Researchers in robotics and materials science can solder components at the nanoscale.

After presenting at the NanoChina 2005 conference in Beijing, Lixin Dong from the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland was approached by Xinyong Tao, a PhD student in materials science at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Tao was fascinated by the way nanorobots could manoeuvre individual nanostructures so they could be studied, and Dong agreed to characterize the field-emission properties of the copper-tipped carbon nanotubes that Tao had made.

Dong's initial measurements showed that the copper-tipped nanotubes did have better field-emission properties, as expected. But then he noticed something surprising: when a lower voltage was applied to the nanotubes over an extended period of time, it was possible to keep the nanotubes intact while allowing the copper to melt and flow out. Using a nanorobotic manipulator inside an electron microscope, the collaboration went on to show that the copper-tipped nanotubes could solder nanotubes together in a nanosized version of assembly lines found in the automobile industry (Nano Lett. 7, 58–63; 2007).

“Bottom-up collaboration is often more effective than the top-down approach because the motivation is purely for the thrill of science, rather than simply to obtain additional funding”, says Bradley Nelson, director of the IRIS lab in Zurich. He adds that this collaboration was not officially funded and relied instead on existing grants at IRIS and Xiaobin Zhang's laboratory at Zhejiang University.

Bradley has started several collaborations as a result of discussions at conferences. “Oral presentations are incredibly important because this is where strong impressions are made on the quality of the work and group,” he says. “Don't be afraid to email authors of papers that are of interest, and don't worry about who gets credit, or where the funding will come from. With good work, there will be plenty of credit to go around, and avenues to apply for additional funding.”