Test Tube Chemistry Inside A Carbon Nanotube

Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 09:59 in Physics & Chemistry

Test tube chemistry just took a leap down in size to the nano-scale, with new test-tubes measuring only about one billionth of a meter across. The scaling factor is like scaling up from a normal test tube to one a hundred kilometers across. When chemistry is performed in a conventional manner in laboratory test tubes, the reactions that occur are a result of billions and billions of molecules reacting with each other and with anything else we put into the tube. Being able to watch or control chemical reactions between individual molecules at this scale is like understanding and then controlling the interaction between two people on a tube train while you are sitting in the International Space Station!

Read the whole article on Science Daily

More from Science Daily

Related

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox!