Scientists at Rice University have discovered that the strong force field emitted by a Tesla coil causes carbon nanotubes to self-assemble into long wires, a phenomenon they call “Teslaphoresis.”
The Rice University Team reported its results this week in ACS Nano.
The system works by remotely oscillating positive and negative charges in each nanotube, causing them to chain together into long wires.
According to the Researchers, this force-field effect on matter had never been observed on such a large scale, and the phenomenon was unknown to Nikola Tesla, who invented the coil in 1891 with the intention of delivering wireless electrical energy.
Electric fields have been used to move small objects, but only over ultrashort distances. With Teslaphoresis, we have the ability to massively scale up force fields to move matter remotely .
The researchers discovered that the phenomenon simultaneously assembles and powers circuits that harvest energy from the field. In one experiment, nanotubes assembled themselves into wires, formed a circuit connecting two LEDs and then absorbed energy from the Tesla coil’s field to light them.
According to the Researchers, there are so many applications where one could utilize strong force fields to control the behavior of matter in both biological and artificial systems .
