Silicon Nanostrands, SEM
We're still learning how to grow our own sculptures at the nanoscale, where objects are so small that a stack of 10,000 is only as thick as a sheet of paper. Here, scientists started with a thin sheet of silicon, added a droplet of indium, and used a special process to grow tiny silicon nanostrands (green) and balloons and speckles of indium (blue). Controlling nanostructures will let us tailor our own materials to make better batteries, solar panels, and more. Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a tetravalent metalloid and the 8th most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature. Indium is a chemical element with symbol In and atomic number 49. It is a post-transition metallic element that is rare in Earth's crust. Nanotechnology (nanotech) is the manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale.
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Keywords: 2013, 21st, anl, argonne, art, batteries, battery, century, electron, em, engineering, indium, laboratory, li-ion, lib, lithium-ion, materials, metal, metalloid, micrograph, microscopic, microscopy, molecular, nanostrand, nanostrands, nanostructure, nanotech, nanotechnology, national, post-transition, rechargeable, research, scanning, science, sem, silicon, technological, technology
