|
Exploring Nanoworld
What is 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, behaves like a metal
or semiconductor, conducts electricity better than copper, transmits
heat better than diamond, ranks among the strongest materials known,
and is only a few microns long?
Give up? Ask Rohit Prakash and he’ll tell you all about carbon
nantotubes (CNTs), tubes made of hexagonal carbon rings. Prakash works
with Dr. Michael Falvo and colleagues, Dr. Richard Superfine and Dr.
Sean Washburn, in the nanoscience research group in the physics and astronomy
department. The group investigates the properties of nanometer scale
systems: systems whose size is measured in billionths of a meter. One
project focuses on the integration of biological systems (such as molecular
motors like kinesin and myosin) with CNTs. Specifically, Prakash studies
how molecules attach to the surface of CNTs and how that can be used
for applications that involve biological molecules.
For example, this work is a first step toward the goal of using molecular
motors in nanometer scale machines. Molecular motors, or “biomotors,” are
tiny objects within cells that do mechanical work. They are responsible
for transport of cargo within cells and the movement and division of
cells. The ability to attach these molecular motors to CNTs or other
nanoscale objects opens up the opportunity to create new nanometer scale
mechanical systems.
Prakash has focused on attaching fluorescent dye molecules to CNTs.
Fluorescence enables researchers to view small objects with an optical
microscope. If they know which molecular dyes attach to CNTs, they might
predict some CNT surface properties. After discovering which dyes cause
CNTs to fluoresce, Prakash began collecting data and writing a paper
under the guidance of his advisor and physics professor, Dr. Falvo. They
hope a scientific journal will publish the paper. Prakash, a physics
major and member of the honors program, may use the findings for an honors
thesis.
This research may lead to innovations such as labs on a chip or a drug
delivery system in the body. Labs on a chip carry information via molecular
motors and CNTs. One could potentially place a sample onto this miniature
chip and receive a series of properties about the sample. The drug delivery
system could target certain organs or tissues in the body and deliver
drugs to those places.
Prakash’s work in the nanoworld began when Dr. Falvo invited him
to lab meetings, and within a few weeks Prakash began work there as a
research assistant in summer 2002. Now a sophomore physics major, Prakash
says, “What I enjoy most about the lab is the wide variety of specialties
that we have here, from physicists to chemists to computer scientists
to educators to material scientists at every corner. As a lab member,
I am encouraged to think freely and try things that I think may work,
as opposed to being told what must be done.”
< back to research
|
;)
;)
;)
;)