Ken Novak: Nanoscale technology

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:08:44 GMT

Self-Assembling Batteries: "Researchers at MIT have designed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that assembles itself out of microscopic materials. This could lead to ultrasmall power sources for sensors and micromachines the size of the head of a pin. It could also make it possible to pack battery materials in unused space inside electronic devices." Earlier related story: Batteries That Assemble Themselves: "Biology may be the key to producing light-weight, inexpensive, and high-performance batteries that could transform military uniforms into power sources and, eventually, improve electric and hybrid vehicles. Angela Belcher, an MIT professor of biological engineering and materials science, and two colleagues, materials science professor Yet-Ming Chiang and chemical engineering professor Paula Hammond, have engineered viruses to assemble battery components that can store three times as much energy as traditional materials by packing highly ordered materials into a very small space."

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:03:52 GMT

Researchers convert heat to electricity using organic molecules: "Arun Majumdar, UC Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering was principal investigator of the study.. [His team] successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles, an achievement that could pave the way toward the development of a new source for energy." While it's a long way from marketable form, it would have implications for energy, nanomaterials, and sensors (which need small amounts of energy to function).

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 08:03:14 GMT

Altairnano power play: I wonder if this battery is for real. "Altairnano - a relatively small public company [claims to produce] a battery that could power an electric vehicle hundreds of miles, charge in 10 minutes, and have a service life of 20 years or more.. The secret, according to Gotcher, is nanotechnology, and Altairnano's selection of nano-structured lithium titanate as a framework for its battery, branded NanoSafe™. Because the storage compartments are so small, the battery can store a lot of lithium ions. And the titanate material used in the nanostructures enhances battery cycle life, and gives it an extraordinary service life, he said., [claiming] more than 20,000 cycles with little performance degradation, .. Altairnano says its batteries have been tested under extreme conditions, including an operating temperature range of -50 to plus 71 degrees Celsius. ..

The battery pack can be charged at low voltage over long times, or charged at higher voltages quicker, Gotcher said. In a 10 minute or less charge, at least 480 volts at several hundred amps will be required, transferring 210 kW/h of energy to the battery pack. .. How would service stations of the future store the mammoth amounts of electricity required by electric vehicles? Altairnano's Gotcher says the company "hasn't really said a lot about that yet, but you'll see us come forward with information in the second quarter."

Related news: Power company AES made a $3 million "strategic investment" buying 1.5% of Altairnano's stock. ZAP is building a Tesla-like roadster with its batteries. So is Phoenix Motorcars, which has contracted to deliver 200 utility trucks with these batteries to PG&E in June 2007: "Phoenix’s SUT can travel at freeway-speeds while carrying five passengers and a full payload, the company claimed. The SUT has a driving range of over 100 miles, can be recharged in less than 10 minutes and has a battery pack with a lifespan of more than 12 years."

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 07:44:05 GMT

Lithium buckyballs to store hydrogen?: Roland Piquepaille provides a perfect example of how nanoscale technology differs develops, going from a realworld problem through computer models to reality. "The clusters they've designed -- by using computer modeling -- are composed of 12 lithium atoms and 60 carbon atoms, are very stable and can store up to 120 hydrogen atoms in molecular form. .. But why did the researchers choose to study this particular kind of material to store hydrogen?

There are two classes of materials: one where large amounts of hydrogen can be stored, but it is difficult for hydrogen to desorb (e.g., CH4), and the other where hydrogen can desorb easily, but not much of it can be stored (e.g., carbon nanotubes). An ideal storage system would be one where hydrogen binds molecularly but with a binding energy that is intermediate between the physisorbed and chemisorbed state. We show that coating of C60 fullerenes with suitable metal atoms may lead to the synthesis of novel hydrogen storage materials. In particular, we show that the unusual ability of Li12C60 to bind 60 hydrogen molecules stems from the unique chemistry at the nanoscale."

It's still a long way from this technology to the pollution-free fuel cell in your car; but model-driven nanotech gives us tools to systematically aproach our targets for technological development.

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 16:28:15 GMT

Algae to produce hydrogen: Links to research in progress. References and images of computer simulations of hydrogen and oxygen generation at very small scale.

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 17:23:34 GMT

Nanotechnology for Development: More groups are studying the potential impact of nanotech on developing countries. The World Bank Development Gateway has a site, with a few familar names (editor John Daly, and advisor Anil Srivastava) . The Merdian Institute Nanotechnology and Development News provides daily updates via RSS or email. From a Press Release: " Several recent reports, including the report of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology, and Innovation, conclude that science and technology, in particular nanotechnology, can contribute significantly to alleviating poverty and achieving the MDGs. "The use of nanotechnology applications for water treatment and remediation; energy storage, production, and conversion; disease diagnosis and screening; drug delivery systems; health monitoring; air pollution and remediation; food processing and storage; vector and pest detection and control; and agricultural productivity enhancement will help developing countries meet five of the Goals," states the Task Force Report. .. Over 20 countries, including innovative developing countries such as China, South Africa, Brazil, and India, have national nanotechnology programs.."

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 06:52:29 GMT

First Inventory of Nanotech Environment & Health Research: "A new inventory of research into nanotechnology’s potential environmental, human health, and safety effects (EH&S) shows the need for more resources, for a coherent risk-related research strategy, and for public-private partnerships and international EH&S research collaborations. These are the key conclusions drawn from the first single inventory of largely government-funded research projects exploring nanotechnology’s possible EH&S impacts.

This unique inventory is publicly available online at www.nanotechproject.org or www.wilsoncenter.org. It was compiled and released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Project is a partnership of The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Wilson Center. ..

“Specifically, out of a total of 161 federally-funded, risk-related projects, the Project’s scientists found only 15 relevant to occupation-caused physical injury (totaling $1.7 million), and only two highly relevant projects on the long-term environmental and occupational exposures that potentially could cause disease (totaling $0.2 million). These are important gaps that must be filled to ensure that nanotechnology is safely commercialized and accepted by the public as not harmful,” stated Dr. Maynard. ..

“The good news is that the U.S. appears to be spending more on EH&S research than any other government. .. The bad news is that current spending levels are not adequate to begin to answer the difficult environmental and human health impact questions raised by worker exposure to nanomaterials, by rapid consumer product commercialization and eventual disposal, and by concentrated environmental exposures from the possible application of nanoparticles to soil or water for remediation purposes in the future"

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 06:05:24 GMT

Nano powder spray defense: "Discharged from a pressurized cylinder, a new powder known as FAST-ACT (First Applied Sorbent Treatment-Against Chemical Threats) neutralizes mustard gas, sarin and other chemical-warfare agents--as well as many industrial chemicals. The powder, developed by Kansas State University chemist Kenneth Klabunde (pictured), consists of nanostructured crystallites of magnesium oxide (MgO) and titanium oxide (TiO₂). Each grain’s jagged edges multiply the powder’s surface area and porosity, making it highly reactive. Common MgO powder has a surface area of 30 square meters per gram; with FAST-ACT’s nanostructuring, that grows to 320 square meters. “Seventeen grams of the powder has the surface area of a football field,” Klabunde says.

Sprayed at a chlorine gas leak, the powder knocks the vapor to earth, leaving a harmless solid to be swept up. When pitted against VX nerve gas in tests at the U.S. Soldier Biological Chemical Command, the nanopowder quickly prevailed, converting 99.9 percent of the killer gas into a less hazardous solid." For sale now, along with other nanopowders.

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 05:59:07 GMT

Nano-sponges for toxic metals: Show promise for water treatment; I wonder if it might speed catalysts. "Microscopic particles honeycombed with holes only nanometers wide soon could help purify industrial runoff, coal plant smoke, crude oil and drinking water of toxic metals .. The particles, made of glass or natural diatomaceous earth, are 5 millionths to 50 millionths of a meter wide and filled with holes a thousand times smaller. The surfaces of these particles can bear a variety of flavors or coatings that soak up specific toxic metals -- for instance, sulfurous organic coatings attract mercury, while coppery organic coatings bind to arsenic and radioactive metals known as actinides. The particles' spongy nature gives them an incredible 6,400 square feet to nearly 11,000 square feet of surface area per gram of material with which to draw in toxins.

Physical chemists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., developed the particles, known as SAMMS -- or self-assembled monolayers on mesoporous supports -- to remove mercury from oil in nuclear facility pumps last decade. Over the past three years, the scientists have vastly broadened the potential applications of the particles and partnered with companies to bring them into greater use. "We have a technology that can be used to address a large number of emerging water treatment problems, with arsenic and mercury as just a couple of examples," said Richard Skaggs a civil engineer at PNNL. .. The SAMMS particles can not only soak up toxic metals, but once disposed of in landfills, the particles also should prove too large for microbes to consume. Keeping microbes clean of toxins helps ensure the metals do not enter the ecosystem and become concentrated, for instance, in fish.. "We see a cost reduction of a factor of 10 when it comes to saving landfill space because only very, very small amounts of material are needed," Skaggs added. "

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 03:47:25 GMT

Craig Venter update: Nice summary of Venter's latest work by Steve Jurvetson. "Craig Venter set sail around the world to shotgun sequence the millions of viruses and bacteria in every spoonful of sea water. From the first five ocean samples, this team grew the number of known genes on the planet by 10x and the number of genes involved in solar energy conversion by 100x. The ocean microorganisms have evolved over a longer period of time and have pathways that are more efficient than photosynthesis.

Another discovery: every 200 miles across the open ocean, the microbial genes are up to 85% different. The oceans are not homogenous masses. They consist of myriad uncharted regions of ecological diversity… and the world’s largest digital database.

From the collection of digital genomes, we are learning to decode and reprogram the information systems of biology. Like computer hackers, we can leverage a prior library of evolved code, assemblers and subsystems. Many of the radical applications lie outside of medicine.

At the Venter Institute, Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith are leading the Minimal Genome Project. They take the Mycoplasma genitalium from the human urogenital tract, and strip out 200 unnecessary genes, thereby creating the simplest synthetic organism that can self-replicate (at about 300 genes). They plan to layer new functionality on to this artificial genome – to make a solar cell or to generate hydrogen from water using the sun’s energy for photonic hydrolysis – by splicing cassettes of novel genes discovered in the oceans for energy conversion from sunlight. ..

The limiting factor is our understanding of these complex systems, but our pace of learning has been compounding exponentially. We will learn more about genetics and the origins of disease in the next 10 years than we have in all of human history. " Also see Venter's latest company, Synthetic Genomics.

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:00:02 GMT

Recipe for Destruction: So Kurzweil and Joy agree on this; they disagree on other advanced tech issues. "To shed light on how the virus evolved, the United States Department of Health and Human Services published the full genome of the 1918 influenza virus on the Internet in the GenBank database.

This is extremely foolish. The genome is essentially the design of a weapon of mass destruction. No responsible scientist would advocate publishing precise designs for an atomic bomb, and in two ways revealing the sequence for the flu virus is even more dangerous. ..

We urgently need international agreements by scientific organizations to limit such publications and an international dialogue on the best approach to preventing recipes for weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands. Part of that discussion should concern the appropriate role of governments, scientists and their scientific societies, and industry.

We also need a new Manhattan Project to develop specific defenses against new biological viral threats, natural or human made. There are promising new technologies, like RNA interference, that could be harnessed. We need to put more stones on the defensive side of the scale." I'd like to learn more about RNA interference and other biodefense technologies.

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:13:26 GMT

Environmental Defense - Nanotechnology: Selection of articles by EDF on nanotech. "Getting Nanotechnology Right the First Time : Nanotechnology –- the design and manipulation of materials at the atomic and molecular scale -– has great potential to deliver environmental and other benefits, but it may also pose significant risks to human health and the environment. Novel properties emerge as materials reach the nano-scale that open the door to innovations in such applications as cleaner energy production, energy efficiency, water treatment and environmental remediation. At the same time, these novel materials may pose new risks to workers, consumers, the public and the environment, as suggested by a number of preliminary studies. Environmental Defense believes that both the public and private sectors need to comprehensively address the potential risks of this important new technology to ensure its responsible development. "

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 17:47:53 GMT

US Battery Research: Too Little, Too Late?: "The power gap between current needs and what batteries can deliver for electronics today reflects a decision made years ago to all but abandon basic battery research in favor of more flashy fuel-cell technology, says Donald Sadoway, a battery expert and professor of materials engineering at MIT .. "Fuel cells grabbed the money," but basic battery research was ignored for years before that as well, says Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group in San Jose. As a result, today's batteries remain relatively inefficient...

Interview with Sadoway: "I think that lithium ion can be pushed a little bit harder with electrode materials -- for the cathode in particular. There may be untapped capacity in certain materials that could dramatically improve the amount of energy storage in the battery by improving the cathode. I have cells operating at about 300 watts per kilogram, which is double what lithium ion is doing today. I think there's plenty of room at the top here ..

[The next big leap?] Solid-state batteries. We think the next improvement will come from eliminating any liquid from the battery. We think that there are opportunities for looking at multilayer thin-film laminate with no liquid, a polymer as the electrolyte separator. You're looking at something that's similar to a potato chip bag, a polymer web coated with a different layer of chemistry. We can make that by the square mile -- it's not difficult to do. We're talking about a doubling or tripling of the capacity of today's batteries, as opposed to a 20% or 30% improvement. [And it's safer.] A lot of the problems in advanced lithium ion batteries derive from the fact that you have an organic liquid. Lithium ion is not water-based. It's an organic liquid like an alcohol. It's flammable. If it gets hot, the pressure increases, and you'll break the case. It could catch fire. If we go with a polymer electrolyte, you don't have any liquid; it's inert when it comes to heat, plus you can shape it."

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:05:26 GMT

Toshiba announces better battery for 2006: March 2005: "Toshiba Corporation today announced a breakthrough in lithium-ion batteries that .. can recharge 80% of a battery's energy capacity in only one minute, approximately 60 times faster than the typical lithium-ion batteries in wide use today, and combines this fast recharge time with improvements in energy density. .. the negative electrode uses new nano-particles to prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode. ..

The battery has a long life cycle, losing only 1% of capacity after 1,000 cycles of discharging and recharging, and can operate at very low temperatures. At minus 40 degrees centigrade, the battery can discharge 80% of its capacity, against 100% in an ambient temperature of 25 degree centigrade).

Toshiba will bring the new rechargeable battery to commercial products in 2006. Initial applications will be in the automotive and industrial sectors .. tTe battery's advantages in size, weight and safety highly suit it for a role as an alternative power source for hybrid electric vehicles." This is faster than expected; nano particles to accelerate charge and discharge and improve density have been reported in universities, while this is an announced product.

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 18:47:36 GMT

Use Of Nanomaterials in Organic Photovoltaic Devices: Introductory list of approaches to nanoengineered organic PVs.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:17:47 GMT

Major advance producing carbon nanotube sheets: "University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) nanotechnologists and an Australian colleague have produced transparent carbon nanotube sheets that are stronger than the same-weight steel sheets and have demonstrated applicability for organic light-emitting displays, low-noise electronic sensors, artificial muscles, conducting appliqués and broad-band polarized light sources that can be switched in one ten-thousandths of a second.

Carbon nanotubes are like minute bits of string, and untold trillions of these invisible strings must be assembled to make useful macroscopic articles that can exploit the phenomenal mechanical and electronic properties of the individual nanotubes. In the Aug. 19 05 issue of the prestigious journal Science, scientists from the NanoTech Institute at UTD and a collaborator, Dr. Ken Atkinson from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), a national laboratory in Australia, report such assembly of nanotubes into sheets at commercially useable rates.

Starting from chemically grown, self-assembled structures in which nanotubes are aligned like trees in a forest, the sheets are produced at up to 7 meters per minute by the coordinated rotation of a trillion nanotubes per minute for every centimeter of sheet width. By comparison, the production rate for commercial wool spinning is 20 meters per minute. Unlike previous sheet fabrication methods using dispersions of nanotubes in liquids, which are quite slow, the dry-state process developed by the UTD-CSIRO team can use the ultra-long nanotubes needed for optimization of properties. " More about applications, to solar cells, batteries, fuel cells, medicine, and engineering at WorldChanging.

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:10:01 GMT

Carbon Nanotube Structures For More Efficient Solar Power: "Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) scientists have demonstrated an ability to precisely grow "towers" composed of carbon nanotubes atop silicon wafers. The work could be the basis for more efficient solar power .. Because their cells will be more efficient, Ready believes they can use older and more mature p/n-type material technologies and less costly silicon wafers to hold down costs and rapidly advance the project into products that can be used in the field. .. Challenges ahead include materials compatibility and long-term durability issues. Ultimately, the carbon nanotubes – which are themselves semiconducting at times – could be integrated to replace one or more of the p/n-type layers. " Military and space applications are expected first.

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:32:47 GMT

Nanoscience-as-Art Competition - NTU NanoCluster: Images from Singapore university research.

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:21:50 GMT

Study of super-hard ceramics: "A discovery reported in the August 5 issue of Science could speed the design of materials that approach the hardness of diamond yet remain supple enough to be worked like metal. In a massive computer simulation involving 128 computer processors and nearly 19 million atoms, materials scientist Izabela Szlufarska of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues at University of Southern California demonstrated the precise atomic mechanisms that explain why "nanostructured" ceramic materials-some of the hardest substances known-also exhibit unusual pliability.

Unlike other exceptionally hard materials, these advanced ceramics tend to bend rather than break, meaning they could be shaped into extremely long-lasting yet lightweight parts for everything from automobile engines and high-speed machining tools to medical implants in the body.

Simulations can help to answer this by providing a level of detail unavailable to experiments. Using atomic-scale simulations, the team observed for the first time how atoms moved and interacted as a super-hard ceramic deformed under stress. The advance has not only provided unprecedented insight into the properties of these materials, but also a tool that researchers can use to systematically nano-engineer them. ..

The researchers next want to learn how to control the crossover point so as to engineer greater hardness into nano-crystalline silicon carbide without compromising pliability. For example, they could vary the volume of the grain boundaries or the size of the grains. Impurities, or dopants, might also be added to the grain boundaries to make the material stronger. Key to it all is the enormous computing power that allows scientists to simulate the material’s atomic details. "The experiments and devices have become smaller and smaller, while the simulations have grown larger and larger," says Szlufarska. "This is a unique time when the leading edge of materials design is exactly at the same length scale where fully atomic simulations are possible." "

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:05:03 GMT

Towards a green nanotechnology: Review of the issues and early studies. "nanotechnology has been the subject of projections concerning its possible environmental risks well before its wide-scale commercialization. Raising such questions when nanotechnology is still in its infancy may result in better, safer products and less long-term liability for industry.

The rapidly developing nanomaterials industry is the nanotechnology that is most likely to affect our lives first. .. In the environmental technology industry alone, nanomaterials will enable new means of reducing the production of wastes, using resources more sparingly, cleaning up industrial contamination, providing potable water, and improving the efficiency of energy production and use. Commercial applications of nanomaterials currently or soon to be available include nano-engineered titania particles for sunscreens and paints, carbon nanotube composites in tires, silica nanoparticles as solid lubricants, and protein-based nanomaterials in soaps, shampoos, and detergents.

The production, use, and disposal of nanomaterials will inevitably lead to their appearance in air, water, soils, or organisms. Research is needed to ensure that nanomaterials, and the industry that produces them, evolve as environmental assets rather than liabilities. Unfortunately, little is known about the potential environmental impacts of nanomaterials...

An encouraging trend is that the methods used to produce nanomaterials often become “greener” as they move from the laboratory to industrial production. Setting aside the issue of nanomaterials’ toxicity, preliminary results suggest that fabricating nanomaterials entails risks that are less than or comparable to those associated with many current industrial activities. ..

It would be naïve to imagine that nanotechnology will evolve without risks to our health and environment. While attempting to halt the development of nanomaterial-inspired technologies would be as irresponsible as it is unrealistic, responsible development of these technologies demands vigilance and social commitment. "

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 12:18:48 GMT

Nanotechnology kills cancer cells: Another study with light-activated nanoparticles. "The technique works by inserting microscopic synthetic rods called carbon nanotubules into cancer cells. When the rods are exposed to near-infra red light from a laser they heat up, killing the cell, while cells without rods are left unscathed. ..

Under normal circumstances near-infra red light passes through the body harmlessly. But the Stanford team found that if they placed a solution of carbon nanotubules under a near-infra red laser beam, the solution heated up to about 70C in two minutes. They then placed the tubules inside cells, and found they were quickly destroyed by the heat generated by the laser beam. .. The next step was to find a way to introduce the nantubules into cancer cells, but not healthy cells. The researchers did this by taking advantage of the fact that, unlike normal cells, the surface of cancer cells is covered with receptors for a vitamin known as folate. They coated the nanotubules with folate molecules, making it easy for them to pass into cancer cells, but unable to bind with their healthy cousins. Exposure to the laser duly killed off the diseased cells, but left the healthy ones untouched.

The researchers believe it should be possible to refine the technique still further, for instance by attaching an antibody to a nanotubule to target a particular kind of cancer cell.

Thu, 26 May 2005 11:16:19 GMT

Nanotechnology for Clean Energy and Resources: Good short summary of the ways nanotech makes more efficient use of resources.

Thu, 26 May 2005 08:14:10 GMT

Nanotechnologists' new plastic can see in the dark (Jan 10/05): U of Toronto Professor Ted Sargent and his team used quantum dots trapped in lead and sulfur. "“We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size. The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint,” explains Sargent. Then, they tuned the tiny nanocrystals to catch light at very long wavelengths. The result – a sprayable infrared detector. ..

The discovery may also help in the quest for renewable energy sources. Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to harness the sun’s power, but efficiency, flexibility and cost are going to determine how that potential becomes practice, says Josh Wolfe [of Lux Capital]. “These flexible photovoltaics could harness half of the sun’s spectrum not previously accessed.” .. Professor Peter Peumans of Stanford University, reviewed the U of T team’s research.. “Our calculations show that, with further improvements in efficiency, combining infrared and visible photovoltaics could allow up to 30 per cent of the sun’s radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to six per cent in today’s best plastic solar cells.”

U of T graduate student Steve MacDonald carried out many of the experiments .. “The key was finding the right molecules to wrap around our nanoparticles,” he explains. “Too long and the particles couldn’t deliver their electrical energy to our circuit; too short, and they clumped up, losing their nanoscale properties. It turned out that one nanometer – eight carbon atoms strung together in a chain – was ‘just right’.”

Mon, 23 May 2005 16:38:40 GMT

Foresight Institute: A new theme and a new website. "Foresight’s new mission is to ensure the beneficial implementation of nanotechnology." It's a good change; I've been a member for 4 years and had advocated more of a focus on environmental issues and benefits. Nice to see that of their six nanotech 'challenges', #1 is clean energy, #2 is water quality and supply, and #4 is agriculture.

Wed, 18 May 2005 20:25:44 GMT

Environmental Defense gets proactive about nanotech: "The science of the very small has big potential: improved energy generation, information technology, health care delivery and a wide range of other applications, including some with potentially enormous environmental benefits. But as with any potentially revolutionary technology, it only makes sense to look before we leap. .. New physical and chemical properties represent what's both exciting and worrisome about nanotechnology. While the ability of some nano particles to pass through a cell or skin could lead to breakthroughs in a cure for cancer or in the detection of Alzheimer's, these same features can pose environmental and health risks. .. Environmental Defense is starting to work with companies looking into this important new technology to make sure both positives and negatives are considered beforehand. We're also advocating to increase federal funding for research into nanotechnology's potential risks, and pushing to enhance safety regulations to ensure that nanotechnology products are properly evaluated before getting to market.

There is a flurry of activity around nanotechnology in government agencies and at scientific conferences. The U.S. government alone is investing approximately $1 billion per year in nanotechnology research and development. We are pushing government to allocate at least 10% of that investment towards understanding the implications of the nanotechnology applications being developed. We are working with the International Council on Nanotechnolgy, the American National Standards Institute and the American Society for Testing and Materials, as they begin to develop consensus standards for several aspects of nanotechnology; such standards may help shape government regulations down the road. We're also exploring partnering with individual companies to develop risk management to develop standards, and sharing information with a wide array of scientific and environmental organizations. ..

This is the promising future of this exciting new science, and our hope is to ensure that with proper attention paid now to the risks, we can avoid the mistakes of the past while reaping the benefits that nanotechnology may bring. "

Mon, 16 May 2005 20:29:13 GMT

Water Filters Rely on Nanotech: Report from the October 2004 NanoWater conference. "A slow, methodical transformation of the $400-billion-a-year water-management industry is currently in progress, and nanotechnology appears to be leading the way. .. Two products incorporating nanotechnology are going to hit the market within the next year and are already being tested in developing nations. .. Matrikx water filters will be on store shelves within the next year after already having experienced success in 50 pilot programs throughout central Asia. Argonide's president, Fred Tepper, is trying to get his product in the hands of consumers in the next 60 to 90 days, he said, having recently secured a distribution deal with a European company ..

Though these breakthroughs seem cutting-edge, the technology is not terribly new. Water-treatment plants have been using nanofiltration and ultrafiltration membranes to separate good water from bad for more than five years. And already the technology is becoming the industry standard. .. The same technology is allowing desalination -- the process of removing salts from fresh or sea water -- to occur at a much greater rate. The largest desalination plant in the world will begin operating in Ashkelon, Israel, in March 2005."

Argonide Nanomaterials has an interesting history of collaborations with US govt labs, Russian institutes active in nanotechnology, and others in Italy, Japan, and Singapore.

Sat, 14 May 2005 07:12:07 GMT

Double blast of societal & ethical issues in nanotech - Nanodot: Links to many academic articles on nanotech in society. Includes a summary of environmental issues from an academic perspective.

Sat, 14 May 2005 06:52:02 GMT

Motorola Debuts First Ever Nano Flat Screen: "Motorola Labs today unveiled a working 5-inch color video display prototype based on proprietary Carbon Nanotube (CNT) technology.. Optimized for a large screen High Definition Television (HDTV) that is less than 1-inch thick, this first-of-its kind NED 5-inch prototype harnesses the power of CNTs to fundamentally change the design and fabrication of flat panel displays.

The development of such a flat panel display is possible due to Motorola Labs Nano Emissive Display (NED) technology, a scalable method of growing CNTs directly on glass to enable an energy efficient design that excels at emitting electrons. ..

“Motorola’s NED technology is demonstrating full color video with good response time,” said Barry Young, VP and CFO of DisplaySearch, a leading flat panel display market research and consulting company. “And according to a detailed cost model analysis conducted by our firm, we estimate the manufactured cost for a 40-inch NED panel could be under $400.”

Motorola’s proprietary CNT growth process provides excellent precision in designing and manipulating a material at its molecular level – enhancing specific characteristics – and, in the case of flat panel displays, producing high-definition images. .. Motorola’s industry-first working prototype demonstrates:

• Operational full color 5" video section of a 1280 x 720, 16:9, 42-inch HDTV
• High quality brightness
• Bright, vivid colors using standard Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TV phosphors
• Display panel thickness of 3.3 millimeters (about 1/8th of an inch)
• Low cost display drive electronics (similar to LCD, much lower than Plasma)
• Display characteristics meet or exceed CRTs, such as fast response time, wide
viewing angle, wide operation temperature "

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:43:34 GMT

Nano for better batteries, fuel cells: SRI scientist "Narang and other researchers have found ways to combine high energy density with high power using nanotechnology. In SRI’s case, the approach involves using high aspect ratio nanomaterials, or nanofibers. The nanofibers are minutely small in one dimension (about 20 nanometers) so energy flows rapidly across them. But because they are, relatively speaking, long in the other dimension (50 to 200 nanometers) they can store much more energy than nanoparticles with small dimensions all around. The result, Narang maintains, is a battery that can deliver about eight times the power of a traditional battery while providing comparable energy. Plus, there’s a bonus: The nanoscale dimensions that let energy move rapidly also allow the battery to recharge faster when the energy flow is reversed, a feature that’s important for hybrid cars designed to harvest energy from braking and use it to recharge the batteries.

Other organizations are working on the same problem. Ener1, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is researching enhancements for electrolytes and cathodes, using nano-structured powders for electrolytes and nano-structured, iron-disulfide for cathodes. The company says that by combining its nano-structured, iron-disulfide cathode with its polymer electrolyte it can provide high energy and a long cycle life. ..

Batteries, however, are not the only nano-enhanced technology poised to augment alternative energy efforts. .. California-based Proton Power proposes using solid acid fuel cells to supplement diesel engines inside long-haul trucks. Currently, truckers idle their engines when resting to power heating, air conditioning and other amenities. Proton Power would provide a supplemental fuel cell that truckers could use when not driving. .. “The thinner the electrolyte layer,” [Proton's founder Calum] Chisolm said, “the more power.” Currently funded by friends and family, the California Institute of Technology spinout is looking at longer-term financing opportunities and broad markets. ..

SRI is working on a form of solid oxide fuel cell that would use military-grade diesel fuel. The design takes advantage of nanostructures for catalysts and uses 200-nanometer powders for a thin electrolyte, upping the power in the same manner as Chisolm’s solid acid cell."

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:24:35 GMT

Nanotech Startups Eye Solar Energy Spotlight: A short article from Investor's Business Daily in November 2004 spotlighted a few companies with comments from analysts: "At least three startups -- Nanosolar, Nanosys and Konarka Technologies -- are using nanotech to try to make solar energy more viable. In time, such work could become "world changing," said Josh Wolfe, a managing partner of nanotech-focused investment firm Lux Capital in New York. Lux has invested in Nanosys. "All three of these firms have a different approach, but all of them are trying to create solar energy anywhere, any time," Wolfe said.

Nanotech solar cells could come down to fossil-fuel prices within a few years, says Steven Milunovich, an analyst with Merrill Lynch. Electricity now costs 7 cents per kilowatt-hour in the U.S. and 19 cents in Japan. Solar cells run about 43 cents. "There could be significant adoption" if nanotech solar drops below 7 cents, said Milunovich in a recent research note. Nanotech could have "a significant impact" on the $3 billion-plus solar power market. "Cheaper manufacturing plants and processes could make solar competitive with fossil fuels," he wrote.

Nanosolar, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is building nanotech panels that are 100 times thinner than current solar panels. This approach could let the firm mass-produce cheaper solar cells by printing them out like rolls of newspaper. .. Nanosolar plans to make test products next year and go to full production the following year. ..

Nanosys, also based in Palo Alto, has partnered with Japanese corporate giant Matsushita (NYSE:MC - News) to make nano materials into special shapes known as tetrapods. This material is laid onto plastic substrates that are produced like photo film to make nanopanels that are more flexible and smaller than current rooftop solar panels. By encasing such solar panels between windowpanes, skyscrapers might someday double as self-contained power plants..

Konarka of Lowell, Mass., is developing plastic sheets that are embedded with titanium oxide nanocrystals. The crystals are coated with light-absorbing dyes."

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:18:29 GMT

Nanotechnology for Clean Energy and Resources: Abstract of a paper presented in Oct 2004 by Stephen L. Gillett of Georgia Tech, and Ralph Merkle of Foresight Institute. Key applications are efficiency, renewables, energy management, and new materials.

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 16:24:01 GMT

Nanosponge for hydrogen: "The materials made by Xuebo Zhao and colleagues are composed of long carbon chains linked by metal atoms. When they are crystallized, these molecules frame cavities less than a nanometer across, connected by windows that are even smaller than a hydrogen molecule. While the cavities are being filled, hydrogen can wriggle through these windows because the carbon chains are flexible.

But once the cavities fill, the chains lose their room to flex, forcing the windows closed. As a result, the material can be loaded with hydrogen gas at high pressure, but does not release the gas when pressures drop to normal, essentially forming a molecule-sized pressure seal. "

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:14:48 GMT

Nanotech investment stats: From a story in may 2004: "The National Science Foundation projects the entire market could be worth $1 trillion by 2016. That's a huge and almost entirely new market, but also well past the 10-year venture capital fund investment horizon. Worse, still, for VCs hoping to exit profitably from the nanotech startups accumulating in their portfolios: Major corporations worldwide are working feverishly to apply nanotechnology to specific products and services, giving many, at least theoretically, a serious leg up on startups with far less capital and far fewer real products upon which to test their new nanowares. More than 700 companies are collectively spending about $3 billion on nanotechnology research and development this year alone, according to Lux Capital, with only a handful of them venture capital-backed startups."

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 09:37:18 GMT

WorldChanging: Nanotechnology and the Developing World: "the Global Dialogue on Nanotechnology and the Poor [is] a project intended to trigger a conversation about the ways in which nanotechnology can be applied to the problems of development and poverty. Anyone may participate .." SciDevNet covers the conference and has an introduction to the material. The 29-page report covers risks as well as benefits, with a useful appendix showing the UN Millenium Goals for reference.

This has been a major interest of mine since 2000. The bottom line for me came down to two things: nano-engineered materials for energy and water. Nanotech's first fruits are a new universe of materials with electrical and chemical properties that will offer new options to engineers of all goods, including those meeting basic needs. It's like plastics a century ago; we're at the start of a decades-long absorbtion of new possibilities, both good and bad. This time the changes will come faster, sped up by computer-aided design and manufacturing. (Nano-assembly, whenever it arrives, will only further add to the changes.)

For developing countries, the key benefits are in the basics for manufacturing and urban life.

purified or desalinated water
distributed electric generation and new options for fuel, ideally from renewable sources with hydrogen and/or battery storage of power
more efficient use of energy and materials overall

I think this will be on balance good for the environment, in its greater material efficiency. However, nano-engineered materials will also be applied to increase the efficiency of raw material extraction, such as taking fossil fuels from the earth faster and cheaper. It will also give rise to more extravagant ways to use energy in the developed world, perhaps super-sonic transport, large-scale military applications, or ever-larger interiors for housing and commerce. I am optimistic that enough funding and volunteer attention will be given to pollution-reducing and poverty-alleviating applications to tip the balance. (I think that the top-down and exploitative applications have been refined so much already, that it's probably easier for researchers and innovators to have a big impact in the less-explored sustainable applications.)

Thu, 17 Feb 2005 09:01:08 GMT

Nanotubes crank out hydrogen: "Several research efforts are using materials engineered at the molecular scale to tap the sun as an energy source to extract hydrogen from water. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University have constructed a material made from titanium dioxide nanotubes that is 97 percent efficient at harvesting the ultraviolet portion of the sun's light and 6.8 percent efficient at extracting hydrogen from water.

The material is easy to make, inexpensive, and photochemically stable, according to the researchers. The 97 percent efficiency is the highest reported, according to the researchers. There is one catch -- only five percent of the sun's energy is ultraviolet light. The researchers are working to find a way to shift the response of the nanotube arrays into the visible spectrum. The key to making titanium dioxide nanotubes that efficiently harvest the energy from light is controlling the thickness of the nanotube walls, according to the researchers. Nanotubes 224 nanometers long with 34-nanometer-thick walls are three times more efficient than those that are 120 nanometers long with 9-nanometer-thick walls.

The researchers made the titanium dioxide nanotube material by mixing titanium with acid and electrifying the mixture, which caused the tiny tubes to grow, then heating them to cause the material to crystallize." [via WorldChanging]

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 06:35:05 GMT

New Nanomaterial for Future Magnetic Fridges: "Magnetic refrigerators offer significant advantages when compared with current vapor-compression ones, such as gains in energy efficiency, lower cost of operation or elimination of environmentally damaging coolants. Unfortunately, all the materials which have been tested in the last fifty years suffer from hysteresis losses, lowering the energy available for cooling. But now, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have found a solution, reported in "Nanomaterial Yields Cool Results." By adding a small amount of iron to a gadolinium-germanium-silicon alloy, they enhanced the cooling capacity by 30 percent. This very significant step may help move the promising technology of magnetically generated refrigeration closer to market."

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 06:17:19 GMT

Nanotechnologists' new plastic can see in the dark: "Imagine a home with "smart" walls responsive to the environment in the room, a digital camera sensitive enough to work in the dark, or clothing with the capacity to turn the sun's power into electrical energy. Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented an infrared-sensitive material that could shortly turn these possibilities into realities. ..

The discovery may also help in the quest for renewable energy sources. Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to harness the sun's power, but efficiency, flexibility and cost are going to determine how that potential becomes practice, says Josh Wolfe, managing partner and nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in Manhattan. Wolfe, who was not part of the research team, says the findings in the paper are significant: "These flexible photovoltaics could harness half of the sun's spectrum not previously accessed."

Professor Peter Peumans of Stanford University, who has reviewed the U of T team's research, also acknowledges the groundbreaking nature of the work. "Our calculations show that, with further improvements in efficiency, combining infrared and visible photovoltaics could allow up to 30 per cent of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to six per cent in today's best plastic solar cells." (Thanks to Roland Piquepaille)

Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:58:32 GMT

Sensicore: Makes small chip sensor for water quality measurement. Check the "technology demo" button. Based in Ann Arbor.

Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:48:31 GMT

Virtual Nanotech: Intro to nano modelling tools. "By running such precise computer models of the chemical and physical properties of materials, researchers can examine tiny constructions more thoroughly than a bench scientist ever could. " Good diagram of the concept of multiscale modelling at the nanostellar site.

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 07:10:12 GMT

Nanotechnology-Based Products Have Impact: "According to a May 2004 National Science Foundation report, a survey of manufacturers found 28 percent already were selling nanotechnology products late last year and another 15 percent expected to introduce commercial products within a year. " Many consumer product examples given.

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 23:24:48 GMT

Productive Nanosystems: from molecules to superproducts: Fastastic voyage in a nanofactory. Animation, 39 MB quicktime.

Sat, 16 Oct 2004 04:27:57 GMT

The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology - Conference on solar energy and nanotechnology: Being held now [Oct 2004] at Rice University. List of presenters and their powerpoints worth checking out.

Tue, 28 Sep 2004 20:13:11 GMT

Nanocarpets that sense and kill bacteria: Self-assemling molecules that change color as they kill bacteria on contact. " 'In these nanotube structures, we have created a material that has the ability to sense their environment. The work is an outgrowth of our interest in developing materials that both sense and decontaminate chemical or biological weapons,' said senior author Alan J. Russell, Ph.D., professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine"

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 08:38:57 GMT

Nanotechnology improves superconductors: "University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a researcher from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a simple and industrially scaleable method for improving the current densities of superconducting coated conductors in magnetic field environments. The discovery has the potential to increase the already impressive carrying capacity of superconducting wires and tapes by as much as 200 to 500 percent in certain uses, like motors and generators ..

Superconducting wires and tapes carry hundreds of times more electrical current than conventional copper wires with little or no electrical resistance. Superconducting technology is poised to bring substantial energy efficiencies to electrical power transmission systems in the United States. Much of the excitement caused by this discovery is due to the fact that the process can be easily and economically incorporated into commercial processing of the superconductors. ..

Dean Peterson, leader of the STC, said, "This is a significant technical advancement because it means we are now beginning to understand how to control defects in these superconducting materials and use them to our advantage. This was the first time we have been able to control the structural defects and in doing so, better engineer the material's structure to optimize performance." .. Scientists discovered that small, nanoscale defects are required to maintain high current densities in superconductors, particularly in the presence of high magnetic fields. "

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 06:07:42 GMT

Wireless Sensors: How Not to Replace 1000 Batteries: Nice brief review of long-lived power sources for sensors, including

printed batteries (e.g., Power Paper);
extended shelf-life mini-batteries with a nanomaterial called "nanograss;"
a nuclear-powered battery that uses a speck of nickel-63 and a tiny cantilever of piezoelectric material (nickel-63 has a half-life of around 100 years)
indoor lighting photovoltaics microbattery
"strain energy harvesting" using the stretching of piezoelectric fibers

Sat, 12 Jun 2004 07:43:07 GMT

Eco glass cleans itself with Sun: "A revolutionary kind of glass that needs little cleaning could mean soap and chamois are binned for good. The Pilkington Activ glass has a special nano-scale - extremely thin - coating of microcrystalline titanium oxide which reacts to daylight. This reaction breaks down filth on the glass, with no need for detergent. When water hits it, a hydrophilic effect is created, so water and dirt slide off. ..

Dr Sanderson said it could potentially be used to break down E. coli or other bacterial infections on surfaces. It could also be used to naturally decompose pollutants in the air, like formaldehyde, and ground-level ozone. "

Sun, 16 May 2004 19:00:15 GMT

Science.gov: "Science.gov is a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results"

Tue, 11 May 2004 17:33:33 GMT

The Law of Accelerating Returns: Kurzweil's 2001 manifesto. "An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate). .. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity -- technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light. "

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:08:26 GMT

Printer Writes Micro 3D Objects: "University of Illinois researchers have come up with a new type of quick-setting three-dimensional ink that works a bit like a microscopic tube of toothpaste. The researchers' printer robotically deposits a continuous, elastic-like ink filament into a liquid rather than putting ink drops onto a surface.

The filament hardens in the liquid rapidly enough to allow for printing three-dimensional structures that have features like unsupported spanning elements. The process yields complete three-dimensional structures in about five minutes, and provides resolutions that are close to two orders of magnitude finer than existing methods, according to the researchers. The researchers' prototype has nozzles that vary in diameter from five microns to 0.5 microns. A micron is one thousandth of a millimeter.

Because the resolution is so high, the process has the potential to produce templates for structured materials, like photonic band gap materials used to control light, microfluidic devices used for biological and chemical testing, and bioscaffolds for tissue engineering."

Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:59:02 GMT

Nano-Hive: Nanospace Simulator: "Nano-Hive is a modular simulator used for modeling the physical world at a nanometer scale. The intended purpose of the simulator is to act as a tool for the study and development of nanotech entities." Version 1 is for a single-user desktop, version 2 is planned to be distributed, possibly using Globus.

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 17:42:49 GMT

Nanosys filing for IPO, changing product plans: "One minor shift is that the company no longer expects its initial products to be biosensors .. Instead, the company is working with the government on biosensor applications. Nanosys has also added nonvolatile memory to the markets it seeks to penetrate, according to its recent filing. Given the subtle shifts, [analyst] Sanchez said, the most likely initial product would be solar cells. ..

Thiemo Lang, a portfolio manager with mutual fund firm Activest, said the IPO might be a bit early. “This will be very interesting to follow,” he said. “I think they see that the stock market is quite favorable for them.” Lang created the Activest Lux NanoTech mutual fund in 2002. "

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 17:13:15 GMT

Material grabs more sun: "Most photovoltaic materials absorb a relatively narrow range of light energy [from one band gap].. Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California, and MIT have engineered a single material that contains three bandgaps and is capable of capturing more than 50 percent of the sun's energy. The researchers made the material by forcing oxygen into a zinc-manganese-tellurium crystal. The oxygen split the crystal's band gap and formed a third one of its own. ..

It will take to three years to assess the technical feasibility of the multiband solar cell, according to the researchers. The work appeared in the December 12, 2003 issue of Physical Review Letters". See also here.

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:22:59 GMT

From the Higgs Boson Particle to Leadbelly: "Physicists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are using the same methods to search for the elusive Higgs Boson particle and to digitally restore audio recordings from the past." By imaging the the old disk recordings, smoothing out the physical scratches and defects, and then simulating a stylus on the smoothed virtual disk, the sound improvement is dramatic. "Berkeley Lab signed an agreement with the Library of Congress to digitize the many thousands of early blues or jazz recordings it has in its archives." Follow link to excellent example of before and after.

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:12:16 GMT

Fiber Spun from Nanotube Smoke: "Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England have developed a relatively simple way to manufacture continuous fibers of carbon nanotubes. .. The relatively simple method promises to make it possible to more cheaply produce carbon nanotubes in bulk. It could also eventually produce fiber that rivals carbon fiber in strength, but that is more flexible. Carbon nanotube fibers are able to twist, opening the way to flexible materials, multistrand threads and threads made from a mix of materials.

The researchers spun continuous, twisted fibers directly from the furnace where carbon nanotubes were produced. The researchers injected a liquid mix of ethanol, ferrocene and thiophene into a flow of hydrogen gas in a furnace heated to between 1,050 and 1,200 degrees Celsius to produce nanotube aerogel, or elastic smoke. The keys were closely controlling conditions and drawing the nanotube aerogel continuously using a rotating spindle. Existing nanotube fiber methods use previously formed nanotubes. In theory, the method can produce nanotube fiber of any length, according to the researchers. They have also developed a related technique for coating objects with layers of carbon nanotubes.

The method could be used to synthesize carbon nanotubes in bulk within two years and to make practical fibers in 5 to 10 years, according to the researchers."

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 23:59:13 GMT

Economist on nanotech hazards: Brief review of several people active in the field. "The public outcry over genetically modified foods offers several lessons for those working and investing in nanotechnology/"

Sat, 03 Apr 2004 06:07:44 GMT

Nanowrapping cell enzymes: "To increase [a cell's] enzyme's longevity and versatility, a team at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., has caged single enzymes to create a new class of catalysts called SENs, or single enzyme nanoparticles. The nanostructure protects the catalyst, allowing it to remain active for five months instead of hours. "The principal concept can be used with many water-soluble enzymes," said Jungbae Kim of PNNL..

Kim and Grate modified a common protein-splitting enzyme called alpha-chymotrypsin. They modified the enzyme surface to make it soluble, then added vinyl reagents to induce the growth of molecular threads, or polymers, from the enzyme surface. A second polymerization step cross-linked silicon chains, forming a basketball-netlike structure a few nanometers thick. What results are SENs that appear in electron microscopic images as hollow enzyme-containing nanostructures about 8 nanometers across. Kim and Grate found that by using less reactive forms of vinyl they could vary the thickness of the nano-netting by half. Thick or thin, the porous netting preserves the shape of the enzyme inside yet allows its active site to interact with a substrate. SENs are also amenable to storage; they have been refrigerated for five months, losing little of their activity.

Among the uses Kim noted for SENs is the breakdown toxic waste--a single treatment could last months. Stabilized enzymes are also a prerequisite for many types of biosensors. And they may be of interest for coating surfaces, with application ranging from medicine (protecting implants from protein plaques) to shipping (keeping barnacles off hulls)."

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 22:13:10 GMT

'Nanorings' could boost computer memory: "Purdue chemist Alexander Wei may have come up with a surprisingly simple and cheap solution to the shrinking data storage problem. Wei's research team has found a way to create tiny magnetic rings from particles made of cobalt. The rings are much less than 100 nanometers across – an important threshold for the size-conscious computer industry – and can store magnetic information at room temperature. Best of all, these "nanorings" form all on their own, a process commonly known as self-assembly."

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 22:05:35 GMT

Nano funding: "the impression that VCs are falling all over themselves to get in on the nano action isn't really true. Government money, though, is a totally different story -- DARPA, NIST ATP, SBIR, the whole alphabet soup. It's really not the private sector that's boosting the industry right now. It's government spending. And that's a fairly normal phenomenon for an industry in its early phase. The government props it up, encourages it, gets R&D moving in the lab, helps it along into the startup phase, and then the Darwinian world of business kicks in.

Even there, though, startups can live to see another day primarily through government grants. And right now, the military is where the money is at. Shop your nanomaterial around and tell a VC that your superstrong, superlight nano-enhanced polymer would be useful for garage doors, and you might be shown the door. But go to DARPA and say it can help reinforce tank or aircraft or cockpit doors and can stop a speeding bullet, and you might have an easier time getting some dough.

The difference now, though, is that public relations people have taken over the business of nanotechnology, and so there's a perception that VCs just can't seem to stop blindly throwing their money at anything with the n-word as a prefix. That's what creates buzz and gets nano names in the news during evening drive times."

Fri, 26 Mar 2004 18:25:08 GMT

The Industrial Physicist: A new wave of microfluidic devices: Excellent review of new technologies, including the holographic optical tweezers from Arryx.

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 18:45:08 GMT

CBEN: The Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University studies the potential good and bad environmental impacts of nanotech. Recent Congressional testimony by its director Vicki Colvin summarizes its point of view.

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 18:38:27 GMT

Nano industry should address environmental issues: "Nanotechnology will best flourish in an environment that is largely self-regulated but includes measured governmental oversight, according to a report released today by a think tank in California. Emerging technologies of the past, especially biotechnology, offer lessons that could help businesses, researchers and policy-makers acknowledge and address public fears that could stifle growth. But it is critical that nanotechnology’s advocates and those who are concerned about new technology’s impact on society and the environment begin discussions now, before ideology and politics come into play." Full report issued Nov 2002. Greenpeace issued a comparable position advocating government studies in July 2003.

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 11:29:20 GMT

Quantum Dots (QD) Used To Visualize Cellular Processes: Great application of quantum dots. From the press release: "These are nano-sized semiconductor crystals a mere ten millionth of a millimeter in diameter that fluoresce in several different colors upon excitation with a laser source. These crystals enabled the researchers to deliver real-time video-clips of signal transmission in the so-called erbB receptor family, important targets for many anti-tumor drugs such as antibodies directed against breast cancer. Among other processes, the movies capture the uptake and subsequent redistribution of the receptor-growth factor complexes into the interior of the cell. .. Conventional tools, such as fluorescent dyes and polymer spheres, bleach too quickly - sometimes within seconds - to be of use for extended video images of living cells, according to the researchers. Quantum Dots, on the other hand, are not only very photostable but also very bright, making it possible to trace many elements of the cell for minutes or even hours at a time. "

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 10:21:28 GMT

Profile of Nanosys: "Nanosys is like industrial design company IDEO, which doesn't make products but improves them. .. Similarly, firms knock on Nanosys' door with a need or an idea, and Nanosys figures out how nanotechnology might help.

For some of its partners, Nanosys is working on what it calls nanostructured surface coatings. By messing with atoms, Nanosys can create a coating that can do things never before possible. For instance, one coating is super-hydrophobic — which means, as Empedocles tells me, it can make an item "so water resistant that water literally bounces off it." This might someday make windshields that never need windshield wipers. Or clothes that could be worn underwater and remain dry. ..

Another Nanosys project, with Japan's Matsushita Electric, is making a photovoltaic liquid that can be poured onto a surface, turning the surface into a solar energy panel. Within a couple of years, Matsushita hopes to market roofing tiles with Nanosys' coating. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for unsightly conventional glass solar panels, you could just turn your roof into a solar energy collector for maybe one-tenth the cost...

Nanosys is essentially developing liquid electronics. Pour it onto a surface, and when it solidifies, its nanowires can turn that surface into a display. The process would be cheap, and could be done on thin sheets of plastic at low temperatures."

Fri, 19 Mar 2004 10:06:33 GMT

IBM Researchers Develop Low-Cost Method for Making High-Performance Semiconductors: "A team of researchers at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY.) recently developed a simple, low-cost process to make extraordinarily thin films of semiconducting materials that allows electrical charges to move through them about 10 times more easily than had been reported for all other similar approaches. Such an increase can enable a broad array of low-cost electronics and new pervasive-computing applications. "These types of easily processed semiconducting films could eventually be used to make circuitry for very-low-cost or flexible displays, high-performance smart cards, sensors and solar cells or for flexible electronics coated onto a wide variety of molded or plastic shapes," said the IBM Research team leader, David Mitzi. ..

Spin coating is simple and cheap: Several drops of a liquid solution are simply placed onto a spinning platter. Centripetal forces then spread the liquid to a uniform thickness over the entire surface. The film's thickness is usually determined by the solution's viscosity (its resistance to flow) and the rate and duration of spinning. The liquid is then cured into a solid thin film upon which transistors and other various electronic devices can be made. Until now, the only semiconducting materials that could be made using spin coating had limited usefulness due to their low charge "mobility" -- a measure of how fast electronic circuits made with a semiconductor can operate. Better semiconductors could not be dissolved in any liquid that would result in a thin film that retained the desired mobility. Mitzi's team developed a way to dissolve such higher-mobility materials in a liquid that could be used in a spin-coating process, leaving a very uniformly-controlled film. Moreover, in a transistor made on the films, the materials exhibited 10 times the charge mobility of any previously spin-coated seniconductor. "

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 08:56:31 GMT

Marine sponges provide model for nanoscale materials production: "[Dan] Morse directs the new Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, a UCSB-led initiative funded by a grant of $50 million from the Army Research Office, which operates in partnership with MIT and Caltech. .. his research group discovered that the center of the sponge's fine glass needles contains a filament of protein that controls the synthesis of the needles. By cloning and sequencing the DNA of the gene that codes for this protein, they discovered that the protein is an enzyme that acts as a catalyst, a surprising discovery. Never before had a protein been found to serve as a catalyst to promote chemical reactions to form the glass or a rock-like material of a biomineral. From that discovery, the research group learned that this enzyme actively promotes the formation of the glass while simultaneously serving as a template to guide the shape of the growing mineral (glass) that it produces ..

"we've discovered that these activities can be applied to the synthesis of valuable semiconductors, metal oxides such as titanium and gallium that have photovoltaic and semiconductor properties," says Morse. The group is using a synthetic mimic of the enzymes found in marine sponges. These discoveries are significant because they represent a low temperature, biotechnological, catalytic route to the nanostructural fabrication of valuable materials

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 17:01:44 GMT

Seeing how plants split water: "Reporting online in the journal Science today Imperial researchers reveal the fine detail of the protein complex that drives photosynthesis..

Photosynthesis occurs in plants, some bacteria and algae and involves two protein complexes, photosystem I, and photosystem II - which contains the water-splitting center. While previous models of PSII function have sketched out a picture of how the water splitting center might be organized, the Imperial team were able to reveal the structure of the centre at a resolution of 3.5 angstroms (or one hundred millionth of a centimetre) in the cyanobacterium, Thermosynechococcus elongatus by combining the expertise of Professor So Iwata in solving protein structures and Professor Jim Barber in the photosynthetic process.

"Results by other groups, including those obtained using lower resolution X-ray crystallography at 3.7 angstroms have shown that the splitting of water occurs at a catalytic center that consists of four manganese atoms (Mn)," explains Professor So Iwata of Imperial's Department of Biological Sciences. "We've taken this further by showing that three of the manganese atoms, a calcium atom and four oxygen atoms form a cube like structure, which brings stability to the catalytic center. The forth and most reactive manganese atom is attached to one of the oxygen atoms of the cube. Together this arrangement gives strong hints about the water-splitting chemistry.

"Our structure also reveals the position of key amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which provide a details of how cofactors are recruited into the reaction centre," Barber said. "PSII is truly the 'engine of life' and it has been a major challenge of modern science to understand how it works. Manufacturing hydrogen from water using the photosynthetic method would be far more efficient than using electrolysis"

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 07:04:58 GMT

Gold and Silver Nanotubes: "Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Israel have produced a new type of nanotube made of gold or silver. These nanotubes, which are produced at room temperature, don't have the mechanical strength of the more common carbon nanotubes. But they have unique electrical and optical properties, making them ideally suited "to form the basis for future nanosensors, catalysts and chemistry-on-a-chip systems.""

Tue, 27 Jan 2004 01:45:00 GMT

Quantum Dots and Programmable Matter: Quick intro to an amazing future for materials science. With reference to Wired article and FAQ: "A quantum dot is any device capable of confining electrons in three dimensions, in a space small enough that their quantum (wavelike) behavior dominates over their classical (particle-like) behavior. Under cryogenic conditions, this typically occurs with dimensions of 1000 nm (0.001 mm) or less. At room temperature, confinement spaces of 20-30 nm or smaller are required.

Once the electrons are confined, they repel one another and also obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which forbids any two electrons from having the same quantum state. Thus, the electrons in a quantum dot will form shells and orbitals highly reminiscent of (though larger than) the ones in an atom, and will in fact exhibit many of the optical, electrical, thermal, and (to some extent) chemical properties of an atom. This electron cloud is therefore referred to as an artificial atom. ..

Q13: How is programmable matter made?

A13: Current forms of programmable matter fall into three types: colloidal films, bulk crystals, and quantum dot chips which confine electrons electrostatically. Quantum dots can be grown chemically as nanoparticles of semiconductor surrounded by an insulating layer. These particles can then be deposited onto a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer patterned with metal electrodes, or they can be crystalized into bulk solids by a variety of methods. Either substance can be stimulated with electricity or light (e.g., lasers) in order to change its properties.

Electrostatic quantum dots are patterns of conductor (usually a metal such as gold) laid down on top of a quantum well, such that varying the electrical voltage on the conductors can drive electrons into and out of a confinement region in the well -- the quantum dot. This method offers numerous advantages over nanoparticle ("colloidal") films, including a greater control over the artificial atom's size, composition, and shape. Numerous quantum dots can be placed on the same chip, forming a semiconductor material with a programmable dopant layer near its surface.

Rolling such chips into cylindrical fibers produces "wellstone," a hypothetical woven solid whose bulk properties are broadly programmable. ..

Q21: What is programmable matter good for?

A21: Almost anything. It can improve the efficient collection, storage, distribution, and use of energy from environmental sources. It can be used to create novel sensors and computing devices, probably including quantum computers. It can create materials which are not available by other means, and which change their apparent composition on demand. Currently, the design of new materials is a time- and labor-intensive process; with programmable matter, it becomes a real-time issue, similar to the design and debugging of software. ..

Single-electron transistors, a form of quantum dot, were first proposed by A.A. Likharev in 1984 and constructed by Gerald Dolan and Theodore Fulton at Bell Laboratories in 1987. The first semiconductor SET, a type of quantum dot sometimes referred to as a designer atom, was invented by Marc Kastner and John Scott-Thomas at MIT in 1989. The term "artificial atom" was coined by Kastner in 1993. Wil McCarthy was the first to use the term "programmable matter" in connection with quantum dots, and to propose a mechanism for the precise, 3D control of large numbers of quantum dots inside a bulk material. The most interesting forms of this device or substance -- known as "quantum dot fiber" or "wellstone" -- are not produceable using circa 2003 technology, although related products may be. The term "wellstone" was coined by McCarthy's business associate, Gary E. Snyder. "

Wed, 21 Jan 2004 00:41:12 GMT

NanoBioConvergence, fusion of nanotechnology and biotechnology: Interesting site for non-profit about applications of nanotech in the Life Sciences. Presentations and content are available for download.

Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:42:42 GMT

Nanotox 2004: "There is accumulating evidence that nanoparticles can have very toxic properties. Many nanoparticle systems are known to have exotic structural, electronic and hence chemical properties, when compared to their bulk counterparts, principally as a result of their reduced dimensions. However very little is known about the interaction between the surface chemistry of nanoparticles and ‘wet’ biochemistry.

There are a variety of novel materials that have become part of the human environment over the past fifty years; some are unintentionally inhaled or ingested, whilst others are introduced into the body intentionally and have been studied in detail, for example prosthetic implants. The revolution in nanotechnology is currently driving these and other biointeractive devices to smaller and smaller lengthscales. Other groups are actively engaged in interfacing biomolecules into ‘biocomputing devices’.

The primary aim of this meeting is to bring together experts in the science of materials, particularly nanoscale materials, with biomedical scientists studying the health effects of nanoparticle exposure. This meeting will attempt to advance understanding of the molecular mechanisms for toxicity and develop novel methods of research based on the latest technologies...

The venue for the meeting is the world famous Daresbury Laboratories in Cheshire, .. home to the new SuperSTEM atomic resolution analysis facility consisting of a suite of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopes capable of sub-Angstrom chemical imaging and spectroscopy ideal for the study of nanoparticles."

Wired carries a story before the conference: "There is an established risk with some novel materials. Research in this month's issue of Toxicological Sciences concludes that carbon nanotubes, which have a huge variety of potential applications, can be more toxic than quartz, which is considered a serious occupational health hazard. "

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:24:59 GMT

Can Nanoparticles Enter Our Brains?: "In a study carried out on rats, U.S. researchers have shown that carbon nanoparticles can move inside the brain after being inhaled, and also move from the lungs into the bloodstream. Both Nature and the Guardian publish interesting stories about this potential new danger to our health. Let's start with Nature.

Günter Oberdörster of the University of Rochester in New York and colleagues tracked the progress of carbon particles that were only 35 nanometres in diameter and had been inhaled by rats. In the olfactory bulb -- an area of the brain that deals with smell -- nanoparticles were detected a day after inhalation, and levels continued to rise until the experiment ended after seven days.

.. Little is known about what effect nanoparticles will have when they reach the brain. The toxicity of the nanoparticles that are currently being used to build prototype nanosized electronic circuits -- such as carbon nanotubes, which are produced in labs around the world -- has not been thoroughly assessed.
But Donaldson says that there is a growing feeling that other nanoparticles, such as those produced by diesel exhausts, may be damaging to some parts of our body. He estimates that people in cities take in about 25 million nanoparticles with every breath. These particles are believed to increase respiratory and cardiac problems, probably by triggering an inflammatory reaction in the lungs.."

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:19:34 GMT

Chemists Grow Nano Menagerie: "Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have found a simple way to make tiny, complicated shapes from zinc oxide, including arrays of vertically-aligned rods, flat disks, and columns that resemble stacks of coins. The researchers grew the structures, which are similar to those found in biomaterials, by seeding a solution with zinc oxide nanoparticles. They were able to produce different shapes by changing the amount of citrate in the solution at different points during particle growth.

Zinc oxide is a widely-used, inexpensive ceramic material that has useful optical and semiconductor properties and can also be used as a catalyst. The material is already used in solar cells, microsensors and decontamination systems...

Zinc oxide nanostructures could be used as catalysts within the next two years, for chemical and biological sensing into five years, and for more efficient photovoltaics in something more than five years, according to the researchers. The work appeared in the November 23, 2003 issue of Nature Materials." Zinc oxide has been shown to catalyze the conversion of methane to carbon nanotubes and hydrogen.

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:16:58 GMT

Nanotubes Detect Nerve Gas: "Naval Research Laboratory researchers have found that carbon nanotubes are sensitive to extremely small concentrations—less than one part per billion—of chemical nerve agents. .. The researchers worked out a simple procedure to fabricate nanotube-based sensors from random networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes and used a prototype to detect dimethyl methylphosphonate, which simulates the nerve agent sarin. The networks of nanotubes form transistors; the presence of a nerve agent increases the nanotubes' resistance to electricity.

The sensors are very inexpensive, require very little power, and could be used to detect sub-parts-per-billion concentrations of nerve agents, other chemical warfare agents, and other toxic chemicals, according to the researchers. They made a prototype sensor contained in a quartz tube one-eighth of an inch wide by two inches long.

The researchers also showed that the nanotube network sensors can be combined with filters coated with polymers that are sensitive to certain chemicals to make sensors that detect specific chemicals. Arrays of the sensors could be incorporated into handheld or remotely-operated devices designed to detect a variety of substances, according to the researchers. Carbon nanotube sensors could become practical within two to five years, according to the researchers. "

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:14:21 GMT

Body Handles Nanofiber Better: "Researchers from Purdue University have made a discovery that may help: carbon nanofibers are surprisingly compatible with human tissue. The material could eventually be used to create better bone and neural implants. .. The researchers experiments showed that increasing the amount of carbon nanofibers in a polycarbonate urethane composite implant increased the functions of nerve and bone-forming cells and decreased the function of scar-tissue formation. The results imply that compatibility has to do with the size of the fibers that make up the materials.

The researchers have also shown that other materials that contain surfaces with nano-size features are also more compatible with the human body. Carbon nanofiber materials could be used in orthopedics in five to ten years, but it will be one to two decades before neural applications are practical, according to the researchers. "

Sun, 11 Jan 2004 16:28:05 GMT

Nanoparticles and health: "In a study carried out on rats, U.S. researchers have shown that carbon nanoparticles can move inside the brain after being inhaled, and also move from the lungs into the bloodstream. Both Nature and the Guardian publish interesting stories about this potential new danger to our health."

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 02:32:27 GMT

Foresight Board Welcomes Lawrence Lessig, Amory Lovins, Christopher Hook: "The new advisors will join a stellar group including Stewart Brand, Global Business Network; Jamie Dinkelacker, Ph.D., Advisor to NanoBusiness Alliance; Doug Engelbart, Ph.D., Bootstrap Institute; John Gilmore, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Prof. Arthur Kantrowitz, Dartmouth College; Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil Technologies; Prof. Marvin Minksy, MIT; and Peter Schwartz, Global Business Network."

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:37:56 GMT

UC Berkeley Nano-Engineering: Arun Majumdar has a group investigating nano materials for conversion of waste heat to electricity: a Nano Thermal program, and Superlattices in particular.

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 05:51:11 GMT

Harris & Harris Group Inc.: A publicly traded VC fund, trading under NASDAQ "TINY". Holds Nanosys and several other investments.

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 04:03:25 GMT

CBEN The Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology: Rice University nano research center focuses on environmental impacts: "The research in this theme area endeavors to guarantee that nanotechnology emerges as a positive, powerful tool for improving our environment. Two project areas look at the fabrication and applications of membranes in which nanochemistry has provided fine control over pore density, morphology and surface chemistry. Chemistry, modeling and environmental technology are blended in these collaborative programs aimed at the production of better water treatment systems, catalytic supports and filters. The third project area measures the potential for nanostructures to influence the fate and transport of organic and inorganic contaminants in water. .. This information makes it possible to anticipate the unintended consequences of passive sorption onto nanoparticles in waste streams; in addition, it also provides a springboard for the intentional design of separable nanoparticles able to sequester waste products. Future work in this area will expand to include the interaction of nanoparticles with biological systems, such as bacteria, so as to enable the center to develop a comprehensive environmental impact statement for nanomaterials."

Tue, 02 Dec 2003 02:16:24 GMT

Ready to make a great leap forward: Nice review of Boston-area innovators in energy, sensors, RFID, 3d displays, RNAi, and implanted medical devices.

Sun, 23 Nov 2003 02:52:45 GMT

DNA-based nanoassembly: "Braun's team began their manufacturing process by coating a central part of a long DNA molecule with proteins from an E. coli bacterium. Next, graphite nanotubes coated with antibodies were added, which bound onto the protein. After this, a solution of silver ions was added. The ions chemically attach to the phosphate backbone of the DNA, but only where no protein has attached. Aldehyde then reduces the ions to silver metal, forming the foundation of a conducting wire. To complete the device, gold was added. This nucleates on the silver and creates a fully conducting wire. The end result is a carbon nanotube device connected a both ends by a gold and silver wire." It functions as a transistor. The entire process is room temperature.

Fri, 14 Nov 2003 06:44:33 GMT

Progress in creating artificial virus: "While the project was based on widely known molecular biology principles, the breakthrough was in the short time — days instead of months or years — it took to construct the virus, said institute founder J. Craig Venter, one of the lead researchers. Researchers previously synthesized the polio virus from enzymes that naturally occurred in cells, but that process took three years and produced viruses with defects. The effort last summer by Venter and his colleagues took only two weeks from start to finish and created a viral DNA identical to the known genetic code, the researchers said... Even though the experiment involved a simple organism, the researchers suggested their work demonstrated the ability to quickly and accurately synthesize long segments of DNA that can serve as “a stepping stone to manipulating more complex organisms.”

Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:35:11 GMT

Gold "nano-bullets" shoot down tumours "The tiny silica particles are plated with gold and heat up when near infrared light (NIR) is shone on them. This kills the cancer cells... Body tissues are essentially transperant to NIR...

The Rice University team created nanoparticles from a non-conducting core of silica with a diameter of 110 nanometres and a 10 nm thick metal shell. Gold was used because it is biologically inert. When the nanoshells were added to human breast cancer cells in the test tube, and then exposed to both NIR, 100 per cent were killed, says West. "And we saw no changes in cell viability with just nanoshells or just the laser - it's a true on/off situation." The team also injected the nanoshells directly into the tumours of living mice and applied NIR. The tumours were destroyed within days. ..

The team has now engineered the nanoshells to specifically target tumour cells. In a recent study, submitted to Cancer Letters, they injected mice with nanoshells attached to an antibody that only binds to cancer cells. She says the tumours were "completely destroyed" and 150 days later the mice were alive and well with no tumour growth." The heat from the nanoshells makes holes in the cancer cell walls to kill them.

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 19:24:08 GMT

ST tackles alternative solar cells: "The Franco-Italian semiconductor manufacturer ST Microelectronics (ST) is developing alternative materials to make cheaper solar cells. ... The ST researchers are following two alternative approaches. The first is based on a so-called Graetzel cell (a device invented by Michael Graetzel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1990), which uses a method similar in principle to photosynthesis. In the Graetzel cell, an organic dye absorbs light, while a nanoporous metal oxide layer transports electrons. Holes are transported in the reverse direction by a liquid electrolyte. Coffa says that ST is looking to replace these liquid electrolytes with a conductive polymer. "This could lead to further reductions in the cost per Watt, which is the key to making solar energy commercially viable," he said. The second idea that the ST researchers are working on is to use a mixture of fullerene and a copper-based organic compound sandwiched between the cell's two electrodes." More info on the ST site. Also, a CNN article quotes targets of $0.20 per watt.

Thu, 25 Sep 2003 19:28:47 GMT

Nanoscale iron as environmental cleanser: "An ultrafine, "nanoscale" powder made from iron, one of the most abundant metals on Earth, is turning out to be a remarkably effective tool for cleaning up contaminated soil and groundwater--a trillion-dollar problem that encompasses more than 1000 still-untreated Superfund sites in the United States, some 150,000 underground storage tank releases, and a staggering number of landfills, abandoned mines, and industrial sites.

Iron's cleansing power stems from the simple fact that it rusts, or oxidizes, explains [Lehigh University environmental engineer Wei-xian]Zhang. Ordinarily, of course, the only result is the familiar patina of brick-red iron oxide. But when metallic iron oxidizes in the presence of contaminants such as trichloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, dioxins, or PCBs, he says, these organic molecules get caught up in the reactions and broken down into simple carbon compounds that are far less toxic. Likewise with dangerous heavy metals..

[N]anoscale iron particles are some 10 to 1000 times more reactive than conventional iron powders, because their smaller size collectively gives them a much larger surface area, and they can be suspended in a slurry and pumped straight into the heart of a contaminated site like an industrial-scale hypodermic injection. Once there, the particles will flow along with the groundwater to work their decontamination magic in place--a vastly cheaper proposition than digging out the soil..

Laboratory and field tests have confirmed that treatment with nanoscale iron particles can drastically lower contaminant levels around the injection well within a day or two, and will all but eliminate them within a few weeks--reducing them so far that the formerly polluted site will now meet federal groundwater quality standards. The tests also show that the nanoscale iron will remain active in the soil for 6 to 8 weeks, says Zhang, or until what's left of it dissolves in the groundwater. And after that, of course, it will be essentially undetectable against the much higher background of naturally occurring iron.

Finally, says Zhang, the cost of the nanoscale iron treatments is not nearly as big a barrier as it was in 1995, when he and his colleagues first developed a chemical route for making the particles. Then the nanoscale iron cost about $500 a kilogram; now, it's more like $40 to $50 per kilogram. (Decontaminating an area of about 100 square meters using a single injection well requires 11.2 kilograms.) Zhang is currently forming a company to mass-produce the nanoscale iron particles. " Contact: (610)-758-5318, wez3@lehigh.edu.

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:39:24 GMT

Economist update on Nanosys nanorod solar cells: "Japan's leading maker of building materials, Matsushita Electric Works in Osaka. MEW, which is famous for its resin moulding and processing technology, has joined forces with Nanosys, a start-up co-founded by Dr Alivisatos in Palo Alto, California. The partners plan to develop nanorod composite cells for the construction materials industry in Asia. Nanosys and MEW (a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial, the world's largest consumer electronics maker) hope to release commercial versions of the new solar cells by 2007. The plan is to incorporate the composite solar cells into decorative roofing tiles or sidings, says Stephen Empedocles, a co-founder and director of business development at Nanosys. .. Dr Alivisatos thinks that if he can get the nanorods to point in a single direction, rather than randomly, he can boost the composite's energy efficiency. If that can be increased to 10%, Nanosys will have the basics for producing solar cells that are easy to work with and cheap to make. In June, the National Science Foundation awarded Nanosys a research grant worth $850,000 to develop the nanocomposite solar cell further. "

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:33:56 GMT

More light than heat: "What is needed is a glass that lets in light but keeps out stifling heat. Such glasses exist but are generally considered a luxury .. One version consists of a thin layer of silver sandwiched between plates of ordinary glass.

Writing in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters, Stefan Schelm and Geoff Smith of the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, suggest a handy solution to the problem. The window they have developed consists of a sheet of plastic, rather than silver, sandwiched between plates of glass. The plastic, a standard polyvinyl butyral laminate is doped with nanoparticles of lanthanum hexaboride. This substance was chosen because it absorbs infra-red radiation but very little visible light. Because infra-red wavelengths carry the bulk of the heat, this allows the plastic layer to filter out most of the heat.

The nanoparticles do not even have to be particularly pure. Any contaminants created during production are so small, and fortunately transparent, as not to matter. The doped plastic transmits only 5% of the infra-red light, even when the concentration of nanoparticles is as low as 0.02%. The only side-effect is that the glass has a very slight blue-green tinge. .. Mr Schelm did not just happen upon lanthanum hexaboride, but chose it after modelling how conducting nanoparticles absorb light. By adjusting the size of the nanoparticles, or perhaps choosing a slightly different material, Mr Schelm may eventually get rid of the blue-green tinge." I wonder if this can be combined with concentrators and high-efficiency PVs -- like from spectrolabs, yielding >25% up to 400 suns -- to make PVs pay?

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 06:12:29 GMT

Sandia Nanocrystal Research Unraveling Nature's Secrets: ""Biominerals" is the term the team uses to describe complex natural materials that are composed of simple minerals, such as calcium, but that are organized in complex three-dimensional nanostructures. The team's first thrust was to uncover the mechanisms by which such complex crystals are induced into growing at selected sites. For instance, the biominerals in both macroscopic seashells and microscopic diatoms are synthesized in nature when the organism extracts dissolved ions of calcium and silicate from ocean water and uses proteins to reorganize them into nanostructures. "We've found that nature uses protein molecules to precisely control the orientation and morphology of biominerals. As a result, these materials are much stronger than normal man-made versions," said Voigt. ..

Using computer models, the team designed simple experiments using organic molecules that bind to crystals, thereby directing and controlling their growth. By proving the concept in that way, Liu's team embarked on the long journey toward understanding how nature directs organic growth and translating that into a set of general rules guiding the manufacturing of atomically perfect nanomaterials. Currently the team is codifying its findings into a set of laboratory tools for controlling the delivery, diffusion and transport of the chemical "species" in its aqueous reaction chambers. The team plans to leverage Sandia's microfluidic platforms to provide a precise mechanism for altering the parameters of its experiments. The team predicts that its findings will result in manufacturing methodologies that are environmentally benign but that enable superior nanoparticles, nanowires and complexly nanostructured films. "

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 05:53:47 GMT

Booze to Fuel Gadget Batteries: St Louis University researchers create an alchohol-powered fuel cell using enzymes. "The team behind the new battery has produced a constant current from its biofuel cell that is still going strong after two months. .. Prior experiments have used methanol, another type of alcohol, as fuel. The Saint Louis team chose ethanol. "A big advantage is that ethanol is not toxic like methanol, so it is easier to deal with," said team leader and assistant professor of chemistry Shelley Minteer. ..

"The enzymes we use are called dehydrogenase," Akers said. "We chose these because they strip protons from alcohol, and this is the reaction we need to get electricity." Enzymes are not alive like cells or bacteria, but they have to be active for the biofuel cell to work. Keeping the sensitive catalysts active has caused problems in the past. "Enzymes are fairly fragile and can be denatured if there are any changes in temperature or in the pH level (acidity or alkalinity)," Minteer said. .. Minteer and her team overcame this conundrum by coating the biofuel cell's electrodes with a polymer that contains tailored micelles, or pores, which provide an ideal microenvironment for the enzymes to thrive. ..

Minteer said the team is working on ways to increase their biofuel cell's power density. Currently the team's battery can produce 2 milliwatts of power per effective square centimeter. The average cell phone requires 500 milliwatts to operate. The team is also looking at ways to produce a battery designed to fit today's portables that can also produce the necessary power output. "It's like a radiator in car," Akers said. "It's folded, and all those ridges and folds give it a high surface area so the effective surface area becomes tremendously huge. You can do this on a micro scale so that the effective surface area of the electrodes is enormous. This is what we are doing in the designing process."

Akers is confident the team will have a working prototype in a year, and that the finished product will hit store shelves a year later. "

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 23:07:32 GMT

New technique for organic solar cells: "researchers have pursued organic photovoltaic films for many years, but have been plagued with problems of efficiency, said [Princeton researcher] Forrest. The first organic solar cell, developed in 1986, was 1 percent efficient -- that is, it converted only 1 percent of the available light energy into electrical energy. "And that number stood for about 15 years," said Forrest.

Forrest and colleagues recently broke that barrier by changing the organic compounds used to make their solar cells, yielding devices with efficiencies of more than 3 percent. The most recent advance reported in Nature involves a new method for forming the organic film, which increased the efficiency by 50 percent. Researchers in Forrest's lab are now planning to combine the new materials and techniques. Doing so could yield at least 5 percent efficiency, which would make the technology attractive to commercial manufacturers. With further commercial development, organic solar devices would be viable in the marketplace with 5 to 10 percent efficiency, the researchers estimated. "We think we have pathway for using this and other tricks to get to 10 percent reasonably quickly," Forrest said. By comparison, conventional silicon chip-based solar cells are about 24 percent efficient. "Organic solar cells will be cheaper to make, so in the end the cost of a watt of electricity will be lower than that of conventional materials," said Peumans.

The technique the researchers discovered also opens new areas of materials science that could be applied to other types of technology, the researchers said. Solar cells are made of two types of materials sandwiched together, one that gives up electrons and another that attracts them, allowing a flow of electricity. The Princeton researchers figured out how to make those two materials mesh together like interlocking fingers so there is more opportunity for the electrons to transfer. The key to this advance was to apply a metal cap to the film of material as it is being made. The cap allowed the surface of the material to stay smooth and uniform while the internal microstructure changed and meshed together, which was an unexpected result, said Forrest. The researchers then developed a mathematical model to explain the behavior, which will likely prove useful in creating other micromaterials, Forrest said."

Mon, 14 Jul 2003 22:43:09 GMT

Tungsten photonic crystal: New sub-micron lattices of tungsten convert between electricity and light and heat at extremely high efficiencies. This could be the basis for post-LED efficient lighting. It may also prove useful for conversion of waste heat into visible light in a narrow concentrated band suitable for efficient conversion to electricity, which could be useful in electrical generators, solar installations, or hybrid cars. "Sub-micron-featured lattices -- which resemble very tiny garden lattices carefully stacked one atop the other -- can be mass-produced cheaply with today's computer-chip technologies. The lattice itself can be visualized as a construction built of a child's Lincoln Logs. The tungsten "logs" of this experiment have diameters of 0.5 microns separated by distances of 1.5 microns. The lattices are also known as photonic crystals because of the crystalline regularity of the spacing of their components. At first such crystals were of interest because they could bend specific frequencies of light without loss of energy. This was because the crystal's channels were constructed of exactly the right dimensions to form a "home" for particular wavebands as they travelled. The innovation of the current method is to use the channels not to bend light but to permit input energy to exit only in the desired frequency bands."

Wed, 19 Mar 2003 18:17:22 GMT

The Big Down: Atomtech - Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale: a lengthy report on the social risks in nanotech. Produced by ETC, the group formerly known as RAFI.

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 00:02:04 GMT

Emeryville's Nanomix grows sensors and H2 storage: "There are a couple of different ways to make nanotubes, but Nanomix grows billions of them at a time on gold foil, producing what researchers there call "nanoturf." .. Scientists can customize nanotubes to react to different chemicals by coating them with metal atoms or winding around them polymers that boost the response to a given chemical. .. The change would be detected by attaching the nanotube to a regular microchip by a tiny metal wire, itself a few nanometers thick. "We think we've created an architecture that can sense just about every chemical known to man out of a single platform," [CEO] Janac says. ..

[Example:] an oil refinery that needs to detect hydrocarbon leaks. Today such a refinery would be equipped with several dozen conventional chemical sensors that cost about $3,000 apiece. But nano-sensors could cost less than $50 each, allowing a refinery to scatter thousands of them around its facility, providing better coverage and a better early warning system for the same or less money. If they can be accurate and cheap, nano-sensors could easily find themselves used more widely in other industries and even in household products. " Nanosys uses molecular computer simulations extensively.

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 06:36:17 GMT

Steve Jurvetson: late 2002 interview with the usual themes on accelerating change.

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 03:16:17 GMT

Silicon biomimicry: "At MIT's Whitehead Institute, Susan Lindquist and collaborators are exploiting yeast biology to make superthin but very long protein strands. "The widths of these fibers are far too thin to be made by normal manufacturing mechanisms," Lindquist said at the meeting. Using yeast trickery to assemble the thin, long polymer fibers is just half the story, though. As Lindquist reported at the meeting, the protein fibers can then be coated with gold or silver to make tiny wires, capable of connecting electrodes to make novel microcircuits. That ability foreshadows major advances in methods for linking electronics with life. "Through genetic engineering we believe that we can couple electronic circuitry to the whole array of biological functions that are out there," Lindquist said."

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 19:56:55 GMT

Introduction to nanohorns: "The types of nanotubes used for the experimental fuel cell are named nanohorns due to their irregular horn-like shape, and were discovered in the late 1990s. Although nanohorns have the same graphitic carbon atom structure as normal nanotubes, their distinguishing characteristic is a preference for grouping together to create an aggregate (that is, a secondary particle) of about 100nm. When used as an electrode for a fuel cell, not only is the surface area of the aggregate extremely large, but it is also easy for the fuel to permeate to the inside. Additionally, high purity nanohorns are easy to create (in comparison with other forms of nanotube) and are therefore predicted to be a low-cost raw material." In late 2001, JST and NEC "discovered that single layer nanohorn can storage 160 times methane in volume. By heat-treating single layer nanohorn at 400 °C under oxidizing atmosphere, nanohorn has nano-size fine pores and increases its surface area. In case of ordinary nanohorn, gas can flow through only conical opening, but in case of nanohorn having fine pores, gas can flow through also fine pores and methane gas is changed into super critical liquid by interference of methane molecule and nanohorn wall including fine pores even at room temperature. It is understood that these mechanism make nanohorn possible to storage methane in high density." NEC also reported efficient deposition of platinum on nanohorns for use in fuel cells.

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 20:13:17 GMT

Biomimicry yields nanomaterials: For electronics, radar deflection, and solar cells: "Daniel Morse of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said he has harnessed the ability of the lowly sponge to develop silicon-based, photovoltaic devices. The organisms "fabricate beautifully structured, 3-dimensionally organized high performance materials," he said. They accomplish this under benign conditions -- unlike those used in the human fabrication of silicon chips, which can involve high temperatures and pressures and polluting materials. Morse and colleagues discovered a class of proteins, which he nicknamed "silicateins," that direct the manipulation of silica in sponges found in the waters just outside his California lab. He said he discovered silacatein enzymes can act as nanomachines to make titanium dioxide by aligning titanium and oxygen atoms, thereby turning the material into "one of the most efficient photovoltaic converters of sunlight to electricity yet known." "

Fri, 10 Jan 2003 16:58:57 GMT

Albany Nanotech: Betting a $20 Million Farm on Alternative Energy in 2003: Long description of New York state efforts in alternative energy, and its proximity to the state nanotech facilities.

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 02:30:25 GMT

Materials News from MRS: Materials Research Society news, with much up to date detail on nanostructured materials.

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 21:10:07 GMT

Gateway Gears Up Grid Computing: Gateway Inc. is "linking thousands of display PCs in its nationwide chain of stores to create a grid computing environment capable of scaling to 14 teraflops of performance. Through its Processing on Demand initiative, which will be unveiled this week, Gateway is making available the computing power of almost 8,000 PCs spread across its 272 Gateway stores.. Because the company routinely upgrades the PCs in the stores, the computing capabilities on the grid feature the latest technologies, they said... Users pay 15 cents per processor hour to access as much power as they need—up to more than 14 teraflops, or 1 trillion floating-point operations per second." At 14-teraflops, according to a Top 500 Supercomputer ranking, "the second-most powerful supercomputer on the planet." If this catches on, there are lots of comparable networks of computers that could compete with gateway (or be aggregated into a single even more powerful grid service). I wonder how that will accelerate molecular modeling, both for biotech and nanotech.

Tue, 03 Dec 2002 03:46:45 GMT

Chemists build body fluid battery: "Our bodies could one day power their own electronic implants. Chemists have developed a miniature battery that could run on bodily fluids to drive sensors to monitor our health. The biofuel cell converts directly into electricity the energy produced when glucose reacts with oxygen during normal metabolism. It could be inserted in contact with glucose-containing body fluids under the skin or in the spinal cord, for example." Catalyst-covered carbon fibres are used. The cells are short-lived however, and are a long way from human application.

Sat, 23 Nov 2002 05:53:19 GMT

Designer Molecules Set the Trend for Advancing Science: "Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are developing computational tools to rapidly design and build new molecular structures and screen them before synthesizing the real molecule.. This new computer software program, called HostDesigner, can generate and evaluate millions of new molecular structures per minute on a desktop personal computer. In contrast, building one new molecular structure by hand takes about 15 minutes employing the graphical user interfaces present in most desktop modeling software. " The focus is on ligands that bond to metals, which are important in environmental cleanup.

Sat, 16 Nov 2002 18:08:38 GMT

Lightweight radiation-proof fabric: "The world's first lightweight radiation-proof fabric has been developed by a US company. Called Demron, its potential applications range from lightweight full-body suits - which would allow the wearer to move unencumbered in high-radiation areas - to protective tents and radiation-proof linings for aircraft and spacecraft. .. "The molecules are lined up to give the illusion of the presence of large atoms," says Hefler. The electrons are capable of deflecting beta radiation or absorbing the energy of alpha radiation and X-rays."

Fri, 15 Nov 2002 07:47:57 GMT

Nanotube yarn 30 cm long (in China): "A Chinese research team have found new approaches to pull carbon nanotubes into continuous yarns up to 30 centimetres long .. Another interesting finding is the conductivity and strength of the yarns can be enhanced by heating them at high temperatures. "

Fri, 15 Nov 2002 05:04:10 GMT

It Slices! It Dices! Nanotube Struts Its Stuff: Nice NYT review of nanotech developments. My favorite: "the world's smallest working gears. He mixed nanotubes into molten nylon and then squirted the nylon into a tiny mold. Instead of the outer skin cooling first, the heat-diffusing property of nanotubes kept the nylon uniformly molten as it filled every nook and cranny of the mold. That produced a finely chiseled gear about as wide as a human hair. The nanotubes also give it strength. Coincidentally, they also conduct electricity, a superfluous capability for a gear. Sometimes some of nanotubes' amazing properties are more than needed."

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 00:53:14 GMT

Smalley promoting nanotech for energy: Richard Smalley, who won a Nobel prize for discovering Buckminsterfullerene, is speaking before Congress and conferences promoting nanotech as an approach to better solar cells and other energy issues.

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 00:45:17 GMT

Nanocatalysis can extend fossil fuels: "Mr. Lee and his colleagues drew upon the nascent field of nanotechnology. They figured out how to use heat to separate coal into individual molecules so that molecules of sulfur, nitrogen, ash, and other impurities can be removed efficiently and inexpensively. Then they took the purified coal molecules, enriched them with hydrogen and produced liquid fuel. "With this technology," says Mr. Lee, "we clean the coal up before it is used as fuel instead of after." A report lists other applications of nanotech to enhance fossil fuels, like allow stranded gas, which accounts for 80% of known gas reserves, to be economically exploited, or enable recycling of plastics and spent oil into fuel.

Sat, 26 Oct 2002 00:51:16 GMT

Konarka Technologies: Firm commercializing Grätzel solar cells, backed by $ 13.5 m investment in Oct 2002, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. They aim to use either indoor or outdoor light, reaching consumer devices as well as traditional panels.

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 06:16:05 GMT

Biosensors: Brief review of R&D programs into biomedical sensors, using plastic semiconductors, MEMS, and "body area" networks.

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 05:35:07 GMT

Nano batteries: "In the first year of a five-year collaborative effort with three other institutions funded by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the research is showing progress toward its goal of creating a three-dimensional, millimeter-sized battery – considerably smaller than the centimeter-sized hearing aid batteries that are the smallest batteries on the market today. U Florida researchers have created both nano-anodes and nano-cathodes measured on the scale of billionths of a meter. They've shown in tests that these electrodes are as much as 100 times more powerful than traditional ones... Lithium-ion battery electrodes might sustain an average of 500 charges and discharges before wearing out .. , the nano-electrodes sustained as many as 1,400 charges.

[Like] lithium-ion batteries, these batteries are made of composites of small particles. Their ability to produce power depends on lithium ions diffusing throughout these particles. While microscopic, the particles are large enough to be measured in microns, or millionths of a meter. The nano-battery approach seeks to replace these particles with particles measured in billionths of a meter, which would enhance power storage and production because the lithium ions would have less distance to travel as they diffuse. Micro-batteries also could power tiny pumps or presses in MEMS devices."

Sun, 29 Sep 2002 07:43:57 GMT

Chemist Creates Structure In Amorphous Materials: "A chemist, Dr. James Martin, at North Carolina State University has made breakthrough discoveries that advance basic understandings of the nature of liquids and glasses at the atomic and molecular levels. Featured in the Sept. 26 issue of Nature, these discoveries could lead to the development of totally new materials with useful optical and electronic properties - as well as applications not yet foreseen. " New theories allow the design and evaluation of new amorphous structures, followed by their construction in a lab.

Sat, 28 Sep 2002 00:14:03 GMT

New microchip pumps liquid, not electrons: "This "microfluidic" lab-on-a-chip fits thousands of microscopic valves onto a square inch"

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 07:15:36 GMT

Scientists, Environmentalists Spar Over Nanotechnology: "Like biotechnology before it, nanotechnology is stirring up opposition from environmentalists concerned about the unintended consequences -- on the Earth and in our bodies -- of setting loose molecule-sized machines and devices."

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 04:51:36 GMT

Nanotechnology May Aid Environment: "The National Science has been cutting its timetable for the release of nanotech-fueled products from five or 10 years to two or three years, said Mihail Roco, NSF's senior adviser on nanotechnology. Roco envisions a $1 trillion yearly market in products that carry nano-components, including all computer chips, half of pharmaceuticals and half of chemical catalysts. The current state of nanotechnology mirrors the level of development in the field of polymers and plastics in the 1930s, when it was in its infancy, said Kevin Ausman, director of the Rice University Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology. ..

For scientists who study it, nanotechnology is considered a clean technology — perhaps even the key to solving some current environmental ills. .. for instance, filter systems for drinking or waste water, natural gas pipelines and smokestacks can be designed at the molecular level, to remove even the most minuscule of impurities... Nanoparticles are also being examined for use as sensors to monitor air or drinking water for the presence of toxins. .. Pollution-absorbing nanoparticles that can be used to clean up tainted water or soil is another concept under study, Roco said. And the entire concept of nanotechnology — building devices at the molecular level — means that products will be smaller. There is less waste in the production process and in the trash, when nano-devices are discarded at the end of their lives, Roco said. "

Sun, 08 Sep 2002 14:22:37 GMT

Scientists demonstrate atomic-scale memory: "The new memory was constructed on a silicon surface that automatically forms furrows within which rows of silicon atoms are aligned and rest like tennis balls in a gutter. By lifting out single silicon atoms with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, the Wisconsin team created gaps that represent the 0s of data storage while atoms left in place represent the 1s. Like conventional memory, the atomic-scale device can be initialized, formatted, written and read at room temperature. .. It provides a storage density a million times greater than a CD-ROM. .. [Its] memory density is comparable to the way nature stores data in DNA molecules. The Wisconsin atomic-scale silicon memory uses 20 atoms to store one bit of information, including the space around the single atom bits. DNA uses 32 atoms to store information in one half of the chemical base pair that is the fundamental unit that makes up genetic information. "

Tue, 21 May 2002 06:29:45 GMT

Carbon nanotubes to improve solar cells: "Researchers from Cambridge University's engineering department have developed photovoltaic devices that, when doped with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), perform better than undoped devices." Further research includes comparisons with buckyballs, and incorporation of organic dyes.

Fri, 03 May 2002 07:59:24 GMT

Carbon nanocables created: ""Carbon nanotubes are generally (millionths of an inch long), which is not enough for any practical purpose.. We have created strands with nearly aligned nanotubes that are as long as 20 centimeters (eight inches).""

Tue, 30 Apr 2002 05:09:42 GMT

Mirror Fibers Could Create Photonic Fabrics: "MIT’s mirror can reflect light from all angles and polarizations, just like metallic mirrors, but unlike its metal counterpart can also be "tuned" to reflect certain wavelength ranges while transmitting others. As a result, an array of mirror fibers or even a single fiber can be "tuned" to reflect light at different wavelengths to create a kind of optical bar code .. Fibers could also be designed to reflect thermal radiation over various ranges. The resulting fabric could then be cut into a protective suit. . [Material] was drawn into hundreds of meters of thread-like fiber with 21 microscopic layers. Each layer is only a few hundred nanometers thick, thus spanning 9 orders of dimensional magnitude in a single processing step."

Tue, 30 Apr 2002 05:02:12 GMT

Carbon Nanotubes Ignite When Exposed to Flash: "While the initial surprise is that the nanotubes will ignite upon exposure to a camera flash, perhaps most exciting is that fact that the nanotubes are transformed into new carbon structures in the absence of oxygen. It is an illustration of how new behavior is observed at the nanometer scale"

Wed, 24 Apr 2002 06:38:45 GMT

Polymer Membranes Filter out the Small Molecules: Nanocomposite membranes could prove useful in seawater desalination, environmental cleanup and other tasks involving molecular separations. These separations are most often accomplished today using energy- and capital-intensive technologies such as distillation, absorption and adsorption

Tue, 23 Apr 2002 01:35:09 GMT

Details on the inkjet printing of displays and solar cells, and the Berkeley nanorods: "The inkjet-based process may also be useful in "printing" solar cells, though Jabbour notes that cheap, photovoltaic wallpaper or thin films is "years away" from being commercialized. To date, Jabbour and other University of Arizona scientists have fabricated plastic solar cells that are about one-fourth as efficient as solar panels made with silicon. ... The process for making solar cells is similar to how Jabbour has made light-emitting images. "

Tue, 16 Apr 2002 13:28:18 GMT

Rice U Research Yields "Designer" Carbon Nanotubes, Addition Of Fluorine Opens Door To Hundreds Of Nanotube Derivatives: "Fluorine, which is often shunned by chemists because of its highly reactive nature, has proven to be very useful as an alternative means of creating nanotube derivatives, precisely for that reason. The addition of fluorine opens the door to subsequent chemical reactions, giving chemists the ability to attach other types of molecules to nanotubes. So far, Margrave and his colleagues have used this process to create dozens of "designer" nanotube derivatives. .. Potential applications for the nanotube derivatives are still being identified, but hydrotubes, which contain hydrogen in an activated form, might find a use as an ultra efficient fuel, and silicate-coated nanotubes could be used in nanoscale electronic devices"

Tue, 16 Apr 2002 06:48:47 GMT

Nanocomposites for dense plastic foams: The foams are strong and light and could replace many solid plastics, and upgrade many products made of plastic foams today (insulaton, cushions, containers). The foams use nanoparticles of materials like clay to increase the foam's density. Small bubbles tend to form around the nanoparticles and cling to them. While most structural-grade plastic foam contains bubbles of several hundred micrometers across, the bubbles in these nanocomposite foams are as small as 5 micrometers. Another major innovation of these foams is that they use superheaded CO2 instead of CFCs in production.

Sun, 14 Apr 2002 08:19:56 GMT

Thinner Materials Improve Flexible Solar Cells, Flat Panel Displays: Virginia Tech researchers create films in one-nanometer-thick layers. They select materials that will self-assemble. Positively and negatively charged molecules are elercctrically attracted to one another. Building materials based on this attraction is called ionic self-assembled multilayers (ISAM). The researchers are using polymers and fullerenes.

So far, the efficiency of organic solar cells is only about 20 percent of silicon. The Virginia Tech researchers use ultra-thin layers of fullerenes that act as electron acceptors, which they have demonstrated increases the efficiency of the organic solar cells. The problem being solved by nanotechnology is the distance between the materials that are electron donors and acceptors. The fullerene has to be within 10 nanometers of where the light is absorbed for current to be created. "We believe we can improve the efficiency by factors of five or 10 through nanoscale control of the composition and thickness," Heflin says. "We expect organic solar cells will be at least as efficient as silicon within five years."

They have also created thin film that can be changed from transparent to deep violet and back as rapidly as 20 times per second, close to what's needed for displays.

Sun, 14 Apr 2002 08:14:07 GMT

Optical Scientist Creates Inkjet Printed Light-Emitting Devices: "basically, we take a picture, or design an electronic circuit, scan it to computer, then send it to the printer." Other applications of the process include solar cells and security imaging.

Tue, 09 Apr 2002 06:21:24 GMT

Japan'S AIST Develops Ultra Low-Power Carbon Nanotube Field : The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a carbon nanotube field emitter, and succeeded in discharging electrons by applying 4V, 1/10 to 1/100 the level of conventional silicon or metal-based field emitters. .. pav[ing] the way to use field emitters for low-power flat panel displays including mobile device displays"

Mon, 08 Apr 2002 20:19:23 GMT

Walking Small: MIT's BioInstrumentation Laboratory is building an fleet of thumb-sized robots that will be able to measure and assemble structures at a molecular level. "Nanowalkers" have been able to take 4,000 nanoscale steps per second—that is, steps that are only a few billionths of a meter each. They envision one hundred or more robots deployed on a project, each equipped with a different instrument, working on separate but related tasks: While one NanoWalker tests a material's strength, another would measure its optical properties. Both would transmit their results to the central computer, which would incorporate the information and then issue new directions.

Mon, 08 Apr 2002 20:09:01 GMT

Nanocoating protects materials, making 'nanosteel': "A composite material, made up of steel alloy clumps with only a few molecules per particle, could turn inexpensive, ordinary metals into durable building materials, researchers at the Idaho National Energy and Environment Laboratories said. The ... method involves creating alloys that solidify in a glass-like structure. Crushing the alloy creates a powder that, when applied at high temperature, bonds with other metals to form a very dense coating, with each particle about 50 nanometers in diameter. This process allows stronger atomic bonds in the material..."

Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:15:31 GMT

The Alivisatos Group is a research group at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laborartory that is responsible for the new nanoparticle+plastic solar cells. The group has received heavy coverage, some with interviews. Their site has a directory of related researchers.

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 08:26:44 GMT

More info on the new plastic solar cell, including how it might be improved.

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 08:21:40 GMT

Nanoparticle Safety: Science News Online, March 30, 2002: "some researchers are beginning to look at the potential consequences of putting the new materials into the environment or the body."

Sun, 31 Mar 2002 06:28:27 GMT

Nanotech could power future magnets: background on nanocrystalline magnetic materials and how they lead to more powerful permanent magnets for things like more efficient motors and levitated trains.

Sat, 30 Mar 2002 16:30:05 GMT

Progress on cheap plastic solar cells, using self-assembly of nanorods a dozen atoms long. One use could be clothing (for charging personal electronics). Efficiency is only 1.7%, with improvements expected leading to commercialization predicted in 3 years. Company is NanoSys, located in Palo Alto.

Thu, 28 Mar 2002 17:57:44 GMT

NASA-supported research is promoting a space elevator with a cable made of carbon nanotubes. It estimates a cost of $5-10B, deliverable in 10-15 years.

Sat, 23 Mar 2002 19:38:40 GMT

A light-sensitive plastic magnet offers new opportunities for light-controlled magnetic materials. The new plastic magnet becomes 1.5 times more magnetic when blue light shines on it. Green light partially reverses the effect. Such magnets have potential for new applications in electronic data storage. The magnet functions up to a temperature of 75 K. This temperature approaches that of today's high-temperature superconductors.

Thu, 07 Feb 2002 08:20:12 GMT

Several recent developments in making nanowires and nanocomponents:

lattices with junctions of incompatible materials at Berkeley and in Sweden using simple gas deposition or lasers
high rates of electron transfer with very low resistance using an organic molecule called OPV
mass fabrication of nanowires using electron-beam lithography with layers of organic molecules to create gaps ("molecular rulers") where the wires will be made
by rotating a carbon nanotube, researchers can control its ability to conduct electrical current to another material, opening the potential for faster and more efficient electromechanical devices

These links come from SpaceDaily which has many fascinating stories.

Tue, 29 Jan 2002 12:44:45 GMT

University at Buffalo chemists have taken "a major step toward placing hundreds, and possibly even thousands, of reusable chemical sensors in an area smaller than a dime... It could transform sensor technology by providing agricultural, clinical, environmental and pharmaceutical laboratories with a small, fast and portable methodology for simultaneously detecting numerous chemicals in a sample a hundred or a thousand times smaller than a drop of water... The research overcomes a key obstacle in exploiting high-tech materials called xerogels."

Mon, 28 Jan 2002 22:41:45 GMT

The classic powers of 10 images, with automatic or manual control.

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 03:32:23 GMT

Tiny wires: "Scientists at Hewlett-Packard Co. and UCLA said Wednesday they have patented a means of getting around a significant hurdle in the race to build computer chips at the molecular level." Namely, they have come up with a patented method to make wires 10 atoms wide by 2 atoms tall. "I believe that in 10 years we definitely will have hybrid molecular-silicon circuitry," HP's R. Stanley Williams said. "Molecules will take over more of the computational tasks of the system and the silicon will become just the input-output device and the power supply."

Fri, 25 Jan 2002 06:27:51 GMT

University of Southern California School researchers are building nanoscale sensors and plan to build nanoscale robots soon. Marine aplications include sensing ocean water salinity and the presence of 'brown tide' algae. "The USC researchers will first build small robots that will move, sense and communicate while tethered in a tank of water in a laboratory. They will gradually progress to building and controlling increasingly larger numbers of increasingly smaller freely moving robots. The end goal of the project will be to create robots that are as small as the microorganisms that they seek to monitor."

Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:57:50 GMT

Goats as molecular assemblers: Spider silk is a water-soluble protein which spiders force through a tiny hole in their bodies to spin as thread. It is five times stronger than steel by weight. Scientists at a company called Nexia put spider genes in mammal cells and now have two genetically modified goats that produce the protein in their milk. An enlarged herd may soon make commercial quantities, expected to be useful for military body armour, medical sutures and biodegradable fishing lines.

Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:27:53 GMT

A P2P network for molecular analysis to fight anthrax is being sponsored by Intel and others. It's modelled on a similar effort against leukemia which has harnessed 1.6 million PCs worldwide. "Scientists have discovered that the anthrax toxin is made up of three proteins that are not toxic on their own but become toxic after binding together. The Oxford scientists want to scan 3.5 billion molecular compounds to see if any can block the process and keep the toxin from reproducing... If the project attracts more than 160,000 participants, it can give researchers more computational power than the world's 10 best supercomputers combined."

Tue, 15 Jan 2002 07:32:09 GMT

Scientific American has a "channel" on nanotech. Recent stories include progress in the use of nanotubes in batteries, and a review of nanotube applications including displays and materials.

Tue, 15 Jan 2002 01:20:30 GMT

Mitsui to build carbon nanotube plant. Japan Today Dec 27 2001. Expected prices to reach 10,000 yen (about $80) per kilogram. In April, the plant will start producing 20-nanometre carbon nanotubes with an annual output of one tonne, increasing to a capacity of 120 tons in the future.

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 00:04:18 GMT

Superconducting Metals Research Breaks The Law: Scientific understanding of metals has until now been governed by the Wiedemann-Franz law. "Simply put, the rule generally was that a good conductor of heat was also a good conductor of electricity," says physics professor Louis Taillefer.. "But in these new copper oxide materials, the way the charge is conducted is completely unrelated to the way the heat is conducted, and that has a very large impact on how we understand these materials.. Once we gain a better understanding of how materials like these copper oxides work, it could open a window on a whole class of materials that have completely different sets of laws and properties"

Fri, 07 Dec 2001 20:07:09 GMT

Dutch team uses nanostructures to produce logic gates, an oscillator and electron beams. CERN Courier Dec 6. A research team in the Netherlands used different combinations of "nanotube transistors" to create several devices, including a voltage inverter and a NOR logic gate.

Fri, 07 Dec 2001 20:04:43 GMT

Small-diameter nanotubes can become superconducting. "The tubes, which have diameters of only 4 ¥ 10-8 cm, appear to become superconducting at about 15 K - much higher than the liquid helium temperatures normally associated with superconductivity... Calculations indicate that the smaller the tube diameter, the higher the superconducting temperature." CERN Courier Dec 6 2001

Fri, 07 Dec 2001 08:13:06 GMT

Researchers Spin Electrons with Electricity The team's results, described in a report appearing today in the journal Nature, may one day help to scientists realize the ideal of spintronics—quantum computing based on electron spin states rather than charge. .. "It's a scalable, controllable way to manipulate the electron's spin at the nanometer scale.."

Fri, 30 Nov 2001 19:29:30 GMT

Scientists Engineer 'Made to Order' Crystal. "The scientists assembled a framework consisting of flexible hydrogen-bonded sheets supported by banana-shaped pillars. By forcing the pillars to line up in the same direction, the researchers created channels that could only hold guest molecules in one orientation."

Thu, 29 Nov 2001 08:08:48 GMT

Researchers find signs that multiwalled carbon nanotubes may be room temperature superconductors.