Nanometer Nanotubes for Future Electronics

Researchers in Japan creates the world’s smallest semiconducting nanotubes, structures 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. By growing molybdenum disulfide inside protective tubes of boron nitride, researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, produce highly uniform tubes just 1 nanometer wide, a scale at which it’s difficult to make stable nanotube structures. The work confirms decades-old theoretical predictions about how these ultrafine materials behave and could also provide a new route toward miniaturized electronic devices.