Nanotechnology

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GLOBAL INVESTOR FOCUS Nanotechnology—10 Super storage from IBM Zurich Research Laboratory These days, it’s possible to download just about anything from music to pictures, to games and programs on mobile devices, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). These data take up quite a bit of storage and manufacturers are working to keep up with demands for increased capacity demands. As current storage technologies are gradually approaching fundamental limits, IBM explored innovative solutions for data storage in a system called “millipede.” Using nanotechnology, scientists at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland, have made it to the millionths of a millimeter range, achieving data storage densities of more than one terabit (1,000 gigabits) per square inch. This is equivalent to storing the content of 25 DVDs on an area the size of a postage stamp. www.zurich.ibm.com Source: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory Stain-resistant fabrics from Schoeller Schoeller has been working in nano research and development since 1998. Using the technology, it has created textiles with special properties for stain protection and oil and water repellence. Fabrics finished with NanoSphere provide protection from stains of all kinds: Even cola, ketchup and coffee can easily be rinsed off with a little water. Thanks to nanotechnology the textile surfaces are not only easy to clean, they are robust, long-lasting and can be laundered less often and at lower temperatures. The Nano- Sphere finish is suitable for many textile applications, including outdoor, leisure and sports clothing, business suits, protective work gear, home furnishing and medical applications. Clothing manufacturers around the world, including Daniel Hechter, Mammut, The North Face, and Polo Ralph Lauren, are using NanoSphere textiles in their production. www.schoeller-textiles.com Source: Schoeller Textil AG Evolution or industrial revolution? Nanotechnology, with its promise of making systems that are smaller, faster, stronger, better and cheaper to produce, may soon be the cornerstone of every manufacturing industry. Most industries that depend critically on materials have already recognized the importance of nanotechnology for their business. The microelectronics industry is among them. The industry, which has a 50-year history of making things smaller while preserving and improving their functionality, believes that breakthroughs in nanotechnology are needed for its continued growth. In 1965, computer-processing power consisted of a microchip with 30 transistors. Today, chips have 40 million transistors ranging in size from 130 to 180 nanometers. By 2016, the Consortium of International Semiconductor Companies expects chips to be radically scaled down and to hold billions of transistors with the size of only 10 to 20 nanometers. What does this mean for consumers? We will benefit from faster computers with larger storage capacities. While the application of nanotechnology to improve existing products has a short history, spanning just two decades, it is gaining momentum rapidly. Nanoparticles have been produced in large quantities for a long time by making materials smaller and smaller from large-scale structures into nanometer-scale structures (the so-called “top-down approach”). The process of creating things by downsizing into the micrometer scale is called microtechnology. The top-down approach came as an evolution of microtechnology. Making things smaller while preserving their functionality is advantageous. However, this is not the main reason that explains the potential of nanotechnology. The attractiveness of small particles at nanometer scale is that they behave very differently from the objects in our macroscopic world. The reason for that is very fundamental and is related to quantum phenomena that explain the behavior of atoms and molecules. Particles at nanometer dimensions behave like waves, exhibiting “strange” resonances and interacting with other particles by exchanging well-defined portions of energy called quantums. While common objects from our daily life must be permanently fed with energy to be able to move, very small objects may stay in a steady state of motion without losing energy over a long period of time. Now, new advances in nanotechnology (bottom-up approach) add to the “old” top-down approach much deeper understanding and predictability. A whole range of start-up companies are developing and selling novel products used in a wide variety of applications and markets, ranging from ultra-high precision robots and novel photovoltaic cells that harness solar energy, to flexible displays, and chip-based medical sensors. Nanotechnology is not the only key technology of the twenty-first century, but due to its inherent multidisciplinary nature,
GLOBAL INVESTOR FOCUS Nanotechnology—11 There are two different approaches in nanotechnology: the “top-down” approach, which means downsizing materials from a larger scale to the nanometer size, and the “bottom-up” approach, which refers to building nanostructures atom by atom or molecule by molecule. it certainly is laying solid groundwork for solutions to many of the urgent questions of the industrialized world. p Electronics and information technology: The development of electronics and information processing has reached a critical point. The chips used today combine hundreds of millions of interlinked elements in one chip, however, the miniaturization process has reached a point where further developments seem not to be possible without a new and different approach. Nanotechnology should provide the next leap to make further miniaturization possible. Scientists demonstrated that new significant advancements could be made using the knowledge provided by nanotechnology, including totally new concepts for computing based on quantum devices. p Life sciences: To support and improve human health on a global scale represents a challenge for the present and near future. Better insight and control of processes in the molecular scale are needed for this task. Traditionally, this task has been the domain of biochemistry and the pharmaceuticals industry. With the advent of nanotechnology, totally new approaches to manipulate, modify and eventually design and fabricate molecular structures in the atomic scale are available today and may ultimately change the whole discipline in the long term. Biochemical sensors based on nanodevices have already started to revolutionize medical diagnostics. The real impact of nanotechnology in life sciences, however, will be far more fundamental, introducing completely new methods for influencing and altering the basic processes of life. The areas of medicine and pharmaceuticals may not be the same again after nanotechnology has entered the field. The potential of applying this technology to medicine is huge. Many applications, from drug delivery to advanced diagnostics, are currently being researched. In the next five years, researches expect to make headway in drug delivery and advanced diagnostics. For example, introducing nanoparticles in medicines might make them more soluble and easier to absorb. Or implanting chips that would monitor the level of biochemicals in the bloodstream and release the appropriate level of medication, which would greatly benefit insulindependent diabetics. p Energy and new materials: The generation of mechanical energy strongly depends on the availability of suitable materials. Steel was virtually the only choice in the nineteenth century. Much stronger and lighter materials have been developed since then and used to increase efficiency. Many of these new materials owe their outstanding properties to their nanoscale crystalline structure. While in the past, material processing was based on trial and error, nanotechnology is now offering a well-controlled approach. More recently, new materials have been discovered, including carbon nanotubes (CNT), which exhibit a mechanical strength that is 20 times that of steel and just one-sixth the weight. This will enable the construction of cars > Mercedes-Benz scratchresistant cars DaimlerChrysler has developed a nanoparticle clear coat for its car lacquer that is highly resistant to scratching. It contains microscopic ceramic particles that form a densely cross-linked network when it hardens, providing a threefold improvement in scratch resistance. The effectiveness of the technology was demonstrated by the results of an extreme test conducted in an external laboratory. In long-term studies involving more than 150 test cars, the coating proved glossier and more scratch-resistant than conventional paint jobs, even after years of use. After ten wash cycles with a mixture of water and fine particulate matter – reproducing the wear-and-tear effect of some 50 to 100 regular car washes – the nano-painted sheet metal emerged with approximately 40 percent greater gloss than samples with conventional lacquer. www.daimlerchrysler.com Source: DaimlerChrysler Nanotechnology in a nutshell p The prefix, nano, comes from the Greek “nanos,” which means dwarf. p Nanotechnology concerns materials and working devices that are engineered at the scale of atoms and molecules. p Atomic constructs can be measured in nanometers, which are one millionth of a millimeter in size. p Approximately 3 to 6 atoms can fit inside of a nanometer, depending on the atom. p A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide. p Proteins, the building blocks of living organisms, are typically several nanometers in size. p Viruses, which are the smallest living organisms, can reach up to 100 nanometers, whereas bacteria, which do not qualify as nano-objects, are up to several thousand nanometers in size.
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