applied to manufacture many nano scale products including carbon nanotube tipped atomic force microscope probes.