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The ABCs of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology has been making headlines for years, capturing our imagination with the promise of creating tiny materials and devices with unprecedented capabilities. In fact, many of the things the technology can potentially enable seem right out of the realm of science fiction—from nanobots that will patrol our bloodstream for disease to chameleon-like cars that could assume different colors and shapes. Below, we get behind the buzz and explore the basics of this hot young science:
What is nanotechnology?
It’s the study and manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to make novel materials, devices and systems. By allowing scientists to essentially construct matter from its basic building blocks, nanotechnology facilitates the enhancement of material properties as well as the creation of entirely new materials, properties and systems.
The field gets its name from the nanometer, which is a unit of measurement.
Just how small is a nanometer?
The prefix “nano” stands for one-billionth so it’s no surprise that a nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, which is about the width of 10 hydrogen atoms. To describe it another way, one nm is approximately 1/50,000th the diameter of a strand of human hair. Or it’s about one-millionth the width of the period at the end of this sentence.
What are the implications of nanotechnology?
Simply put, almost no industry will be beyond the reach of nanotechnology. And many experts say that it will not only transform traditional industries—including automotive, aerospace, appliance, electronics, medical devices and consumer products—but also generate completely new industries. To state it another way, the technology has the potential to radically alter the way we design and fabricate thousands of products.
Additionally, nanotechnology may force all manufacturers to reconsider how they define their core business, their competitors and their long-term strategy. Says Jack Uldrich, president of Minnesota-based Nano Veritas Group and co-author of The Next Big Thing is Really Small, “Everything in our world is made of atoms. And with the ability to manipulate those atoms, the rule of the game for almost every business will be dramatically changed.”
How will nanotechnology enable the creation of new materials, devices and systems?
The most common method is nanomanipulation or assembling things from the bottom up, atom by atom. There are two types of nanomanipulation—nanofabrication and self-assembly. Nanofabrication involves constructing products, structures and processes with atomic precision using man-made tools. Self-assembly is the process of atoms and molecules binding together in a specific, self-regulated way based on their size, shape, composition or chemical properties.
Are there nanoproducts on the market already?
Yes. “American consumers are already enjoying the benefits of nanotech without realizing it,” David Peyton, technology policy director at the Washington, DC-based National Association of Manufacturers, tells Assembly Magazine. “Automobiles alone contain nanotech applications from new paint finishes to improved catalytic converters.”
Other nanoproducts on the market include super-light tennis rackets, air permeation-inhibiting tennis balls, virtually invisible sunscreens, nanofiber-enhanced fabrics that repel stains, scratch-resistant coatings that toughen industrial tools, and extra-strong airplane bodies.
How and when did nanotechnology start?
Physicist Richard Feynman first introduced the concept to the public in 1959 during a groundbreaking speech in which he spoke about a connection between biology and manufacturing. Detailing how biological cells manufacture substances, he encouraged his audience to “consider the possibility that we, too, can make a thing very small, which does what we want—that we can manufacture an object that maneuvers at that level.”
While Dr. Feynman outlined nanotechnology’s basic ideas, Dr. K. Eric Drexler made its amazing potential famous decades later. In fact, nobody used the actual term “nanotechnology” until Dr. Drexler first said it in the 1980s as an MIT undergraduate. He brought widespread attention to the tiny science with his book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology.
What are some major breakthroughs that have paved the way for nanotechnology?
While 1959 to 1980 marked a slow period for nanotechnology, development work went into overdrive soon after that. In 1981, physicists Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binning invented the scanning tunnel microscope—a new type of electron microscope that magnified objects 10 million times and allowed scientists to view single molecules and atomic surface structures for the first time. This accomplishment won Rohrer and Binning the Nobel Prize in 1986. Then in 1990, IBM scientists captured worldwide attention when they used the tip of a scanning tunnel microscope to get 35 xenon atoms to spell out the letters “IBM.”
Another milestone in the burgeoning science took place in 1986, when scientists led by Dr. Richard Smalley discovered a third form of pure carbon—fullerenes. Among these large, carbon-cage molecules, C60—also known as a “buckyball”—is the most common. Smalley won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1996 for discovering buckyballs.
Soon afterwards, an NEC employee, Sumio Iijima, unearthed a fourth form of pure carbon—a discovery that led to the fabrication of carbon nanotubes. Today, these two nanoscale structures—buckyballs and nanotubes—are the building blocks of nanotechnology.
What’s so special about buckyballs and nanotubes?
Named after the inventor of the geodesic sphere—engineer R. Buckminster Fuller—buckyballs look like soccer balls. These strong and rigid natural molecules are composed of nearly unbreakable, impenetrable carbon, with many attachment points for drugs. Because of their strength and unique structure, they are extremely promising for biomedical research and development.
Carbon nanotubes, meanwhile, are exceedingly strong and light cylinders. They possess 100 times the tensile strength of steel and are six times lighter. They also combine the electrical conductivity of copper and the thermal conductivity of diamond. They have the potential to create super-tough, fiber-reinforced plastics and other lightweight materials.
Sources:
Nanotech: Small Products, Big Potential
Profiting from Nanotechnology
Resources:
Nano Today www.materialstoday.com/nanotoday.htm
Nanoelectronics Planet www.nanoelectronicsplanet.com
Small Times www.smalltimes.com
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