Researchers from Ulm University, Germany, and the University of Nottingham, UK, have pioneered a new method for making molecules that could lead toward faster, smaller, and more powerful nanomaterials for computers and data storage devices. The team has demonstrated that carbon nanotubes can be used as nanoscale chemical reactors, wherein chemical reactions involving carbon and sulphur atoms held within a nanotube lead to the formation of a thin strip of carbon, known as a graphene nanoribbon, decorated with sulphur atoms around the edge. “Graphene nanoribbons possess a wealth of interesting physical properties making them more suitable for applications in electronic and spintronic devices than the parent material graphene,” says Dr Andrei Khlobystov. “Nanoribbons are very difficult to make but the Nottingham team’s strategy of confining chemical reactions at the nanoscale sparks spontaneous formation of these remarkable structures. The team has also discovered that nanoribbons — far from being simple flat and linear structures — possess an unprecedented helical twist that changes over time, giving scientists a way of controlling physical properties of the nanoribbon, such as electrical conductivity.” Devices based on nanoribbons could potentially be used as nano-switches, nano-actuators and nano-transistors integrated in computers or data storage devices. Read More Paper