Rice University’s coaxial nanocable outperforms previous microcapacitors
(June 7, 2012) Thanks to a little serendipity, researchers at Rice University
have created a tiny coaxial cable that is about a thousand times smaller than a
human hair and has higher capacitance than previously reported microcapacitors.
The
nanocable, which is described this week in Nature Communications, was produced
with techniques pioneered in the nascent graphene research field and could be
used to build next-generation energy-storage systems. It could also find use in
wiring up components of lab-on-a-chip processors, but its discovery is owed
partly to chance.
“We didn’t
expect to create this when we started,” said study co-author Jun Lou, associate
professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Rice. “At the
outset, we were just curious to see what would happen electrically and
mechanically if we took small copper wires known as interconnects and covered
them with a thin layer of carbon.”