

Growing Wires In Water 10
moooooooo writes: "Australia's ABC is reporting that U.S. researchers have discovered a new way to
grow microscopic electrical wires in water, and
soon hope to be plugging into living cells.
Kevin D. Hermanson and colleagues from the
University of Delaware created self-assembling, self-
repairing conductive wires -- a micrometre in
diameter and 5 mm in length -- by suspending gold
particles in water between two electrodes."
is "fuzzyness" a problem (Score:5, Informative)
An interesting point relating the article to the press release here:
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/01-02/microwire11
In the article, it's all about bio-interfacing and what an advance this is. The press release says:
"One very interesting, albeit yet remote, possibility is to use these wires for electronic-biology interfacing," Velev said.
Not quite the same thing.
In addition, in the article, it broadly quotes a Professor Gerard Milburn. I find this quite interesting, in an article on biology and chemistry. He was my old Head of Department. He's a theoretical quantum physicist working in quantum measurement and quantum computing. Not my expert of choice in this field.
There's a third image not on the page. (Score:4, Informative)
It musta got cut.
t.
Links to actual science info (Score:4, Informative)
Dielectrophoretic Assembly of Electrically Functional Microwires from Nanoparticle Suspensions
Kevin D. Hermanson, Simon O. Lumsdon, Jacob P. Williams, Eric W. Kaler, and Orlin D. Velev
Abstract:
A new class of microwires can be assembled by dielectrophoresis from suspensions of metallic nanoparticles. The wires are formed in the gaps between planar electrodes and can grow faster than 50 micrometers per second to lengths exceeding 5 millimeters. They have good ohmic conductance and automatically form electrical connections to conductive islands or particles. The thickness and the fractal dimension of the wires can be controlled, and composite wires with a metallic core surrounded by a latex shell can be assembled. The simple assembly process and their high surface-to-volume ratio make these structures promising for wet electronic and bioelectronic circuits.
Science Nov 2 2001: 1082-1086.
[Full Text] [sciencemag.org] (only if you have a science account)
[Supplemental Data] [sciencemag.org] - including QT movies!
Diffusion limited aggregation? (Score:3, Interesting)
Magneto becomes reality? (Score:1)
electromagnets (Score:1)