Thursday, May 17, 2007

Researchers create inexpensive, super-strong "nanoglue"

from Engadget by

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have announced that they've developed a new type of glue that's not only inexpensive, but can supposedly bond "nearly anything" together. To create the so-called "nanoglue," the team created a thin layer of "molecular chains" with a carbon backbone and sandwiched it between a thin film of copper and silica (as less-than-realistically depicted above). They then found that the more they heated the "nanosandwich," the stickier it got, ultimately going all the way up to temperature of 700 degrees Celsius before reaching its peak. Not surprisingly, the researchers see a wide range of uses for the glue, including applications in nano and microelectronic devices, not to mention high-heat environments -- for instance, holding paint to the inside of a jet engine. They also don't seem to think it'll have any trouble catching on, costing just $35 for 100 grams -- which, when you get down to the nano level, works out to be quite a bargain.