Casting a long line

摘要

Tiny fibres, a ten-thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, can be used to produce materials with novel electrical, optical and mechanical properties-at least in theory. But before engineers are able to turn them into practical applications, such nanofibres (which have a width of a few nanometres, or billionths of a metre) need to be fabricated into wires, strips, tubes and other components. That, in turn, means making them reliably and in large quantities. And a new production method developed by Min-Feng Yu and his colleagues at the University of Illinois may make this possible.