A team of MIT chemists has published a paper revealing how it developed a method for drawing gas sensors onto paper using a tailor-made, super-conductive carbon nanontube pencil.
Electrically-charged tiny carbon nanontubes -- about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair -- make great sensors because when a foreign gas molecule disturbs their surface it binds to the nanotubes, immediately altering the current flow. This kind of alert system can be used to detect chemical changes in the air, and so would be useful in developing things like biosensors for national security reasons. It even has uses in the food industry, as MIT demonstrated earlier this year when it developed a carbon nanotube sensor that monitors ethylene levels excreted by ripening fruits.
By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Olivia Solon
Continue reading...Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/09/carbon-nanotube-pencils
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