how do you manipulate nanotubes?

Question

nanotweezers?

Answer 1

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are cylindrical carbon molecules with novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.

A nanotube is a member of the fullerene structural family, which also includes buckyballs. Whereas buckyballs are spherical in shape, a nanotube is cylindrical, with at least one end typically capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several micrometers in length. There are two main types of nanotubes: single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs).

Nanotubes are composed entirely of sp2 bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure, stronger than the sp3 bonds found in diamond, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into "ropes" held together by Van der Waals forces. Under high pressure, nanotubes can merge together, trading some sp2 bonds for sp3 bonds, giving great possibility for producing strong, unlimited-length wires through high-pressure nanotube linking

Answer 2

All single-walled-carbon nanotubes are not created equal. Instead, they form diverse assortments that vary markedly in features such as size and electrical properties. Although carbon nanotubes have been proposed for myriad applications - from miniature motors and chemical sensors to molecule-size electronic circuits - their actual uses have been severely limited by an inability to isolate and manipulate nanotubes having different characteristics.
Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Rice University have discovered a way to chemically select and separate carbon nanotubes based on their electronic structure. The new process also represents a fundamental shift in the way scientists think about the chemistry of nanotubes.

Nanoscale electromechanical systems-nanotweezers-based on carbon nanotubes have been developed for manipulation and interrogation of nanostructures. Electrically conducting and mechanically robust carbon nanotubes were attached to independent electrodes fabricated on pulled glass micropipettes. Voltages applied to the electrodes closed and opened the free ends of the nanotubes, and this electromechanical response was simulated quantitatively using known nanotweezer structure and nanotube properties. The mechanical capabilities of the nanotweezers were demonstrated by grabbing and manipulating submicron clusters and nanowires. The conducting nanotube arms of the tweezers were also used for measuring the electrical properties of silicon carbide nanoclusters and gallium arsenide nanowires.

u can download pdf file and this is really good that i deserve 10
nano.ece.uci.edu/papers/NanoDEPproof.pdf

Answer 3

I think the old fashioned way was to use the tip of an atomic force microscope.