Movie 1 : Carbon nanotubes as you have never "seen" them

[hempaw]

why gold? wouldnt a heavier element be able to map points along the tube with more impermeability of electrons?

[nano2hybrids]

@hempaw good question and you're right in principle - but to be honest the contrast between gold and carbon is already enough, and it was then question of ease of handling for us, how well the metal sticks together vs sticks to the tube (or sticks to defects)

[dibbuck]

real?

[nano2hybrids]

YES!, real images from the transmission electron microscope. The tube is made of carbon and the black spots are clusters of gold atoms

[andydiscovery]

Ive seen them, just not that close, on a Leo 420 sem at a university in Sussex

[Relativ9]

No you haven't they absorb nearly all light and are inpossible to detect by the human eye or any eye we know off, All you've seen is whats around them.

[andydiscovery]

A Scanning Electron Microscope doesn't use light, amazingly they use electrons and at 200,000x Magnification you can pretty much see anything. PS. It's spelt "Impossible" lol

[sacr3]

And if we were to see them with the human eye, they would show as black because everywhere else light would refract back to our eyes, cept that specific material, leaving its pattern. So we would still see it, if what you're saying is true.

[Kalywonkas]

OH MY GOD, it's almost as if pure carbon is black, an absence of light, FUCKIGN HELL, this guy is genius!