| . Christina Hacker characterizes the individual monolayers prior to flip-chip lamination using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. Summary:The Nanoelectronic Device Metrology (NEDM) project is developing the measurement science infrastructure that will enable innovation and advanced manufacturing of emerging nanoelectronic information processing technologies – including those based upon new computational state variables – to more rapidly enter into the marketplace. Description: The Nanoelectronic Device Metrology project conducts research to develop and advance the measurements needed to understand and evaluate properties of promising nanoelectronic technologies. This involves pioneering research in the area of molecular interfaces, condensed matter physics, alternate means of computing, and confined structures (graphene, 2D materials, nanowires, etc.). Particular emphasis is placed on novel measurements of chemical, physical, and electrical properties to fully interrogate nanoelectronic systems and provide the measurement foundation for advanced manufacturing of innovative future nanoelectronic devices. Core competencies include developing surface, electrical, and magnetic characterization approaches to accelerate the development and characterization of advanced nanoelectronic devices. The NEDM project focuses on understanding the factors that govern charge transport in nanoelectronic devices. To do this, team members focus on novel measurement approaches such as investigating electronic devices at low-temperature or in the presence of a magnetic field. This work is an integral component to the condensed matter physics foundation needed for novel electronic materials (e.g., graphene) and alternate means of computing (e.g., spin) to become a manufactural reality. The NEDM project has extensive expertise in molecular electronics foundations including the formation and characterization of molecular layers and fabrication and qualification of electrode-molecule-electrode junctions which feed into to a fundamental understanding of charge transport at molecular interfaces. This work has led to many technological advances on the nanoscale and has recently been applied to fabricate and understand the physics governing novel organic spintronic devices. The NEDM aims to develop the required measurement infrastructure and scientific knowledge-base to address technology barriers and enable the successful development and subsequent manufacture of next-generation "Beyond CMOS technologies." To do this, the NEDM project supplements our core expertise with collaborations within the nanoelectronics group, across NIST, and with external technical leaders to conduct timely, impactful research. Major Accomplishments:2015
2014
2013
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div683/grp04/nedm.cfm
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sábado, 8 de agosto de 2015
Nanoelectronic Device Metrology
domingo, 7 de junho de 2015
Researchers design the most precise quantum thermometer to date
| Researchers from the UAB and the University of Nottingham, in an article published in Physical Review Letters, have fixed the limits of thermometry, i.e., they have established the smallest possible fluctuation in temperature which can be measured. The researchers have studied the sensitivity of thermometers created with a handful of atoms, small enough to be capable of showing typical quantum-style behaviours. The researchers characterized these types of probes in detail, devices which could provide an estimation of the temperature with a never before seen precision. To do so, they combined thermodynamic tools with quantum metrology, which deals with ultra-precise measures in quantum systems. The physicists searched to find the maximum precision which could be achieved in a real situation, in which measuring time could be very brief given unavoidable experimental limitations. In the research, they also observed that these thermometers could maintain a constant sensitivity in a wide range of temperatures by sacrificing some of their precision. For the authors of the research, "finding a nanothermometer sensitive enough at this scale is a great step forward in the field of nanotechnology, with applications in biology, chemistry, physics and even in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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Moving sector walls on the nano scale
| Most magnetic materials have a structure that is somewhat more complicated than a commercially available domestic magnet: they not only have a north and south pole, but a variety of sectors, often only a few nanometres in size, in each of which the magnetic axis points in a different direction. These sectors are referred to as domains. Over the past few years, Manfred Fiebig, Professor for Multifunctional Ferroics at ETH Zurich, has been studying the walls between adjoining domains in certain materials. "The inner workings of a material and its domains are one area of interest," says Fiebig. "However, fascinating things also take place at the boundaries of these domains." In this work, Fiebig has devoted himself to a very special class of materials: oxides -- specifically those with multiferroic properties. These are crystalline materials that are magnetically ordered (i.e. they have a magnetic north and south pole), but at the same time also exhibit an electrical order (that is, the electric charge in the material is distributed so that in addition to the magnetic poles, there are also positive and negative electrical poles). "That fact that magnetic and electrical ordering occur alongside one another in multiferroic materials means that cross couplings are also possible; for example, the magnetic state can be changed using an electrical voltage," explains Fiebig. These properties make the materials interesting for many applications and are the main reason why they are being researched so intensively by the scientific community. Tiny capacitors Together with his fellow researchers, Fiebig has closely studied the domain boundaries in certain multiferroics and recently published two articles on the topic. Here, the scientists showed that the electrical conductivity of the domain walls differs from that of the material as a whole. In one material, strontium manganite, they showed that the domain walls suppress the flow of electric current. "A material with non-conductive walls in a conductive environment could be very useful in the field of electronics," says Fiebig. For example, it may be possible to produce electronic components in which the nanoscale domains act as tiny capacitors that could be electrically charged separately. "This could be used to create a new charge-based storage medium," says Fiebig. It would take only a voltage pulse to alter the charge in a domain, he adds; a current flow would not be necessary. A storage medium of this type would be more energy-efficient than those available today. In addition, as the data storage would not produce any waste heat that would then need to be dissipated, much smaller storage media could be built. The paper was co-authored by scientists from Fiebig's research group together with scientists from the group under ETH professor Nicola Spaldin and from the University of Zaragoza. Spaldin and her colleagues contributed the theoretical explanation of why the domain walls are not conductive in strontium manganite. Fiebig explains that as crystalline materials never have a perfect structure, individual oxygen atoms will be missing at certain points in the oxides' crystal lattice. The scientists have now been able to show that these 'oxygen vacancies' accumulate preferentially at the domain boundaries, where they block the flow of current. Manual change of conductivity In studies of a second multiferroic material, terbium manganite, scientists from Fiebig's group worked with colleagues from Japan to show that the domain boundaries could also be shifted using electrical fields under certain conditions. "This is an advantage over conventional semiconductor materials, which have a mature, fixed structure," says Fiebig. Furthermore, the researchers found conditions under which it was possible to change the magnetisation of the domains and the conductivity of the domain boundaries without changing the position of the boundaries. The prerequisite for these studies is a technique that makes the domains and their boundaries visible. This is currently possible only with a specific optical method known as second harmonic generation, where the material is irradiated with a very intense, pulsed laser beam in a specific colour. In response, the material emits light of a different colour, from which the scientists can obtain information on the magnetic and electrical structure of the material. Over the last few years, Fiebig has been the driving force behind the development of this optical method to study the internal order of materials. New technical possibilities The fact that it is now possible not only to see the domain walls in a multiferroic, but also to selectively shift them or alter their conductance paves the way for new technical possibilities. Although Fiebig makes clear that specific applications are still a long way off, the findings may in future be used not only in data storage, but also in sensors or complex electronic components. "If you can alter the conductance in a material, you have got a switch -- in our case, a switch that you can control without moving anything mechanically and which is therefore not subject to material fatigue," says Fiebig, who is now already thinking about the next step in development. At the moment, the magnetic state can be altered with an electric field. In future, he says, it may be possible to dispense with the electric field and switch the state entirely optically by using the intense light pulses not only to make the internal structure visible but also to simultaneously change it. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by ETH Zurich. The original article was written by Fabio Bergamin. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal References:
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terça-feira, 2 de dezembro de 2014
New method to determine surface properties at the nanoscale
Known properties of a material can radically change at the nanoscale – a tiny scale about 1/1000 of the diameter of a human hair at which scientists have begun building machines that do work.Engineering researchers at Texas Tech University have developed a method for characterizing the surface properties of materials at different temperatures at the nanoscale. Knowing properties of materials at different temperatures is important in engineering, said Gregory McKenna, a professor of chemical engineering and the John R. Bradford Endowed Chair in Engineering. For example, the rubber O-ring that failed during the 1986 space shuttle disaster serves at a tragic case study of what can go wrong when decision-makers don't take this into account. The problem, he said, is known properties of a material can radically change at the nanoscale -- a tiny scale about 1/1000 of the diameter of a human hair at which scientists have begun building machines that do work. McKenna and graduate student Meiyu Zhai looked at several polymers and explosive materials to see how surface properties varied at the nanoscale and how the surface impacts the nanoscale properties. Their first results on the "multi-curve method" appeared in the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics and was highlighted in Advances in Engineering. "The nanoscale is a funny range of sizes where materials have properties that are not what we expect, even at a step up at the microscale," he said. "We are developing methods to characterize surface properties and relate them to nanoscale behavior using a nanoindenter and other nano-mechanical measurement methods." In nanoindentation, researchers can investigate both the elastic properties (how materials spring back when pushed) or the viscous properties (how the material flows). The group has found several surprising results: For example, in other work, the team found extremely thin polycarbonate films become liquid-like at the nanoscale, while they are glassy at the macroscopic size scale. Nanoindentation can be used to relate surface properties to this observation. As machines get smaller and smaller, McKenna said, knowing this information can be invaluable to future engineers. The nanoindentation project was funded by The Office of Naval Research. The researchers also are funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Texas Tech University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference:
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segunda-feira, 6 de outubro de 2014
Nanotechnology: Fullerene spheres can be used to slide in the nanoworld
October 3, 2014
Sissa Medialab
“Nano–machines” (around one billionth of a meter in size) of the future will need tiny devices to reduce friction and make movement possible. The C60 molecule, also known as fullerene or buckyball, seemed to many an excellent candidate for nano-bearings. Unfortunately, the results so far have been conflicting, calling for further studies, like the one just carried out by a theoretical team. Through a series of computer simulations the scientists uncovered the reason for the experimental discrepancies and shed light on the true potential of this material.
The C60 molecule, also known as fullerene or buckyball, may be an excellent candidate for nano-bearings.
"Nano-machines" (around one billionth of a metre in size) of the future will need tiny devices to reduce friction and make movement possible. The C60 molecule, also known as fullerene or buckyball, seemed to many an excellent candidate for nano-bearings. Unfortunately, the results so far have been conflicting, calling for further studies, like the one carried out by a theoretical team involving SISSA, ICTP, CNR and EMPA. Through a series of computer simulations the scientists uncovered the reason for the experimental discrepancies and shed light on the true potential of this material.
About 3500 years ago, man invented the wheel to make life easier. Then, thanks to Leonardo Da Vinci's genius, the wheel was made smaller to obtain ball bearings. And today? "Today we are trying to get even smaller: scientists are thinking about nano-bearings," comments Andrea Vanossi, of the CNR -- Democritos and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste, among the authors of a study that has just been published in Nanoscale. "In the future we'll have many nano-machines capable of carrying out the most diverse tasks, for example transporting medicines inside the human body. In order to save energy, many of these vehicles will have to able to move efficiently, using as little energy as possible, and "nano"-sized ball bearings may help achieve this goal."
"Scientists thought they could use C60, a hollow carbon nanosphere, measuring one nanometre in diameter," explains Erio Tosatti, SISSA professor and another author of the study," but there's a problem: the experimental results are at complete variance with each other." C60 has a temperature (260° Kelvin) at which the molecules suddenly become free to rotate, which hopefully has a role in friction. The two most important experiments carried out to date, however, have yielded conflicting results: above this temperature, when the material was made to slide over a substrate, in one case there was no significant decrease in friction, whereas in the other the decrease was dramatic, a good 100%. "What's going on? If we assume that the measurements are correct and the experiments performed correctly (and we have no reason to believe otherwise) how do we explain this difference?," wonders Vanossi. "For this reason, we decided to verify."
The team (a collaboration between SISSA, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics "Abdus Salam" ICTP of Trieste, the Italian National Research Council CNR, and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) conducted a theoretical, simulation-based study.
"We simulated the tiny tip of an electron microscope bearing a C60 flake, which was dragged over a surface also made of C60," explains Vanossi. "We discovered that when the flake was attached in such a way that it couldn't rotate the friction did not decrease, even if we raised the temperature to above 260° K. It's as if the bearings making up the flake interlocked with the substrate, with no nano-bearing effect. However, when the flake was free to rotate there was a dramatic drop in friction and the flake could slide over the surface far more smoothly." But here the drop in friction is not due to the ball bearing effect, but to the change in contact geometry.
The two states therefore reproduce the results of the two experiments. "Our data faithfully reflect the empirical observations," concludes Tosatti. "This of course does not bode well for the future use of fullerite to reduce friction at the nanoscale, in that the nanobearing function is not confirmed, but it does finally shed light on the physics of this problem."
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEKowZOz3Ts
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Sissa Medialab. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Andrea Benassi, Andrea Vanossi, Carlo A. Pignedoli, Daniele Passerone, Erio Tosatti. Does rotational melting make molecular crystal surfaces more slippery? Nanoscale, 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C4NR04641B
domingo, 5 de outubro de 2014
Nanotechnology in Finland: Market Report
Introduction
Finland is located between Sweden and Russia in Northern Europe. It covers an area of 338,145 km2 and had a population of 5,262,930 as of July 2012.
Finland has the 4th largest knowledge economy in Europe behind Sweden, Denmark and the UK.
Finland has a diversified modern industrial free-market economy with fields such as electronics (e.g. Nokia), metrology (e.g. Vaisala), transport fuels (Neste Oil), engineering consulting (Pöyry), chemicals (Kemira), and information technology (e.g. Rovio). Services is the largest economic centre contributing to the GDP, followed by manufacturing and refining.
The GDP of Finland was $194.3 billion in 2011.
Nanotechnology Organisations
Finland has many world-leading organisations and networks committed to promoting nanoscience as well as exploring the challenges and future of nanotechnology. A brief introduction to the key nanotechnology-related organisations in Finland is given below:
Spinverse- Spinverse commercialises emerging technologies and creates new business by combining industrial, financial and scientific expertise with worldwide networks. Their customers and partners include innovative growth companies, global industrial leaders, the world’s leading universities, venture capital firms and public funding organizations. Their services include business development, technology and market studies, fundraising and large programme management. Their technology experience covers new innovations in energy, electronics, environment, materials and nanotechnology.
Tekes - The Tekes’ initiative is implementing nanotechnology partnerships between China and Finland. The principles of strategic co-operation have been agreed between Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland. The main guideline is supporting new nanotechnology innovations, their utilization and commercialization to enhance industrial competitiveness in both countries.
Finnish Nanotechnology Cluster Programme- Nanotechnology Cluster Programme initiated by the Ministry of Employment and Economy promotes nanotechnology based business in Finland. The mission of the Nanotechnology Cluster Programme is to foster the growth of Nanotechnology based business, supporting implementation of nano and micro technologies and future materials in Finnish companies.
HelsinkiNano -The initial idea for the HelsinkiNano initiative arose from the recognition of the fact that the region has considerable expertise in nanoscience, but nobody to gather together the research groups that are spread out in different universities. HelsinkiNano was thus started to act as a catalyst to create contacts within the science world and also between companies and universities.
NanoCenter Finland - gathers together the nanoscience centres and research departments in Finland to maintain and develop national co-operation as well as internationally competent nanoscience and nanotechnology infrastructure in Finland.
Academy of Finland - The Academy of Finland’s mission is to finance high-quality scientific research, act as a science and science policy expert, and strengthen the position of science and research.
Nanotechnology Companies
The major nanotechnology companies in Finland that cater to the diverse nature of nanotechnology sectors are listed below along with a brief introduction to each of them:
- Attension- Attension is one of the product organizations within the Biolin Scientific group, a global provider of high-tech analytical instruments for nanoscale study of interfaces. Their product range consists of optical, force and bubble tensiometers for education, research and development. They also provide solutions for high-throughput development, quality control and process control in such industries as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, food, energy, paper and packing.
- Optitune - Optitune is a cleantech company of Finnish origin with R&D and manufacturing capabilities in Singapore and Finland. Optitune nano-science is a revolutionary coating technology offering cost effective and environmentally friendly light management solutions for the solar, touchscreen, electronics and construction industries.
- Canatu Ltd. - Canatu Ltd. is a leading developer of a new class of versatile carbon nanomaterial based components with industry transforming qualities. Based on their three key innovations - their novel NanoBud® nanomaterial having outstanding physical and chemical properties, their environmentally friendly and low cost Direct Dry Printing® process, and their superior proprietary methods for cost effective production of high-quality carbon NanoBuds® - Canatu is actively transforming cutting edge research into cutting edge business.
- DCA Instruments- DCA Instruments is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and UHV thin film deposition systems and components. DCA is a Finnish company located in Turku, in the southwest corner of Finland. Since the company was founded in 1989, DCA has installed more than 100 UHV systems around the world. Finnish high tech is at its best at DCA. A large part of their business has always been building complex, custom design deposition systems. They utilize their custom design background in the manufacturing of standard systems. Their design flexibility is valued by their customers. Many of their standard systems have started as a solution to a customer's particular deposition process.
- Dekati - Dekati develops, manufactures and markets instrumentation needed in fine particle measurement and sampling. In 1995, Dekati introduced the world’s first real-time fine particle concentration and size distribution measurement instrument. Since then, their R&D department has continually increased the range of products which now consists of nearly 15 products for various different particle measurement needs.
- Hydrocell - Hydrocell is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-quality energy and fuel-cell technology and a range of air cleaners that employ related technology. They have been a leader in the sector in northern Europe since 1993. They manufacture CO2 filters for industrial and laboratory use, and filters and filter solutions for handling tobacco smoke. Their product range includes efficient brush-type heat exchangers, and easy-to-install heat-storage, heating and cooling solutions. Our company values are high-quality products, satisfied clients and excellent service.
- Picosun - Picosun is an international equipment manufacturer with a world-wide sales and service organization. They develop and manufacture Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) reactors for micro- and nanotechnology applications. Picosun provides their customers with versatile, reliable, and user-friendly ALD process tools, which offer unique scalability from research to production. Picosun is based in Espoo, Finland and has its US headquarters in Detroit. PICOSUN™ ALD process tools have been installed in various universities, research institutes, and companies across Europe, USA, Asia and Australia.
- Beneq Oy - Beneq Oy,Vantaa, Finland, is a supplier of industrial equipment for global markets. Beneq is addressing the market of industrial equipment for producing functional surfaces with latest technology, typically utilizing nanosize materials. Beneq acts as a business facilitator adding value for high-tech partner companies by converting proven innovations into industrial equipment.
- Nanoway - Nanoway commercializes the top innovations created in the research of low-temperature physics in Finnish universities. In particular, they own the patents which cover the CBT-thermometer and SINIS-cooler. They have made an agreement with Aivon on marketing and delivery of CBT thermometers.
- Fluilogic - Fluilogic develops, produces and markets micro and nanoliter dispensing modules for applications used in precise liquid handling on global markets. The patented Electro-Magnetic Bellows technology (EMB-technology), invented in 2000, has enabled them to reach a new era in cost-effective and precise liquid handling.
- Genano Ltd - Genano Ltd is a Finnish high tech company specialized in air purifiers. Their solution is GENANO TOTAL AIR CARE™.
- KSV NIMA - With 30 years of expertise and 97% of the world’s top one hundred natural Life Science Universities using their instruments, they are the leading provider of instruments for thin film fabrication and characterization in research and development globally. Their instruments are being utilized in nanotechnology research, surface chemistry, surface physics, biophysics, colloidal research, biochemistry and materials development.
- Millidyne - Millidyne is an innovative materials technology company providing advanced coating materials and surface treatment technologies for customers in the metal, electronics, construction and process industries. They develop and manufacture specialty coating raw materials combining nanotechnology and surface engineering.
- Nanocomp - Nanocomp is a privately-held company established in 1997 to implement strong expertise in basic and applied optics research into advanced technology products. Focusing on design, manufacture and replication of optical components, Nanocomp carries out continuous research and development to provide versatile services for various branches of industry.
- Puraliq - Puraliq is a company that specialises in manufacturing ultra pure metal based chemicals for nanoparticle production. They offer customer solutions, flexible and responsive production and fast delivery. Puraliq is incorporated in Finland. Their headquarters and their research, development and manufacturing operations are located in Lohja. They use state of the art reaction equipment to maintain the highest possible purity during processing phases. They also offer purification services especially for laboratory scale applications.
- Carbodeon - is a privately owned Nordic company with corporate headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. Carbodeon NanoMaterial manufacturing is located in Vantaa, Finland, together with an R&D and an applications laboratory which serves in house and customer projects. uDiamond® and Nicanite® are Carbodeon registered trade marks. Carbodeon's technology including its material specifications, production and applications are covered by patents.
- Picodeon - Picodeon is a privately owned Finnish nanotechnology company specialized on thin film coatings and surface treatments with its patented Coldab® Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Deposition (USPLD) process. We are located in Ii, northern Finland and providing equipment, solutions and services for our clients worldwide.
Nanotechnology Education and Research
Finland is home to a number of world-leading universities that offer research and educational opportunities in nanotechnology. Given below is a list of universities and academic institutions in Finland and the academic courses or research opportunities offered by them in various aspects of nanotechnology.
- Micronova - Micronova is Finland's National Research Infrastructure for micro- and nanotechnology. It is jointly run by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Aalto University. Their mission is to develop innovative, enabling technologies, and to apply these in practical micro- and nanosystems.
- Aalto University - offersM.Sc. degrees in Micro- and Nanotechnology. The University promotes Computational Nanoscience (COMP). The basic strategy of COMP is to develop and apply cutting-edge theoretical and computational methods and the best available computing resources in attacking challenging problems in condensed-matter and materials physics.Aalto University also hosts the Nanomicroscopy Center.
- VTT Technical Research Centre - VTT Finland is the largest multitechnological applied research organisation in Northern Europe. VTT provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services. One of the areas of interest is nanotechnology and VTT explores and develops nanomaterial applications using biomolecules.
- University of Helsinki - The Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at the university is involved in the research of Thin Films and Other Nanostructured Materials. One of the Department of Physics' key focus areas is Materials Physics where The research projects in nanoscience are multidisciplinary.
- University of Jyväskylä - offersM.Sc. Nanoscience and a National Doctoral Programme in Nanoscience. The university promotes the Nanoscience Center (NSC), which is a cross-disciplinary research center shared by the departments of physics, chemistry, and biological and environmental science.
- Vantaa Innovation Institute - helps to accelerate the growth of Vantaa and the Aviapolis area into an international business environment. Vantaa is an international innovation hub located next to the capital city of Helsinki. The Institute promotes the Nano Lab Finland- which is a showroom for new nanotechnology solutions and products in Vantaa.
Recent Developments
Reports revealed in March 2012 that nanotechnology-based businesses are growing rapidly in Finland and have been doing so since 2008. According to recent statistics, there are about 210 nanobusiness companies in Finland, whereas in 2008 there were only 65. The figures were published in an international coating seminar in Mikkeli, Finland.
Reports published in October 2012 stated that the nanotechnology is a strong growth sector in both Finland and Russia. The partnership between the two countries has worked really well and has led to this technology becoming a success. The Finnish-Russian Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance has helped accelerate commercialization of nanotechnology based innovations. Earlier in April, Rusnano announced a EUR25 million investment in Beneq.
In November 2012, Picosun Oy, a leading Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment manufacturer, joined the China-Finland Nano Innovation Center, which was opened on 2 November in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in the Eastern China. The Center was initiated by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China and Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM) of Finland to strengthen ties between the two nations in the field of nanotechnology.
In June 2013, VTT announced that they are able to produce metallic nanoparticles that are not yet commercially available. The process reactor used to produce these nanoparticles runs at atmospheric pressure, reducing running costs. Running costs are further improved through the use of affordable raw materials and a continuous process.
A workshop also held in June heard how nano-silver used by Vietnamese and Finnish researchers was able to save dying shrimp farms and preserve fruit for relatively long periods of time. A separate workshop has heard how Nordic countries including Finland have been racing to collaborate with China to exploit science and technology opportunities with areas such as nanotechnology, new materials and clean technology being of significant interest.
Researchers from Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and Aalto University in Finland have been able to attach tiny pieces of gold to graphene nanoribbons in such a way so as to create electrically transparent connections so that they could assess the electrical properties of the graphene.
References
Updated: Oct 3, 2014
quinta-feira, 25 de setembro de 2014
Nanotechnology leads to better, cheaper LEDs for phones and lighting
The researchers demonstrated their technology in a green LED.
Princeton University researchers have developed a new method to increase the brightness, efficiency and clarity of LEDs, which are widely used on smartphones and portable electronics as well as becoming increasingly common in lighting.
Using a new nanoscale structure, the researchers, led by electrical engineering professor Stephen Chou, increased the brightness and efficiency of LEDs made of organic materials (flexible carbon-based sheets) by 57 percent. The researchers also report their method should yield similar improvements in LEDs made in inorganic (silicon-based) materials used most commonly today.
The method also improves the picture clarity of LED displays by 400 percent, compared with conventional approaches. In an article published online August 19 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers describe how they accomplished this by inventing a technique that manipulates light on a scale smaller than a single wavelength.
"New nanotechnology can change the rules of the ways we manipulate light," said Chou, who has been working in the field for 30 years. "We can use this to make devices with unprecedented performance."
A LED, or light emitting diode, is an electronic device that emits light when electrical current moves through two terminals. LEDs offer several advantages over incandescent or fluorescent lights: they are far more efficient, compact and have a longer lifetime, all of which are important in portable displays.
Current LEDs have design challenges; foremost among them is to reduce the amount of light that gets trapped inside the LED's structure. Although they are known for their efficiency, only a very small amount of light generated inside an LED actually escapes.
"It is exactly the same reason that lighting installed inside a swimming pool seems dim from outside -- because the water traps the light," said Chou, the Joseph C. Elgin Professor of Engineering. "The solid structure of a LED traps far more light than the pool's water."
In fact, a rudimentary LED emits only about 2 to 4 percent of the light it generates. The trapped light not only makes the LEDs dim and energy inefficient, it also makes them short-lived because the trapped light heats the LED, which greatly reduces its lifespan.
"A holy grail in today's LED manufacturing is light extraction," Chou said.
Engineers have been working on this problem. By adding metal reflectors, lenses or other structures, they can increase the light extraction of LEDs. For conventional high-end, organic LEDs, these techniques can increase light extraction to about 38 percent. But these light-extraction techniques cause the display to reflect ambient light, which reduces contrast and makes the image seem hazy.
To combat the reflection of ambient light, engineers now add light-absorbing materials to the display. But Chou said such materials also absorb the light from the LED, reducing its brightness and efficiency by as much as half.
The solution presented by Chou's team is the invention of a nanotechnology structure called PlaCSH (plasmonic cavity with subwavelength hole-array). The researchers reported that PlaCSH increased the efficiency of light extraction to 60 percent, which is 57 percent higher than conventional high-end organic LEDs. At the same time, the researchers reported that PlaCSH increased the contrast (clarity in ambient light) by 400 percent. The higher brightness also relieves the heating problem caused by the light trapped in standard LEDs.
Chou said that PlaCSH is able to achieve these results because its nanometer-scale, metallic structures are able to manipulate light in a way that bulk material or non-metallic nanostructures cannot.
Chou first used the PlaCSH structure on solar cells, which convert light to electricity. In a 2012 paper, he described how the application of PlaCSH resulted in the absorption of as much as 96 percent of the light striking solar cells' surface and increased the cells' efficiency by 175 percent. Chou realized that a device that was good at absorbing light from the outside could also be good at radiating light generated inside the device -- offering an efficient solution for both light extraction and the reduction of light reflection.
"From a view point of physics, a good light absorber, which we had for the solar cells, should also be a good light radiator," he said. "We wanted to experimentally demonstrate this is true in visible light range, and then use it to solve the key challenges in LEDs and displays."
The physics behind PlaCSH are complex, but the structure is relatively simple. PlaCSH has a layer of light-emitting material about 100 nanometers thick that is placed inside a cavity with one surface made of a thin metal film. The other cavity surface is made of a metal mesh with incredibly small dimensions: it is 15 nanometers thick; and each wire is about 20 nanometers in width and 200 nanometers apart from center to center. (A nanometer is one hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair.)
Because PlaCSH works by guiding the light out of the LED, it is able to focus more of the light toward the viewer. The system also replaces the conventional brittle transparent electrode, making it far more flexible than most current displays.
"It is so flexible and ductile that it can be weaved into a cloth," Chou said.
Another benefit for manufacturers is cost. The PlaCSH organic LEDs were made by nanoimprint, a technology Chou invented in 1995, which creates nanostructures in a fashion similar to a printing press producing newspapers.
"It is cheap and extremely simple," Chou said.
Princeton has filed patent applications for both organic and inorganic LEDs using PlaCSH. Chou and his team are now conducting experiments to demonstrate PLaCSH in red and blue organic LEDs, in addition the green LEDs used in the current experiments. They also are demonstrating the system in inorganic LEDs.
Besides Chou, the paper's authors are Wei Ding, Yuxuan Wang and Hao Chen, graduate students in electrical engineering at Princeton. Support for the research was provided in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research. Chou recently was awarded a major grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to further advance the use of PlaCSH as a solution for energy-efficient lighting.
Novel method to synthesize nanoparticles
This figure illustrates the ease with which grams of many different types of oxide nanoparticles can be prepared in a single step. The first row of sample vials shows the initial salt solutions of the different elements. The second row shows the product after reaction with potassium superoxide (KO2) and the addition of methanol. The bottom row shows the grams of nanoparticles after being purified by centrifugation.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Materials Science and Technology Division have developed a novel one-step process using, for the first time in these types of syntheses, potassium superoxide (KO2) to rapidly form oxide nanoparticles from simple salt solutions in water.
"Typically, the synthesis of oxide nanoparticles involves the slow reaction of a weak oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide, with dilute solutions of metal salts or complexes in both aqueous and non-aqueous solvent systems," said Dr. Thomas Sutto, NRL research chemist. "The rapid exothermic reaction of potassium superoxide with the salt solutions results in the formation of insoluble oxide or hydroxide nanoparticulates."
An important advantage of this method is the capability of creating bulk quantities of materials. NRL has demonstrated that large quantities (over 10 grams) of oxide nanoparticles can be prepared in a single step, which is approximately four orders of magnitude higher yield than many other methods. The metal concentrations, usually in the millimolar (mM) amount, need to be low in order to prevent aggregation of the nanoparticles into larger clusters that could significantly limit the amount of material that can be prepared at any one time.
Oxide nanoparticles have been shown to be crucial components in numerous applications to include electronic and magnetic devices, energy storage and generation, and medical applications such as magnetic nanoparticles for use in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In all of these applications, particle size is critical to the utility and function of oxide nanoparticles -- decreased particles size results in increased surface area, which can significantly improve the performance of the oxide nanoparticle.
In order to demonstrate the broad scale applicability of this new method, oxide or hydroxide nanoparticles have been prepared from representative elements from across the periodic table to rapidly produce nanometer sized oxides or hydroxides. In addition to the elements converted to oxide nanoparticles in the above illustration, it has also been shown that oxide nanoparticles can be prepared from second and third row transition metals, and even semi-metals such as tin, bismuth, thallium and lead.
One exciting aspect of this technique is that it can also be used to produce blends of nanoparticles. This has been demonstrated by preparing more complex materials, such as lithium cobalt oxide -- a cathode material for lithium batteries; bismuth manganese oxide -- a multiferroic material; and a 90 degrees Kelvin (K) superconducting Yttrium barium copper oxide material. As such, this new synthetic route to oxide nanoparticles also shows great promise for a multitude of other catalytic, electrical, magnetic, or electrochemical processes, from novel cathodes to solution preparation of other types of ceramic materials.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Naval Research Laboratory. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
sábado, 30 de agosto de 2014
quarta-feira, 2 de julho de 2014
Weave a cell phone into your shirt? Engineers envision an electronic switch just three atoms thick
July 1, 2014
Stanford School of Engineering
Researchers believe they've discovered a crystal that can form a monolayer three atoms thick. Computer simulations show that this crystal, molybdenum ditelluride, can act like a switch: its crystal lattice can be mechanically pulled and pushed, back and forth, between two different atomic structures -- one that conducts electricity well, the other that does not. The team hopes experimental scientists will make this semiconductor crystal and use it to fashion flexible electronics.
In the top panel, this three-atom thick crystal is shown as semiconductor that is non-conductive. An outward tug on the material (shown in the middle panel) clicks the crystal into a metallic, or conductive state. The third panel shows the crystal back in a non-conductive state.
Computer simulation shows how to make a crystal that would toggle like a light switch between conductive and non-conductive structures; this could lead to flexible electronic materials and enable a cell phone to be woven into a shirt.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Those instructions were once printed on punch cards that fed data to mainframe computers. Today's smart phones process more data, but they still weren't built for being shoved into back pockets.
In the quest to build gadgets that can survive such abuse, engineers have been testing electronic systems based on a new materials that are both flexible and switchable -- that is, capable of toggling between two electrical states, on-off, one-zero, the binary commands that can program all things digital.
Now three Stanford researchers believe that they've discovered just such a flexible, switchable material. It is a crystal that can form a paper-like sheet just three atoms thick. Computer simulations show that this crystalline lattice has the remarkable ability to behave like a switch: it can be mechanically pulled and pushed, back and forth, between two different atomic structures -- one that conducts electricity well, the other that does not.
"Think of it like flicking a light switch on and off," says Karel-Alexander Duerloo, a Stanford Engineering graduate student and first author of an article in Nature Communications.
So far this discovery only exists as a simulation. But co-author and team leader Evan Reed, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, hopes this work will inspire experimental scientists to fabricate this super-thin crystal and use it to create electronic and other devices that would be as light and flexible as fibers.
Theoretically, such electronic materials have potential to reduce battery-draining power consumption in existing devices such as smart phones. This new, power-efficient material could also make it possible to create 'smart' clothing -- imagine an ultralight cell phone or a GPS system integrated into your shirt.
Duerloo said this switchable material is formed when one atomic layer of molybdenum atoms gets sandwiched between two atomic layers of tellurium atoms.
Molybdenum and tellurium are elements that are currently used as additives for making alloys, such as steel. Tellurium is also an important component of many modern solar cells.
In his simulation, Duerloo relied on the fact that molybdenum and tellurium form a sheet-like crystal lattice that is just three-atoms thick. Notably, this atomic sandwich can form different crystalline structures that have useful properties: in one structure this lattice easily conducts electricity; in the other configuration it does not.
Duerloo's simulations show that it takes just a tiny effort to toggle the atomic structure of this three-layer amalgam from a non-conductive state into a conductive state. A gentle push switches the material back to the off state.
These simulations, as yet unsupported by experimental confirmation, are at the leading edge of a new branch of materials science that delves into the behavior of monolayer substances.
The first and most famous monolayer is graphene, which was first observed in 2004. Graphene is a layer of carbon atoms that form a lattice that resembles chicken wire. Although it is just one atom thick, graphene is incredibly strong. A sheet of graphene could bear the weight of a cat without breaking this atomically thin lattice.
Graphene is also electrically conductive. That makes it potentially useful as a light, low power electronic component.
The discoverers of graphene shared a Nobel Prize in 2010, but even before this their work was so honored that other scientists had started looking for other monolayer materials with this interesting confluence of properties: strong, stable, crystalline structures that could conduct electricity.
To help find the most promising materials from a vast universe of molecular structures, a new discipline is rising: computational materials science.
"We're like the advance scouts that survey the terrain and look for the best materials," Reed said.
Now that they have simulated the potential of this molybdenum-tellurium crystal the Stanford researchers -- the third team member is graduate student Yao Li -- hope experimental scientists will explore possible uses of this three-atom thick switch.
"No would have known this was possible before because they didn't know where to look," Duerloo said.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Stanford School of Engineering. The original article was written by Tom Abate. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Karel-Alexander N. Duerloo, Yao Li, Evan J. Reed. Structural phase transitions in two-dimensional Mo- and W-dichalcogenide monolayers. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5214
sexta-feira, 23 de maio de 2014
Dramatic Improvements in nanogenerator power efficiency for wearable, implantable electronics
This is a photograph of large-area PZT thin film nanogenerator (3.5 cm × 3.5 cm) on a curved glass tube and 105 commercial LEDs operated by self-powered flexible piezoelectric energy harvester.
The energy efficiency of KAIST's piezoelectric nanogenerator has increased by almost 40 times, one step closer toward the commercialization of flexible energy harvesters that can supply power infinitely to wearable, implantable electronic devices.
Nanogenerators are innovative self-powered energy harvesters that convert kinetic energy created from vibrational and mechanical sources into electrical power, removing the need of external circuits or batteries for electronic devices. This innovation is vital in realizing sustainable energy generation in isolated, inaccessible, or indoor environments and even in the human body.
Nanogenerators, a flexible and lightweight energy harvester on a plastic substrate, can scavenge energy from the extremely tiny movements of natural resources and human body such as wind, water flow, heartbeats, and diaphragm and respiration activities to generate electrical signals. The generators are not only self-powered, flexible devices but also can provide permanent power sources to implantable biomedical devices, including cardiac pacemakers and deep brain stimulators.
However, poor energy efficiency and a complex fabrication process have posed challenges to the commercialization of nanogenerators. Keon Jae Lee, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST, and his colleagues have recently proposed a solution by developing a robust technique to transfer a high-quality piezoelectric thin film from bulk sapphire substrates to plastic substrates using laser lift-off (LLO).
Applying the inorganic-based laser lift-off (LLO) process, the research team produced a large-area PZT thin film nanogenerators on flexible substrates (2 cm x 2 cm).
"We were able to convert a high-output performance of ~250 V from the slight mechanical deformation of a single thin plastic substrate. Such output power is just enough to turn on 100 LED lights," Keon Jae Lee explained.
The self-powered nanogenerators can also work with finger and foot motions. For example, under the irregular and slight bending motions of a human finger, the measured current signals had a high electric power of ~8.7 μA. In addition, the piezoelectric nanogenerator has world-record power conversion efficiency, almost 40 times higher than previously reported similar research results, solving the drawbacks related to the fabrication complexity and low energy efficiency.
Lee further commented, "Building on this concept, it is highly expected that tiny mechanical motions, including human body movements of muscle contraction and relaxation, can be readily converted into electrical energy and, furthermore, acted as eternal power sources."
The research team is currently studying a method to build three-dimensional stacking of flexible piezoelectric thin films to enhance output power, as well as conducting a clinical experiment with a flexible nanogenerator.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Fny7Xb9ig
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Kwi-Il Park, Jung Hwan Son, Geon-Tae Hwang, Chang Kyu Jeong, Jungho Ryu, Min Koo, Insung Choi, Seung Hyun Lee, Myunghwan Byun, Zhong Lin Wang, Keon Jae Lee. Highly-Efficient, Flexible Piezoelectric PZT Thin Film Nanogenerator on Plastic Substrates. Advanced Materials, 2014; 26 (16): 2514 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201305659
Bending helps to control nanomaterials
A new remedy has been found to tackle the difficulty of controlling layered nanomaterials. Control can be improved by simply bending the material.
The mechanism was observed by Academy Research Fellow Pekka Koskinen from the Nanoscience Center of the University of Jyväskylä together with his colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US. Bending decreases interaction between layers, making the material merely a stack of independent atomic layers.
The group investigated the van der Waals nanomaterials which consist of stacked and loosely bound two-dimensional atomic layers. It is experimentally difficult to control the number of layers in the stacks -- and each layer may affect the electric and optical properties of the material dramatically.
- It's as if the apparent color of a stack of papers would change wildly while adding or removing individual sheets, Pekka Koskinen illustrates the situation using a fictitious example.
Bending effectively detaches the layers from each other. The mechanism was observed while investigating layered molybdenum disulphide but it is expected to be valid for the van der Waals materials in general. The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
According to Koskinen, the observation advances research in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics because it markedly simplifies the interpretation and understanding of the electronic and optical properties of layered materials. The research was computational and the found mechanism is still a prediction.
"In nanoscience, experimental and theoretical research advance side by side. This time the prediction came first, and now we eagerly await for an experimental confirmation," Koskinen says.
The research was funded by the Academy of Finland and used the computational resources of the Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC).
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Academy of Finland. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
quarta-feira, 21 de maio de 2014
Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor: Can fit inside a single cell
Simple nanomotor.
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The team's nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells.
With the goal of powering these yet-to-be invented devices, UT Austin engineers focused on building a reliable, ultra-high-speed nanomotor that can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt.
Mechanical engineering assistant professor Donglei "Emma" Fan led a team of researchers in the successful design, assembly and testing of a high-performing nanomotor in a nonbiological setting. The team's three-part nanomotor can rapidly mix and pump biochemicals and move through liquids, which is important for future applications. The team's study was published in a recent issue of Nature Communications.
Fan and her team are the first to achieve the extremely difficult goal of designing a nanomotor with large driving power.
With all its dimensions under 1 micrometer in size, the nanomotor could fit inside a human cell and is capable of rotating for 15 continuous hours at a speed of 18,000 RPMs, the speed of a motor in a jet airplane engine. Comparable nanomotors run significantly more slowly, from 14 RPMs to 500 RPMs, and have only rotated for a few seconds up to a few minutes.
Looking forward, nanomotors could advance the field of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), an area focused on developing miniature machines that are more energy efficient and less expensive to produce. In the near future, the Cockrell School researchers believe their nanomotors could provide a new approach to controlled biochemical drug delivery to live cells.
To test its ability to release drugs, the researchers coated the nanomotor's surface with biochemicals and initiated spinning. They found that the faster the nanomotor rotated, the faster it released the drugs.
"We were able to establish and control the molecule release rate by mechanical rotation, which means our nanomotor is the first of its kind for controlling the release of drugs from the surface of nanoparticles," Fan said. "We believe it will help advance the study of drug delivery and cell-to-cell communications."
The researchers address two major issues for nanomotors so far: assembly and controls. The team built and operated the nanomotor using a patent-pending technique that Fan invented while studying at Johns Hopkins University. The technique relies on AC and DC electric fields to assemble the nanomotor's parts one by one.
In experiments, the researchers used the technique to turn the nanomotors on and off and propel the rotation either clockwise or counterclockwise. The researchers found that they could position the nanomotors in a pattern and move them in a synchronized fashion, which makes them more powerful and gives them more flexibility.
Fan and her team plan to develop new mechanical controls and chemical sensing that can be integrated into nanoelectromechanical devices. But first they plan to test their nanomotors near a live cell, which will allow Fan to measure how they deliver molecules in a controlled fashion.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1NkvH98yEE
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Texas at Austin. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Kwanoh Kim, Xiaobin Xu, Jianhe Guo, D. L. Fan. Ultrahigh-speed rotating nanoelectromechanical system devices assembled from nanoscale building blocks. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4632
terça-feira, 20 de maio de 2014
Nanowire bridging transistors open way to next-generation electronics
May 14, 2014
University of California - Davis
Combining atoms of semiconductor materials into nanowires and structures on top of silicon surfaces shows promise for a new generation of fast, robust electronic and photonic devices. Scientists have recently demonstrated three-dimensional nanowire transistors using this approach that open exciting opportunities for integrating other semiconductors, such as gallium nitride, on silicon substrates.
Nanowires grown on silicon.
A new approach to integrated circuits, combining atoms of semiconductor materials into nanowires and structures on top of silicon surfaces, shows promise for a new generation of fast, robust electronic and photonic devices. Engineers at the University of California, Davis, have recently demonstrated three-dimensional nanowire transistors using this approach that open exciting opportunities for integrating other semiconductors, such as gallium nitride, on silicon substrates.
"Silicon can't do everything," said Saif Islam, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Davis. Circuits built on conventionally etched silicon have reached their lower size limit, which restricts operation speed and integration density. Additionally, conventional silicon circuits cannot function at temperatures above 250 degrees Celsius (about 480 degrees Fahrenheit), or handle high power or voltages, or optical applications.
The new technology could be used, for example, to build sensors that can operate under high temperatures, for example inside aircraft engines.
"In the foreseeable future, society will be dependent on a variety of sensors and control systems that operate in extreme environments, such as motor vehicles, boats, airplanes, terrestrial oil and ore extraction, rockets, spacecraft, and bodily implants," Islam said.
Devices that include both silicon and nonsilicon materials offer higher speeds and more robust performance. Conventional microcircuits are formed from etched layers of silicon and insulators, but it's difficult to grow nonsilicon materials as layers over silicon because of incompatibilities in crystal structure (or "lattice mismatch") and differences in thermal properties.
Instead, Islam's laboratory at UC Davis has created silicon wafers with "nanopillars" of materials such as gallium arsenide, gallium nitride or indium phosphide on them, and grown tiny nanowire "bridges" between nanopillars.
"We can't grow films of these other materials on silicon, but we can grow them as nanowires," Islam said.
The researchers have been able to make these nanowires operate as transistors, and combine them into more complex circuits as well as devices that are responsive to light. They have developed techniques to control the number of nanowires, their physical characteristics and consistency.
Islam said the suspended structures have other advantages: They are easier to cool and handle thermal expansion better than planar structures -- a relevant issue when mismatched materials are combined in a transistor.
The technology also leverages the well-established technology for manufacturing silicon integrated circuits, instead of having to create an entirely new route for manufacturing and distribution, Islam said.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of California - Davis. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Jin Yong Oh, Jong-Tae Park, Hyun-June Jang, Won-Ju Cho, M. Saif Islam. 3D-Transistor Array Based on Horizontally Suspended Silicon Nano-bridges Grown via a Bottom-Up Technique. Advanced Materials, 2014; 26 (12): 1929 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201304245
sábado, 3 de maio de 2014
What is nanotechnology about?
- 22 April 2014
There has been an unprecedented multidisciplinary convergence of scientists dedicated to uncover the secrets of a world so small, we can’t see it – even with a conventional light microscope. This world is the field of nanotechnology, the realm of atoms, molecules and nanostructures. Nanotechnology is such a new field that no one is quite sure of what will come of it. Even so, predictions range from the capability to reproduce things like diamonds and food to the world being devoured by self-replicating nanorobots.
In order to get a better understanding the unusual world of nanotechnology, we need to get an idea of the units of measure involved. A centimeter is one-hundredth of a meter, a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter, and a micrometer is one-millionth of a meter, but all of these are still huge compared to the nanoscale. A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, smaller than the wavelength of visible light and a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair.
As small as a nanometer is, it’s still large compared to the atomic scale. An atom has a diameter of about 0.1 nm. An atom’s nucleus is much smaller — about 0.00001 nm. Atoms are the building blocks for all matter in our universe. You and everything around you are made of atoms. Nature has perfected the science of manufacturing matter molecularly. For instance, our bodies are assembled in a specific manner from millions of living cells. Cells are nature’s nanomachines. Cells are capable of functioning autonomously from the rest of the organism. At the atomic scale, elements are at their most basic level. On the nanoscale, we can potentially put these atoms together to build almost anything. The nanoscale is the first point where we can assemble something -it’s not until we start putting atoms together that we can make anything useful.
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Nanotechnology in medicine
- 22 April 2014
If there is one industry in which the use of nanotechnology has been considered more advantageous than harmful, it is the medical industry. The use of nanotechnology in medicine is very recent and offers some exciting opportunities to doctors and medical researchers alike. Some techniques are only imagined, while others are at various stages of development and testing, or actually being utilized in the field today. Nanotechnology in medicine involves the applications of various nanoparticles that are currently being developed, as well as long term research that involves the use of robots manufactured on a microscopic scale to make repairs at the cellular level. The use of nanotechnology in the field of medicine could potentially revolutionize the way that we detect and treat damage to the human body and disease in the years to come, and many techniques only imagined a few years ago are making remarkable progress towards becoming realized.
One application of nanotechnology in medicine that is currently being developed involves the use of nanoparticles to deliver drugs, heat, light or other substances to a specific typeof cell (such as cancer cells). These nano-particles are engineered in such a way that they are attracted only to diseased cells, which allows targeted treatment of those cells. This technique reduces damage to healthy cells in the body and allows for earlier detection and treatment of disease ridden cells.
Researchers have now started using nanoparticles to deliver vaccines of various sorts. The nanoparticles serve the purpose of protecting the vaccine, allowing the vaccine time to trigger a stronger immune response than possible through the conventional method of delivery. Targeted heat therapy is being developed to destroy breast cancer tumors. This method involves using antibodies that are strongly attracted to proteins produced by one type of breast cancer cell, which are attached to nanotubes, causing the nanotubes to accumulate at the tumor. Infrared light from a laser is absorbed by the nanotubes producing heat which incinerates the cancerous cells.
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