Chinese scientists have used fluid vortex patterns to grow nanoscale disks and wires. 

A team of researchers from Anhui Normal University and Wannan Medical College used ethanol flowing round a cylinder to deposit an intricate pattern of catalyst. The pattern could then be used to grow silicon disks six micrometres across, connected by fine wires. 

The particular pattern used is a line of vortexes, or small whirlpools, which forms in the wake of the cylinder, known as a Karman vortex street. 'The same flow pattern exists in a variety of situations, ranging from flow around the strings of an Aeolian harp to clouds swirling past an island,' said Mingwang Shao, who led the research. 

'This is an excellent example of the way that conventional physical and chemical phenomena we know well in nature can be utilized by chemists and material scientists for material fabrication,' said Shu-Hong Yu, an expert in nanomaterials and chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei. 

The team hopes to use other fluid flow patterns to make 'more special nanomaterials with uncommon structures,' said Shao. 

Clare Boothby