IBM researchers have created transistors out of carbon nanotubes that can outperform similar silicon transistors, a development that helps build the case that carbon may one day become a building block of computing. In an article to be published on May 20 in the journal "Applied Physics Letters," IBM researchers outline how transistors made of carbon nanotubes--long, thin strands of carbon molecules--delivered more than twice the amount of electrical current at a faster rate than cutting-edge transistors made from silicon and metal, the basis for chips today.

Increased current leads, potentially, to faster transistors and integrated circuits. And since transistors and integrated circuits are the building blocks of chips, the results imply that carbon could someday become the foundation for tomorrow's computers. "They outperformed silicon transistors," said Phaedon Avouris, manager of nanoscale science at IBM. "There are a number of (performance) improvements." Although it's in its infancy, nanotechnology could, over the ensuing decades, become crucial to a wide array of industries, say advocates and many researchers. Nanotechnology is essentially the science of building things on a molecular level. General Motors is currently trying to develop stronger materials for cars using methods from nanotechnology.