[meteorite-list] Rutgers Scientist Sees Evidence Of 'Onions' In Space

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:33 2004
Message-ID: <200305011615.JAA23751_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://ur.rutgers.edu/medrel/viewArticle.phtml?ArticleID=3175

Rutgers scientist sees evidence of 'onions' in space
Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey
April 24, 2003

NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY , N.J. -- Scientists may have peeled away another layer
of mystery about materials floating in deep space. Tiny multilayered balls called
"carbon onions," produced in laboratory studies, appear to have the same
light-absorption characteristics as dust particles in the regions between
the stars.

"It's the strongest evidence yet that cosmic dust has a multilayered onionlike
carbon structure," said Manish Chhowalla, assistant professor of ceramic and
materials engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Chhowalla
used transmission electron microscopes to study radiation absorption of the
laboratory-produced onions and found characteristics virtually identical to
those reported by astrophysicists studying dust in deep space.

A carbon onion is a miniscule but intricate component of nanotechnology - the
study of structures and devices on a scale that can approach one-millionth the
width of a human hair. Discovered in 1992, carbon onions were considered
difficult to produce in the laboratory until 2001 when Chhowalla, then at
Cambridge University in the U.K., was part of a group that discovered a way
to synthesize sizable quantities of the nanoparticles in water.

"There had been some really good calculations that showed carbon onions are
most likely responsible for the way light is absorbed by dust in space," said
Chhowalla. "Being able to produce large quantities of carbon onions is what
made our latest research possible."

Chhowalla worked on the project with scientists from Cambridge University,
Himeji Institute of Technology in Japan and Hanyang University in South Korea.
Their findings are reported in a study called "Carbon Onions: Carriers of the
217.5 nm Interstellar Absorption Feature" published in the April 18 edition of
the journal Physical Review Letters.

Chhowalla, whose work at Rutgers is funded by a nanotechnology grant from the
New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, said work with carbon onions will
have practical applications besides just verifying the likely composition of
cosmic dust. "There will be many uses related to nanotechnology," he said.
"Carbon onions can be used in energy storage and fuel cells. We can also
envision them as immensely tiny ball bearings that may be used in
nanomachines built on the scale of molecules."

Contact: Bill Haduch
732/932-7084, ext. 633
Email: bhaduch_at_ur.rutgers.edu
Received on Thu 01 May 2003 12:15:14 PM PDT