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VIDEO: When repeating patterns overlap and are rotated, they create these mesmerizing arrangements called moiré patterns. Here hexagonal grids are rotated in either direction. view more
Credit: CC-0 The University of Tokyo/Rohan Mehra
Material behaviors depend on many things including not just the composition of the material but also the arrangement of its molecular parts. For the first time, researchers have found a way to coax carbon nanotubes into creating moiré patterns. Such structures could be useful in materials research, in particular in the field of superconducting materials.
Professor Hiroyuki Isobe from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, and his team create nanoscopic material structures, primarily from carbon. Their aim is to explore new ways to create carbon nanostructures and to find useful applications for them. The most recent breakthrough from their lab is a new form of carbon nanotube with a very specific arrangemen