Joerg Schneider from the Technical University of Darmstadt, in Germany, investigates how highly aligned carbon nanotubes, which are free-standing and self-supporting, can have future implementation as a sensor device.

 What inspired you to become a scientist? 

Some things just happen; for my chemistry profession it was typically the thrill of early (sometimes even harmful) experiments in my youth. Later on I just found chemistry to be fascinating, since I recognized that it was fundamental when looking into things on a very, very small scale. Macroscopic effects often rely on interactions on a molecular scale. Another important thing which fascinates me is that you can create totally new matter by composition and morphology with your own hands and intellectual impact. That is highly inspiring and is a cultural kind of work.   

  What was your motivation behind the work described in your ChemComm article? 

Integration of nanoobjects into macroscopic devices is something in which my group is currently interested. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are established materials in the nanoscience community, however real devices built from them are still rare. To show that this can be done in a real macroscopic device, for example, like here in a sensor was central to this work. 

 Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

Chemical Communications is a very well recognized journal in the chemical community. It even offers the possibility to publish work at the edges and even in between sciences. Although our work uses a typical synthetic (gas phase) approach it utilizes the functional properties of the synthesized CNT material for an application driven idea. 

  Where do you see your research heading next? 

Exploring the chemist's tool box to synthesize nanoscopic matter, like arranged CNTs, nanoscopic oxides, heterogenous catalysts and other functional materials. Incorporating such structures in device architectures is currently something which interests me a great deal.

  What do enjoy doing in your spare time?

Doing things in which I feel that I have a body besides a head. 

  If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

Hard to tell, that varies from time to time... 

Interviewed by Emma Shiells