| Engineers love triangles: Shaped catalysts spark longer, faster-growing, rule-breaking nanowires Posted: 06 Jun 2012 07:27 AM PDT Engineers have found that gold catalysts shaped in the form of a cube, triangle, or other higher order structures grow nanowires about twice as fast and twice as long compared to wires grown with the more typical spherically-shaped catalysts. The wires, as small as one-5,000th the width of a human hair, could be used to build the next generation of "invisible" computer chips or sensors fast enough to identify signs of disease.  |