NANOTECH INNOVATIONS

Since early civilisation, mankind learnt that metals can be melted and recast into desired mould-determined shapes. At the dawn of this millennium, Anat Hatzor and Paul S Weiss from Pennsylvania State University developed the smallest-ever mould on the scale of a few molecules. The mould consists of parallel gold nanostructures on a silicate substrate developed using standard electron-beam lithography. By applying layers of organic molecules, the widths of the gold nanostructures widen, thereby narrowing the gaps between the strips of gold. These gaps work as the mould for casting thin wires 15-70nm wide. With a spacing of 10-40nm, these gaps allow numerous nanowires to be moulded at one time.

Most nanotubes, if not all, are made from carbon. Erman Bengu and Laurence D Marks recently developed nanotubes from two elements - boron and nitrogen. These boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) have higher tolerance to heat and are less likely to oxidise. To produce BNNT, they sprayed boron and energetic nitrogen atoms onto a heated tungsten surface in a vacuum so that the nanotubes grew as a kind of hair. The BNNT, according to Marks, has the potential for use in reducing friction on bearings in heavy machinery.

There are many applications of nanotubes that have the potential to change the face of humankind. Nanotechnology could change everything and the purpose of nanotubes is change the way we treat diseases to how we purchase our everyday essentials like food.

While most applications for nanotubes are still quite futuristic, the progress in this relatively young science has been astonishing. The 1990s and the early part of the 21st century has proven to be a continuous developmental promise for the applications of carbon nanotubes.

Nanotubes are a round connection of atoms that create one of three distinctive patterns, capped at the ends by fullerene molecules. These tubes can be manipulated with care to conduct electricity and to withstand very great stresses.

The nanotubes are stronger than steel and can be directed to take on specific human cell or be used to create special coatings for the quantum wires that can be used for a host of potential applications of nanotechnology.

While the idea of materialization is still rather far from our current reality, but this could essentially become another application for nanotubes, nanotechnology, and the high tech communications that would be necessary for such an event. The idea is that nanotechnology could potentially dispense with the need for a monetary system.

With materialization, high tech machines would allow people to simply push a button for their daily needs. The molecular structure of the item would be completed by the machines that are in each home. With this sort of immediate response system, there would be no need for money in our society for daily items.

The idea might seem far fetched and even in the realm of science fiction, but the potential is there as one of the many applications of nanotubes.

Nanotubes are very good at conducting communicative impulses, whether in the body or through technological devices. With the creation of special coatings for the nanotubes, the science may very well give sight to the blind, sound to the hearing impaired, and motion to the paralyzed.

Medically speaking we could soon find a new field of specialty known as nanosurgery. In these procedures, cancer cells or other diseased cells could be eradicated from the body and then replaced by engineered nanotubes that are ready to redevelop the diseased cells with healthy impulses.

It is speculated that the application of nanotubes in medical procedures are likely to completely change the way illness and injury are handled.

Ecologically speaking, nanotubes can change the way we perform ecological research. With the nanotubes, we can create very tiny chips that can record and transmit information that is vital to understanding the way the creatures within the environment are being affected by the changing world.

Through these observations, we can then determine the best way to coexist with the natural world while understanding the impact on ecology we have all the way down to insects and fauna.

The purpose of nanotubes is to potentially help with understanding the realm of space. Scientists can create computers that are crafted from particles and wires that are as small as human cells.

This would mean that we would be able to send these ultra tiny communication devices farther into space.

Since the nanotube is about 100 times stronger than steel, the chances of it making back to Earth despite the atmospheric conditions are probable. Scientists could then download or track the information from these tiny computer devices in order to know what lays beyond the limits of human exploration of space.

As the science of nanotechnology progresses the applications for nanotechnology will grow and expand. Many nano scientists believe that there will be no limits to the power of progress that nanotubes will introduce to the world over the next fifty years.

Because this science is so young, it is almost impossible to predict just how much something that measures one tenth the width of a human hair will be able to change our world and improve our living conditions.

Everything from ultra smart nano robots to changes in the health care options patients have, and even the potential to engineer our children to be smarter and faster people could be the result of finding new applications for nanotubes.

Nanotechnology focuses on manipulating atoms individually and placing them in a pattern to produce a desired structure. It is diverse field that has various branches colloidal science, applied physics, material science, supramolecular chemistry, device physics and even electrical and mechanical engineering. Nanotechnology uses two main approaches, known as to-up and bottom-down approaches.

In the "top-down" approach, the nano-objects are assembled from larger molecular objects without atomic-level control. In the "bottom-up" approach, materials and devices are built from molecular components which constructs chemically by the principles of molecular recognition. Instances of nanotechnology in recent use are the production of polymers based on molecular structure, and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science. When the nanotechnology is implemented in image analysis software, some computers are able to study a consumer's body language and, with exact programming can precisely understand a person's position, impatience and diverse facial expressions like frowning, smiling or scowling.

Human skin has the ability of broadcasting the electric signals which can be used as a method of transmission, researchers have already been able to develop computers that are designed with nano sensors that have the strange ability to 'see' and 'hear' the people using them in reality. Nanotechnology would facilitate manufacturing of new generation of computer components with massive storage capacity. In the field of computer science, there is something called as Moore's Law which states that, in layman's terms, the processing abilities of the basic computer chip have been increasing exponentially to a greater heights every eighteen months since their inception.

The evolution of the computers clearly shows us that mechanical computing tradition was not completely abandoned. In 1990, University of Minnesota engineers fabricated an entire family of micromechanical digital logic devices, including electrostatically-actuated linear sliding micron mechanical logic elements limited to a one-dimensional track, suitable for low speed radiation-hard digital works in an environment hostile to the electronic devices to operate. Perhaps the best-characterized mechanical nanocomputer is Drexler's rod logic design which is though not yet built. In this model, one sliding rod with a knob interconnects at first a second knobbed sliding rod at right angles. Based upon the location of the first rod, the second may be able to move, or unable to move. This straightforward blocking contact serves as the basis for logical operations.

There has been a lot of research work going on this for the betterment of the mankind. In a press meet to Journal of Applied Sciences Hewlett-Packard said that their scientists have invented an alternative to eventually replace the transistors in computers. This was demonstrated by their Quantum Science Research group. They have invented a "crossbar latch," which supplies the signal restoration and inversion necessary for general computing without the need for transistors.

Nanotechnology has worked its way into the field of processing. Nanoparticles are defined as units of substance that maintain that substance's properties that exist between 100 and 2500 nanometers. Particles smaller than this are considered "ultrafine," while particles that lose the original substance's properties would simply be considered another material altogether. While seeds of nanoparticle research date back a millennia, most of the great advancements have taken place within the last century. Scientists are especially intrigued by nanoparticles as a "missing link" between viewable materials and their atomic or even subatomic structures. The output of this research has made its way into the processing industry, with some of the benefits being felt immediately.

For example, in the medical industry, the processing of nanoparticles is allowing for the mass production of multiple drugs that once was deemed impossible or too difficult or time consuming to be deemed of any value. Breaking down materials to the nanoparticle level increases the overall surface area of a material for a given size (compared to if the material were intact) which makes it more soluble or dissolvable in water and other liquids. This allows manufactures to fit more substances into a given product or create new compounds at the nanoparticle level. This could be done before modern day nanoparticle research, but was a painstaking process that had to be done individually for each product. By increasing the efficiency for producing a given product, costs are made more manageable and we see the production of certain materials that simply was not feasible for previous manufacturers.

Nanoparticle processing is not without its challenges. The obvious issues lie with managing and developing materials that are, for the most part, invisible to the naked eye. But, for producers, one of the greatest challenges is posed with mixing nanoparticles for the product. Certain types of mixers can lead to contamination or an uneven mix. Ensuring a that the particles are mixed evenly is key for any type of manufactured product, but with nanoparticles, simply viewing the mixture after the fact will likely prove to be insufficient, so ensuring a proper mixture from the get go is key.

With this in mind, planetary mixers have proven to be very effective for the mixture of nanoparticles for industries that require their processing. Often used for creating pastes, planetary mixers have proven effective for mixing nanoparticles evenly across a variety of process sizes (up to 750 gallons in practice). Planetary mixers typically come in two varieties, single arm and double arm. These arms extend through the containment unit with smaller perpendicular arms extending out from the main arm. The overall effect is that virtually the entire product is subject to mixing at all times within the basin.

Nanotechnology is here and will only continue to grow in use and popularity in the coming decade. Where once the challenges existed in synthesizing these materials, the issues now lie more in how to work with materials that are already in existence. Having the proper equipment to deal with the challenges posed by working with such tiny materials will be vital in taking advantages of the developments in this field.