Stable polymer nanotubes may have a biotech future

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This sequence of images taken at NIST shows the creation of a nanotube as a highly focused infrared laser tugs on a polymer membrane that has been colored with a fluorescent dye. The white scale bar indicates 10 micrometers.
This sequence of images taken at NIST shows the creation of a nanotube as a highly focused infrared laser tugs on a polymer membrane that has been colored with a fluorescent dye. The white scale bar indicates 10 micrometers.

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created polymer nanotubes that are unusually long (about 1 centimeter) as well as stable enough to maintain their shape indefinitely. Described in a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the NIST nanotubes may have biotechnology applications as channels for tiny volumes of chemicals in nanofluidic reactor devices, for example, or as the "world's smallest hypodermic needles" for injecting molecules one at a time.


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