| Description: This image is of polystyrene nanorods that are being developed for applications in nano-scale devices. A scanning electron microscope was used to magnify the nanorods by 7500 times. These nanorods were made by filling a porous aluminum oxide membrane with polystyrene and then dissolving the membrane, leaving behind the nanorods. The material resembles a carpet where each nanorod is like a fiber. If your carpet at home gets wet and then air dried, if you look closely, the fibers will clump together just like the nanorods in the image have clumped together. These polystyrene nanorods were developed to show how the diameter of each fiber, which is not much larger than the size of the individual polymer molecules, effects the properties of the polystyrene. |