UCLA chemists have welded together nanofibers using an ordinary camera flash.
"I was very surprised," (professor Richard) Kaner said. "My graduate student, Jiaxing Huang, decided to take some pictures of his polyaniline nanofibers one evening when he heard a distinct popping sound and smelled burning plastic. Jiaxing recalled a paper that we had discussed during a group meeting reporting that carbon nanotubes burned up in response to a camera flash. By adjusting the distance of the camera flash to his material, he was able to produce smooth films with no burning, making this new discovery potentially useful."
The technique could also enable polyaniline nanofibers to be used as a solder of sorts, so that other polymers (plastics) can be welded together. Such an approach would be useful in the construction of myriad nanoscale devices such as chemical sensors and membranes.
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