It's not a creepy plant-like life form. This image, which captures a miniature diamond-coated forest of carbon nanotubes, has won the overall prize in an annual science photography competition organised by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Paul May at the University of Bristol captured the photo with an electron microscope, before adding some colour in Photoshop. It shows what the nanomaterial looks like when wet. You can see how the carbon nanotubes clump together in pointed, teepee-like clusters – when dry, they stand up straight, like bristles on a brush. The peaks were coated with a thin layer of diamond to preserve the shape.
When the structure, which is 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, is placed in a vacuum chamber with a phosphor electrode just above it, applying a high voltage makes electrons travel up to the tip of the clusters before leaping towards the electrode. This gives off light, just like when an electron beam hits the phosphor-coated glass screen in a television. May and his colleagues think the technology could be used to make flat screen displays.
Due to their strength and flexibility, carbon nanotubes are being used to develop the next generation of electronics. The first functioning computer was recently built from the material, while ink made from carbon nanotubes is being used to turn items of clothing into wearable batteries. A novel biomaterial has even been created by coating butterfly wings with nanocarbon, and it can generate heat from light that falls on it, as well as having interesting electrical properties.
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