In a recent development American scientists have discovered a soap based approach which could be deployed for solving a problem in sorting various kinds of nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes have always been beset by problems as creation of nanotubes always leads to a production of metallic and semiconducting nanotubes. Up till now a number of ways were used for separation of the two types but it always lead to complications.
A soap solution has been found out by Mark Hersam at the Northwestern University for curing this problem and this involves wrapping of nanotubes with a mixture of soaps and then spin them in a high speed centrifuge for twenty four hours.
Due to spinning of centrifuge at 64,000 revolutions per minute it leads to generation of forces which are 170,000 times stronger as compared to the forces of gravity and this enables the separation of metallic and semi conducting nanotubes and they can also be sorted as per the diameter.
