Rice University scientists take key step to create a 'force field'





Source: Scientists at Rice University have found a way to make carbon nanotubes self-assemble, possibly the futuristic first step in creating force fields that can move larger objects.Source: YouTube



Source: Scientists at Rice University have found a way to make carbon nanotubes self-assemble, possibly the futuristic first step in creating force fields that can move larger objects.Source: YouTube Image 1 of / 57 Caption Close Rice University scientists take key step to create a 'force field' 1 / 57 Back to Gallery

Scientists at Rice University have found a way to make carbon nanotubes self-assemble, possibly the futuristic first step in creating force fields that can move larger objects.

Led by Rice chemist Paul Cherukuri, the team discovered that a reconfigured Tesla coil - a creation by Nikola Tesla that allows for the wireless transfer of electricity - could produce a force field that's strong enough to cause carbon nanotubes to form into long wires, a phenomenon they are dubbing "Teslaphoresis." The team's research was published this week in an article in the journal ACS Nano.

Scientists say the discovery could be used as a template for applications in regenerative medicine or anything else that might require nanomaterials to self-assemble.

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"Electric fields have been used to move small objects, but only over ultrashort distances," Cherukuri said. "With Teslaphoresis, we have the ability to massively scale up force fields to move matter remotely."

The system, which has been in development for a few years, works by remotely oscillating positive and negative charges in each nanotube. The phenomenon simultaneously assembles and powers circuits that harvest energy from the force field.

In one experiment, nanotubes assembled themselves into wires, formed a circuit connection between two LED lights and then absorbed energy from the Tesla coil's electrical field to light them.

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"It is such a stunning thing to watch these nanotubes come alive and stitch themselves into wires on the other side of the room," said Cherukuri, who has been tinkering with Tesla coils since he was 14.Lindsey Bornhoeft, the article's lead author and a biomedical engineering graduate student at Texas A&M University, said the force field from the coil is restricted to just a few feet. To examine the effects on matter at greater distances would require the creation of a larger system.

Cherukuri and his wife, Tonya, a co-author of the research, credit their young son for noting that the nanotube assembly looked a lot like the kind of spider webs produced by Spiderman.

"There are so many applications where one could utilize strong force fields to control the behavior of matter in both biological and artificial systems," Cherukuri said. "And even more exciting is how much fundamental physics and chemistry we are discovering as we move along. This really is just the first act in an amazing story."