Carbon Nanomaterial Based Computers

In this SBIR Phase I Project Luna Innovations will develop new applications of carbon-based nanostructured materials for use as chemical sensors and self-assembling molecular computation systems. Due to their unique properties, structured carbonnanomaterials including fullerenes and nanotubes have become a large field of research that extends from chemistry, to physics and materials science. In this proposed program, Luna Innovations, Inc. will utilize the interaction between an encapsulatedtrimetallic nitride template (TNT) molecule and the surrounding carbon cage to develop a new technique for creating self-assembled sensors and molecular computation systems. This approach will result in a totally new class of molecular systems withapplications in chemical/molecular computing.The proposed nanomaterial-based molecular systems will find application as programmable chemical sensors and sensor networks, and self-assembling molecular computing systems.