Nano-sized toothbrushes that can clean very small surfaces have been developed by researchers.Fabricated out of millions of carbon nanotubes, the minuscule brushes could even paint the inside of capillaries thinner than a human hair.But besides being small, the nanotubes have other advantages over traditional bristles, says one of their creators Pulickel Ajayan at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The materials typically used for making brush bristles include animal hairs, synthetic polymer fibres and metal wires. But each has its limitations. Metals corrode and weaken, hair is not very strong and synthetic fibres melt.Carbon nanotubes, on the other hand, are 30 times stronger than steel, yet five times less dense. They are highly elastic, resistant to heat, have large surface areas and even conduct electricity. The latter property makes them highly suitable for the contact brushes used in electric motors, says Ajayan.He and Anyuan Cao at Rensselaer, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, US, have designed brushes consisting of a silicon carbide fibre base on which the carbon nanotubes are grown in a single row of bristles like a toothbrush, or in groups of bristles more like a toilet brush. One end of the base is coated with gold, which acts like a “handle” and also inhibits nanotube growth at that end. The dimensions can be varied dramatically, says Ajayan, but typically the bundle of nanotubes is no smaller than a few micrometres in diameter.
