Student Finds Break-Through Solution

Tracy Staedter chats with Philip Streich, a 17-year-old student who has found a break-through solution for carbon nanotubes and graphene.

Philip Streich

Streich plays a mean rendition of Purple Haze.

The Solution

On the left, a solution containing carbon nanotubes. They cling together and, for the most part, clump to the bottom of the vial. On the right, nanotubes suspended in the special solvent mixture Streich discovered, which unclumps the bundling.

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12:02 PM imtracynotstacy: hello philip.streich: Hi!

imtracynotstacy: thanks for taking the time to chat with me!

philip.streich: My pleasure, it's interesting to do an IM interview.

imtracynotstacy: so where are you IM'ing from?

12:04 PM philip.streich: I'm in the chemistry lab at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville.imtracynotstacy: My home state! I grew up in Mukwonago.....Waukesha county

And can you set the scene for us? What's the lab like? What's the weather like?

12:08 PM philip.streich: Outside it's a beautiful crisp clear fall day, and it's pretty quiet in the lab because student's are leaving for fall break.

I just started an experiment in the room next door, and I'm sitting in the computer lab.

imtracynotstacy: Just so everyone reading this is clear.....you're not a college student, right?

12:09 PM philip.streich: No, officially I'm still a home schooled high school senior. But I've been taking courses at the university as a special student since I was 14. imtracynotstacy: Do you get a little tired of telling people that?

12:11 PM philip.streich: No, not really. It's sometimes a little confusing, though.

imtracynotstacy: Why? philip.streich: Some people assume that I'm enrolled as an undergraduate Sometimes even a graduate student. It's funny actually.

imtracynotstacy: I'll bet you still get carded thought.

though

12:14 PM philip.streich: Yes, but not last week when I was in Guadalajara, Mexico.

imtracynotstacy: Ha! So the reason I wanted to chat with you is because I know you've done some pretty cool stuff with nanotubes.....some stuff that lots of researchers have been trying to figure out how to do for a long time. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Let's start with what researchers were trying to do, but couldn't.

And please try to use as little sciency jargon as possible.

12:20 PM philip.streich: Well, first of all, let me explain a little bit about carbon nanotubes and what the problem had been. Nanotubes, in an individually isolated form, have extraordinary properties: they're stronger than diamonds and 1,000's of times more electrically conductive than copper or silver, for example. The problem is that the nanotubes don't exist naturally in this isolated, instead they tightly clump together into bundles, which are impractical for impractical for real-world applications. imtracynotstacy: Why is clumping impractical?

philip.streich: The nanotube bundles are mechanically and electrically weak, and are almost impossible to incorporate into other materials, and to study scientifically.

12:22 PM imtracynotstacy: I see

philip.streich: And this problem (nanotube bundling) is what researchers were trying to solve. The ideal solution would be to take a nanotubes in their bundled form, drop them into a liquid that would spontaneously break-up, or dissolve, the bundles.

imtracynotstacy: easy as pie, right?

12:24 PM philip.streich: Not quite. The problem remained that nanotubes were universally assumed to be thermodynamically insoluble in all solvents. And what this meant was that even if you could force the nanotubes to debundle, they would rebundle over time.

imtracynotstacy: okay.....what's the thermodynamic thing have to do with it?

12:27 PM philip.streich: Good question. "Thermodynamically" soluble means the nanotubes are truly and permanently dissolved according to the laws of thermodynamics. Meaning they will never rebundle, and will remain homogeneously distributed throughout the solution in their individualized form with their super-properties intact. imtracynotstacy: I guess it's the "thermo" part that throws me off, as if temperature has something to do with this.

12:30 PM philip.streich: Yes, it does involve temperature - the underlying thermodynamics that controls solubility depends on three things: the energy of the solvent/solute system (enthalpy), the randomness and "chaos" of the system (entropy), and finally the system's temperature.

12:33 PM imtracynotstacy: Ok. So you said that people assumed that carbon nanotubes bundles couldn't be permanently dissolved and separated in a solution. Right? But then you took on that challenge. What made you think that this big time/long time assumption could be wrong?

12:36 PM philip.streich: This had been something that researchers at Trinity College, Dublin had been wondering about. They had identified a solvent called NMP (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) that appeared to debundle the nanotubes without degrading their properties, but no one had been able to prove or quantify whether the nanotubes were actually thermodynamically soluble or not. And this is where my research came in.

imtracynotstacy: I see.....did you partner with the researchers at Trinity or did you build up on their work?

12:38 PM philip.streich: I worked independently here in Platteville, but we published our results together this May in Advanced Materials.

imtracynotstacy: And so what did you do that worked?

12:41 PM philip.streich: To prove that the nanotubes are thermodynamically soluble, I had the idea to use static light scattering (measuring the intensity of the light scattered by a nanotube solution when a laser beam shoots through it). This approach hadn't been used before on nanotubes, and to carry out the experiment, I designed and custom-built my own ultra-sensitive photon counting light scattering spectrometer out of spare parts in the lab, because commercial instruments weren't sensitive enough.

12:43 PM imtracynotstacy: Wow. I'll bet few people know that you build a machine like that. Way cool. So what does measureing light scattering tell you about whether the tubes might be permanently bundled or unbundled?

12:49 PM philip.streich: It's a little bit complicated. By collecting light scattering intensity data (intensity = I) from nanotube samples of different concentrations (concentration = c), I fit this data to the Debye light scattering theory. This theory lets you calculate a property called the Second Virial Coefficient, or B2, from the slope of a plot of c/I vs. c. B2 quantifies the actual intermolecular forces between the solvent and solute in a solution, and you can then use B2 to calculate thermodynamic properties such as the energy change when solvent and solute are mixed. If this energy is negative, then the nanotubes are thermodynamically soluble and therefore will remain unbundled in solution.

12:51 PM imtracynotstacy: Hmmm. So amount of light scattering tells you something about the forces between the molecules. If molecules are attracting to each other strongly, you'll get one measurement (positive?) and if they are not attracting very strongly, you'll get another measurement (negative?) Is that about right? philip.streich: Exactly right.

imtracynotstacy: Ok. good guess for me.

So you showed that the nanotubes were stable in the solution and permanently unbundled. Now what the heck can you do with that knowledge? Fact?

12:55 PM philip.streich: Well, a lot I hope! One application would be taking the solution containing individualized nanotubes, and then dissolving a polymer throughout this solution. Then, you could evaporate the solvent to yield a solid nanotube-polymer composite with isolated nanotubes spread evenly throughout the polymer matrix. A classic example of an application of nanotubes extraordinary strength is an actual elevator into space.

12:57 PM imtracynotstacy: I've heard about those. In fact, a researcher from Italy, Nicoloa Pugno, just wrote a My Take about what the mechanical and nanotube challenges are for a space elevator.

So I understand you formed a company based on your research?

philip.streich: Yes, it's really exciting!

12:59 PM In the second year of my research I went on to discover a method for maximizing nanotube solubility by mixing different solvents together based on a fundamental relationship I uncovered between solubility and solvent surface tension.

I used this method to then dissolve another amazing nanoparticle for the first time - graphene.

And this discovery is what the company is based on. imtracynotstacy: I see. And what can you do with graphene in a solution?

1:03 PM philip.streich: Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, is the strongest and currently the most expensive material in the world because it is so incredibly labor intensive to produce even microscopic purified quantities. But using my technique, I can produce pure, unmodified graphene sheets in solution cheaply and easily by dissolving graphite.

imtracynotstacy: And then what are the applications for that?

1:06 PM philip.streich: The huge variety of applications is mind-boggling. For example, because electrons travel 100 times faster in graphene than in silicon, and heat is dissipated 10 times as fast, graphene could replace silicon in computer chips to lead to ultra fast, small, and efficient nanocircuits. Also, because graphene is transparent, it could be used to replace indium tin oxide as an organic transparent electrode in applications such as LCDs and solar panels. This is important because we're running out of indium tin oxide.

1:07 PM imtracynotstacy: Very cool. Okay, I know we've been chatting about an hour now. I'll start wrapping this up, but first a couple of questions are less research-oriented and more Philip-oriented.

Canyou tell me something about yourself that not many people know or that they might be surprised to find out?

1:09 PM philip.streich: I live on a farm where we raise sheep, cows, and chickens and grow corn and soybeans, and I play a mean rendition of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix on my electric guitar. imtracynotstacy: Oh wow. See, I knew that you built that ol' spectrometer, but didn't know about the guitar.

Is there any food you despise?

1:11 PM philip.streich: No quite the opposite. The more exotic the better! My favorite foods are Indian and Ethiopian. imtracynotstacy: Ok. One more question. Did you do anything (go anywhere? eat anything) this past year that you had never done before?

1:15 PM philip.streich: Yes, I went with some friends this past summer to a really nice french restaurant in Boston called L'Espalier, and the food was the most amazing I've ever had. I also went to Mexico for the first time and I had the best time of my life!

1:16 PM imtracynotstacy: Well, that's two up on me. I haven't been to either place! But they're on my list.

Well, thanks so much for your time.

philip.streich: Thank you too, it was fun!

Fast Facts About Philip

Age: 17

Name/year of company founded: Graphene Solutions, 2008

Something people might be surprised to learn about you: I live on a farm where we raise sheep, cows and chickens and grow corn and soybeans, and I play a mean rendition of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix on my electric guitar.

Favorite thing about your job: Working with incredibly energetic and interesting people like my research mentor, company co-founder and co-owner, James Hamilton.

Least favorite food: The more exotic the better! My favorite foods are Indian and Ethiopian.

Something you did this year that you had never done before: I went to a really nice French restaurant in Boston called L'Espalier and the food was the most amazing I've ever had. I also went to Mexico for the first time and I had the best time of my life!

Music you listen to in the lab: I don't listen to music in the lab. I might get distracted and shoot my laser in the wrong direction

Student Finds Break-Through Solution

Philip Streich

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