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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

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