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This course presents how to make and assemble nanostructures—particularly nanotubes, nanowires, and nanoparticles—into devices and materials ranging from transistors to films, fibers, and structural composites. Emphasis is placed on understanding the unique properties of these building blocks, and how properties scale from the individual elements to bulk material architectures. Scalability is governed by the physical interactions among the structures, and the ability to manipulate and order nanostructures using chemical, mechanical, and electrical means. Our goal is to design new materials and devices using nanostructures, along with elegant and efficient manufacturing processes that that can realize the promise of nanotechnology at commercially-feasible scales.  The course culminates in a team project that proposes a novel device or manufacturing process that uses nanostructures, such as a new architecture for a photovoltaic cell or battery electrode, or a self-assembly or printing process.

Syllabus, winter 2010 [pdf]

Lecture videos on iTunesU: iTunes Store -> iTunesU -> University of Michigan -> Science & Technology -> ME599: Nanomanufacturing

Lecture notes (Winter 2009): copyright John Hart, for personal use only
00: Introduction to nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing [slides]
01: Taxonomy and geometry of nanostructures [slides] [written notes]
02: Techniques for characterizing nanostructures [slides]
03: Confinement and energy quantization [slides] [written notes]
04: Electronic and optical properties of nanostructures [slides] [written notes]
05: Mechanical properties of nanostructures [slides] [written notes]
06: Thermal properties of nanostructures [slides] [written notes]
07: Intermolecular and surface forces [slides] [written notes]
08: Surface energy, wetting, and melting [slides] [written notes]
09: Electrical double layer [slides] [written notes]
10: Small-scale flows [slides] [written notes]
11: Surface plasmon resonance and energy transfer [slides] [written notes]
12: Nanoparticle synthesis [slides] [written notes]
13-14-15: Nanotube and nanowire synthesis [slides]
16: Self-assembly of micelles and block copolymers [slides] [written notes]
17: Functionalization and separation [slides]
18-19: Self-assembly of monolayers and multilayers [slides] [written notes]
20-21-22: Electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of networks [slides]
23: Nanocomposites and yarns [slides]

Carbon Nanotubes: Fundamentals, Synthesis, and Applications
Professional Short Course, half-day or full-day (John Hart)

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are long molecular structures having exceptional electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties. These properties, along with application-oriented characteristics such as high surface area, diverse capabilities for chemical modification and functionalization, and strong interactions with polymers and composite host materials, are generating wide application-oriented interest in CNTs. This short course is a broad introduction to the science, synthesis, and applications of CNTs.  The major topics are:

• The structure of CNTs in relation to other types of carbon fibers and filaments, and a brief history of their development.
• A theoretical treatment of the fundamental properties of CNTs as related to their atomic structure, and a review of experimental characterization of these properties.
• Methods of CNT synthesis, particularly catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD); methods of control of CNT diameter, alignment, and orientation by selection of the process parameters and by use of external fields during growth.
• Post-growth processing and organization of CNTs: separation, functionalization, sorting, printing, making electrical and thermal contact, etc.
• Emerging applications of CNTs in electronic devices, microsystems, thermal management materials, and composite materials. 
• Perspectives on the scalability of CNT properties (e.g., can we make a macroscopic “quantum wire” or the cable for the “space elevator”?), current research and practical challenges for the nanotube field, and prospects for further commercial growth.

Download course handouts (November 2006)