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Abstract:
A recent publication in Nature Communications reported an incredible new copper composite with the potential to revolutionize the copper wire industry. By intimately mixing carbon nanotubes into copper, the authors produced wires that met or exceeded the conductivity of pure copper, while simultaneously carrying one hundred times as much current. Transmission cables, electric motors, and transformer coils made with this “ultraconductive copper” could be lighter, smaller, and higher power. The results are at odds with conventional wisdom about composite materials, but carbon nanotubes are uniquely unconventional, quantum wires. In this presentation, Prof. Collins will summarize the worldwide efforts to reproduce these findings and to understand the underlying science.
A recent publication in Nature Communications reported an incredible new copper composite with the potential to revolutionize the copper wire industry. By intimately mixing carbon nanotubes into copper, the authors produced wires that met or exceeded the conductivity of pure copper, while simultaneously carrying one hundred times as much current. Transmission cables, electric motors, and transformer coils made with this “ultraconductive copper” could be lighter, smaller, and higher power. The results are at odds with conventional wisdom about composite materials, but carbon nanotubes are uniquely unconventional, quantum wires. In this presentation, Prof. Collins will summarize the worldwide efforts to reproduce these findings and to understand the underlying science.
Bio:
Professor Collins’ expertise is in the electronic properties of nanoscale wires, particularly carbon nanotubes. His research establishes methods of building circuitry at the molecular scale, within the general field known as nanotechnology. He also teaches a wide range of courses, including introductions to nanotechnology aimed at high school, college, and post-graduate audiences. Since joining the UC Irvine Physics Department in 2002, he has been awarded an NSF CAREER research award and multiple campus-wide teaching awards. Before arriving at UCI, Professor Collins experienced both ends of the industrial spectrum, having worked at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center, as well as at Nanomix, a nanotechnology startup company. Professor Collins received B.S. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Collins’ expertise is in the electronic properties of nanoscale wires, particularly carbon nanotubes. His research establishes methods of building circuitry at the molecular scale, within the general field known as nanotechnology. He also teaches a wide range of courses, including introductions to nanotechnology aimed at high school, college, and post-graduate audiences. Since joining the UC Irvine Physics Department in 2002, he has been awarded an NSF CAREER research award and multiple campus-wide teaching awards. Before arriving at UCI, Professor Collins experienced both ends of the industrial spectrum, having worked at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center, as well as at Nanomix, a nanotechnology startup company. Professor Collins received B.S. degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley.
