NJIT-Sigma Xi Research Café

Thursday, November 19, 2009, 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Faculty Dining Area, 3rd Floor, NJIT Campus Center

Topic: SELF-ASSEMBLED CARBON NANOTUBES AND NANO-DEVICES

Presenter: Reginald C. Farrow, PhD,
Department of Physics, NJIT

The Research Café, sponsored by the NJIT chapter of Sigma Xi, the international research honor society, was inaugurated with highly successful sessions on September 29 and October 22. The Research Café now invites you to its third session on November 19. The Café endeavors to present cutting edge research in a manner that is accessible to both faculty, students and other members of the NJIT community, as well as to interested persons in nearby industry and scientific laboratories. Refreshments will be served and you can also purchase additional refreshments in the next-door Pub or other Campus Center locations. We suggest that you come to the café a little earlier to enjoy the refreshments.

Prof. Farrow’s research lies at the interface between nano-technology and biotechnology, and may lead to ways of listening (and talking) to individual cells. It may also lead to power sources that use blood sugar as fuel and are so small that they can power nano-computers that could circulate through the body in the blood and provide medical diagnostics as they pass through critical organs.

There has been a great deal of research and development interest in using single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) as device elements for a host of applications. The main difficulty with making practical devices has been an easy method to place nanotubes with the right properties on electrical interconnects. This talk focuses on a novel method to fabricate individual or controlled arrays of interconnected vertically oriented SWNTs using electrophoresis and nanoscopic electrostatic lenses with applications as transistors, single/multiple element biomolecular detectors, and nano-scale biofuel cells. The latter of these has been demonstrated and will be discussed in detail with a discussion of the fascinating applications of this technology which may change the face of medicine.

Dr. Reginald C. Farrow is a Research Professor in Physics at NJIT which he joined in 2004. Dr. Farrow joined Bell Laboratories in 1976 where he started a career of research science that spanned 25 years. During his tenure at Bell Labs he did research in areas that included fundamental condensed matter physics, materials science, electron microscopy, and nanofabrication. He has published over 60 papers in peer reviewed journals and proceedings, 5 patents, and has given 13 invited talks. Dr. Farrow’s main re-search area at NJIT explores the interface between nanotechnology and biophysics.

For information, contact Dr. Jay Kappraff at (973)596-3490 or at kappraff@adm.njit.edu

For more information about the NJIT-Sigma Xi Research Café, including future meetings, visit http://www.njit.edu/v2/professional_society/sigmaxi/sx-ScienceCafe.htm

For information about Sigma Xi, visit http://www.njit.edu/v2/professional_society/sigmaxi/

For information about the NJIT Technology and Society Forum, visit http://tsf.njit.edu

Information and directions to NJIT are also available on the Web at http://www.njit.edu/about/visit/gettingtonjit.php