Department of Physics

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai – 600036

PH 6011: Functional Materials and Nanotechnology

Assignment (13.02.2018)
Due date for submission: 26.02.2018 before 5:00 pm
(Drop it in the plastic box kept on the table opposite room # 113 in MSRC)
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1. Find the drift velocity of the free electrons in a copper wire whose
cross sectional area is 1.0 mm2. The wire carries a current of 1.0 A.
(In Cu, n = N/V = 8.5 x 1028 electrons/m3). What would be the
magnitude of current in a nano-wire of copper whose cross sectional
area is 1 nm2.

2. A tungsten wire has a resistance of 14 Ω at 20 oC. Calculate its

resistance at 120 oC.

3. Calculate the conductivity of Cu at 300K. The collision time τ for

electron scattering is 2 x 10-14 at the abovementioned temperature.
(me = 9.1 x 10-31 kg, e = 1.602 x 10-19 C). In a 1D copper wire (cross
sectional area ~ 20 nm2), what will be the collision time.

4. Write about thermal evaporation process. Give the

reference (book or research paper) that you have referred to to write this
answer.

5. How many carbon nanotubes of 1 nm in diameter each can be tightly

packed into a cylinder of 100 microns. Assume that packing is done
parallel to the long axis and that packing efficiency is not a concern.

6. How many cubes 1 nm of side length can be carved out of a bulk-cube

(1 m side length). Find the total surface area of the nano-cubes?

7. What is ‘Lycurgus cup’. Why it shows differnet colours in transmitted

and reflected light? [give reference to this answer].
8. What did Richard Feynman mean when he said ‘there is plenty of room
at the bottom’ in his famous 1959 CalTech lecture. [give reference to this
answer].

9. Write about Griffith theory to describe particle fracture leading to the

production of micron, sub-micron and nano-sized particles. What is the
method known as? [give reference to this answer].

10. What method would you suggest to find the size of an atom accurately?

11. Write about sol-gel synthesis that could be used to produce nano-
particles? When was this method invented?
[give reference to this answer].

12. Calculate the number of volume atoms, the number of surface atoms, and
the percentage of surface atoms Ns to the volume atoms Nv for a
spherical cluster of Na atoms. Relate the cluster radius (Rc), surface
area (Sc), and volume (Vc) to the radius (Ra), surface area (Sa), and
volume (Va) of an individual atom in the cluster.

13. In a NaCl crystal, the equilibrium distance ro between ions is 0.281 nm.
Find the cohesive energy in NaCl.

14. Lithium atoms, like hydrogen atoms, have only a single electron in their
outer shells, yet lithium atoms do not join together to form Li2 molecules
the way hydrogen atoms form H2 molecules. Instead, Li is a metal with
each atom part of a crystal lattice. Why?

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Reference Books:

[1]. Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel

[2]. Introduction to Solids by Azaroff
[3]. Quantum wells, wires and dots by Paul Harrison
[4]. Transport in Nanostructures, by David K. Ferry, S.M. Goodnick and J.
Bird (Cambridge press)
[5]. Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: Fundamentals to Frontiers by
M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Shubra Singh (Wiley)