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Science 4 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5676, pp. 1457 - 1458
DOI: 10.1126/science.1099568
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Perspectives

MATERIALS SCIENCE:
Designer Nanotubes by Molecular Self-Assembly

Werner J. Blau and Alexander J. Fleming

For the most part, nanotechnologists have pursued a top-down approach, in which nanostructures are created, modified, and manipulated by machine. In their Perspective, Blau and Fleming discuss results reported in the same issue by Hill et al. in which a bottom-up method--molecular self-assembly--is studied. The researchers present an example of a hexabenzocoronene that spontaneously assembles into extremely defect-free large nanotubes. Such an approach may offer an alternative to the much more widespread efforts at nanodevice fabrication involving carbon nanotubes.

The authors are in the Department of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland. E-mail: wblau{at}tcd.ie

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)