NANOTECH INNOVATIONS

On the distant horizon is molecular nanotechnology, literally the organization of matter at molecular scales. Imagine, for example, “smart” clothing, in which the molecules comprising the fabric can change in response to weather. The idea, as sketched by the late Richard Feynman at a meeting of the American Physical Society at Caltech in 1959 and elaborated on later by many others, is to enable the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules, using proportionally smaller tools to build and operate even smaller tools.

Biological systems are the perfect models for molecular nanotechnology, inspiring future nanotechnology. The capabilities of biological systems put present technology to shame.

Although nanotechnology is often relegated to the field of materials science, by taking a closer look at biological systems, it could one day have a profound effect on the earth sciences. In particular, millennia-old notions of what a “resource” is, and the collection and use of energy, are both likely to change beyond recognition.

Fuel laws

Current technology squanders energy because most of it is used as heat. Indeed, we could speak of the “heat” crisis rather than the “energy” crisis. Fuels, after all, are burned! Two-thirds of gas in an automobile’s tank, for example, goes right out the radiator. Due to the Carnot limit, a law that stems directly from fundamental constraints imposed by thermodynamics, even the most efficient heat engines waste at least half the applied energy.

Because electric batteries and motors are not heat engines, they are not subject to the Carnot limit, making them much more efficient. Conventional batteries, however, have other engineering issues such as low energy density and slow recharge times. Instead, fuel cells are a promising alternative.

While similar to a battery, fuel cells allow for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed — producing electricity from an external supply of fuel and oxygen as opposed to relying on the limited energy storage capacity of a battery. And contrary to popular belief, fuel cells do not necessarily require hydrogen.

Practical fuel cells using, say, hydrocarbons or alcohols lie beyond present technological capabilities, as converting the chemical energy of fuels directly into electricity requires a highly controlled molecular-scale reaction. This process requires catalysts that are both extremely specific and robust, and hence well structured at the nanoscale. Better catalysts in general are an obvious application of near-term nanotechnology, and will have further profound and ramifying effects on energy efficiency.

Another near-term nanotechnology solution involves solar energy. It is often claimed that the high energy density of conventional fuels is not reproducible by any conceivable alternatives, at least at the scale required for modern civilization. But the high energy density of conventional fuels is merely a brute-force solution that is compensating for the inefficiency of burning them. Thus, it is simply not true that solar power is incapable of powering a technological culture.

A high-tech culture is the only sort that can be run on solar power. After all, life itself, with its extraordinary capabilities of self-organization, synthesis and element separation, runs on solar power. That’s why it is amusing to consider, for example, the oft-proposed use of biomass for fuel: Burning material originally assembled, atom by atom, from diffuse sources of both energy and materials.

Artificial photosynthesis

Why is solar power usually thought to involve converting sunlight into electricity? Biology doesn’t do it that way. Natural photosynthesis stores the energy of sunlight in chemical bonds. That makes a lot more sense biologically, as well as technologically.

The conventional disadvantages of solar power are that it is intermittent, and difficult to transport and store. The last two disadvantages are true of electricity, no matter how it is created. Using sunlight to make fuels, however, would solve the intermittency problem: Fuel can accumulate whenever the sun is shining and then be used later when needed.

Acidic drainage from mines is a pollution problem that could one day be a potential resource, by using nanotechnology to separate valuable minerals and dispose of contaminants. Photo is courtesy of Stephen L. Gillett.

Artificial photosynthesis is now receiving much attention by industry and research groups. The most promising approaches are based on semiconductors — materials for controlling conductivity that make possible most of modern-day electronics, including computer chips and lasers.

As in a conventional photovoltaic (solar) cell, semiconducting materials, such as silicon, absorb solar radiation. That radiation knocks electrons loose to create a flow of current, and each excited electron leaves behind a vacancy, or “hole,” that acts like a single positive charge. Conventionally, the electrons and holes are forced to drive an electric circuit before they recombine. Instead of driving an external circuit, however, technical alterations can make the hole and electron drive chemical reactions that store energy.

Most research has focused on “water splitting,” the production of hydrogen gas from water, but alternative fuel generation is possible. Familiar semiconductors, such as silicon, are too vulnerable to oxidation reactions to be used in such photochemical applications. Work instead has focused on oxide semiconductors, such as titanium dioxide, which remain stable indefinitely in an oxygen-water environment. Reaction takes place at the wetted interface between the water and semiconductor.

To be practical, however, such semiconductor surfaces will require near-molecular-scale structuring. Because the electrons and holes can combine to form heat, nanostructuring of the surface is necessary to ensure reasonable charge separation. At present, “decorating” the surface with nanoparticles of a precious metal, such as platinum, is the favored method of ensuring charge separation, but obviously this increases both expense and complexity.

An ironic result of such technologies is that desert areas, with their year-round sunlight, could become major fuel production centers. In particular, the nations of the Middle East could continue exporting fuel indefinitely, albeit in competition with other deserts throughout the world.

Pollutant v. Resource

A fundamental technical problem involves separating one kind of atom or molecule from a background of others: pollutants from wastewater, metals from ores, salt from seawater. Separation is basic to purification, pollution control and resource extraction. Defining the process is a question of context: If we want what we separated, it is a resource; otherwise it is a pollutant.

Traditionally, however, separation has been viewed as the source of a host of different problems. In particular, researchers have seen resource extraction not only as distinct from pollution control, but also as intrinsically energy-intensive. In turn, its profligate energy usage is typically justified by vague appeals to the laws of thermodynamics.

Yet, quantitatively, element separation is not intrinsically expensive. Do not merely believe thermodynamic calculations: Bio-logical systems underscore how woefully inefficient conventional separation processes are, as they perform feats that put conventional resource extraction to shame.

Organisms do not carry out thermally driven phase separation. Instead, they literally move individual atoms or molecules, using specialized mechanisms — for example the binding of nutrient elements by specialized proteins. These molecular-scale processes are vastly less costly energetically and allow separation from considerably lower concentrations.

Plant roots extract both nutrients and water at low concentrations from the ambient soil. Vertebrate kidneys extract only certain solutes out of the blood from a background of many other solutes. For photosynthesis, plants extract carbon dioxide from the air, where its concentration is only about 350 parts per million, and furthermore do so using only the diffuse and intermittent energy of sunlight. Diatoms are particularly impressive, building shells from silica extracted at parts-per-million levels from the ambient water.

Organic compounds called “crown ethers,” shown here schematically, could be key players in nanotechnology designed to extract metals. The ring, or “crown,” changes in structure by substituting differently sized atoms, such as potassium or lithium, for oxygen in the crown. Image is courtesy of Stephen L. Gillett.

Again, the reason why conventional resource extraction is so energy expensive is because it largely relies on vast quantities of heat, in this case to drive the partitioning of elements into coexisting phases. Not only do such processes require a lot of energy, but they also are intrinsically polluting, both due to the combustion necessary to generate the heat and because the separation is never complete. Moreover, byproducts containing geochemically abundant elements, such as iron in copper ores, are usually uneconomic and discarded as waste.

Thermal-based separation is also impractical for pollution control and purification. Of course, that’s why such problems are traditionally viewed as distinct from resource extraction. Indeed, a number of embryonic molecular separation technologies already exist whose development has largely been driven by addressing purification issues.

Extracting solutions

In their simplest form, molecular separation techniques require that the material being separated be free to flow as a gas or a liquid. Selectivity of the separation is also fundamental: Usually only one particular dissolved species is of interest, but it is dispersed in a background of many others. Sometimes the species is valuable (for example, palladium and lithium), whereas in other cases it is toxic (for example, lead and cadmium).

One particular set of approaches toward selective molecular separation has been the focus of a tremendous amount of research in recent decades. Such efforts involve molecules with branched and ring structures that can bind tightly and specifically only with certain solutes. For instance, a group of organic molecules called crown ethers are highly effective extraction agents for many metal ions.

Crown ethers are strongly selective. The ring, or “crown,” changes in structure by substituting differently sized atoms, such as nitrogen and sulfur, for oxygen in the crown. For example, the crown ether 18-crown-6 forms a strong complex with the potassium ion, which fits nicely into the ring, whereas the smaller ring of 12-crown-4 strongly binds with the lithium ion, but is too small to accommodate potassium.

One application of such a separation system is to tether the extraction agent to a substrate to form a highly selective surface for extracting particular solutes from solution. For example, researchers have used a substituted crown ether tethered to a silica surface to recover palladium from scrap catalytic converters dissolved in acid. The palladium is bound, while the other much more abundant metals remain in solution.

The major problem with such approaches to separation is that eventually the solute must release its captured ions to regenerate the extraction agent. Typically this takes extreme chemical measures. In the palladium recovery system, for example, highly concentrated acid must be used to flush out the palladium.

Such steps generate a much larger volume of wastewater that now becomes a serious disposal problem. Separation requiring washing with fluids can be practical for recovery of highly valuable commodities like palladium, but its applications are obviously limited.

So-called switchable binding provides a way to solve the problem: Under one set of circumstances, binding occurs, but changing some variable causes the solute to unbind again. Again, biology has anticipated technology. Hemoglobin, for example, binds strongly to oxygen in the lungs, but under different chemical conditions elsewhere in the body, it gives up the oxygen to the tissues.

An example of switchable binding is “electrosorption,” which is based on straightforward principles of attraction and repulsion. Charging an electrode attracts ions with the opposite charge; reversing the charge of the electrode desorbs the ions again. Although first proposed in the 1960s for desalination, electrosorption remained impractical until the recent advent of nanostructured electrodes with very high surface areas. Because the “filled up” electrodes look like a charged capacitor, too, a great deal of the electrical energy can be recovered when the ions are desorbed.

More selective approaches require more molecular-scale structuring. For example, researchers have patented a process for extracting lithium ion from brine that uses electrodes made of a form of crystalline manganese dioxide. In the process, the electrode becomes negative, which leaves the crystal with an overall negative charge, so positive lithium cations are drawn into tunnels in the structure to compensate. Lithium cations can fit into these tunnels, whereas larger cations cannot. Reversing the charge on the manganese dioxide electrode then expels the lithium.

A similar system for extracting cesium ion is based on cesium nickel hexacyanoferrate. Here, the crystal structure contains large cavities that can accommodate the big cesium ion. Again, on applying a negative voltage, cesium cations are drawn in to compensate. The system is of great interest for extracting highly radioactive cesium-137 from nuclear waste.

An alternative potential trigger for switching binding is light. One way is to use molecules that change their structure upon absorbing a photon. The “backbone” of spiropyrans, a specialized class of molecules, for example, rearranges so drastically that a solution containing the molecule actually changes color when illuminated. Strategically arranging the extracting groups on the backbone can make the molecule go from binding solutes in its ground state to releasing them upon illumination.

A different approach uses the absorption of light by a semiconductor surface, but such systems are nascent. In this case, the photogenerated electric charge would drive molecular mechanisms at the surface. For example, a surface might adsorb ions from a solution in the dark, but desorb those ions when illuminated. Merely shining sunlight on a surface to desorb its solutes would obviously be much cleaner and “greener” than flushing it with strong acid solutions!

Blurring the lines

At present, pollution control and purification are the key economic drivers for these separation technologies. As they mature, however, they will blur the distinction between a “pollutant” and a “resource.” Moreover, recovered pollutants will begin to have an impact on resource extraction. After all, copper extracted from a wastewater stream is copper that does not have to be mined.

Ultimately, a great many aqueous solutions, of both natural and artificial origin, will become nontraditional resources. Wastewater streams, acid-mine drainage, seawater, concentrated natural brines such as those in oilfields or saline lakes — sometimes viewed now as problems — all could become potential sources of materials with the help of nanotechnology. 

Australian researchers have made a new material that could revolutionise the electronics market with thinner, faster and lighter gadgets.

Others are using nano-inspired technology to detect cancers, deliver drugs into the bloodstream, explore for oil and gas in an environmentally friendly way, enhance security, purify water and make prosthetics.

Who knows what they could do next?

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Australian researchers want to remain among the world leaders of innovation and to snare a hefty share of the global nanotechnology product market that's tipped to be worth $3 trillion by 2020.

Nanotechnology has become a priority area for development and funding in many nations, including China.

And the sector appears to offer endless opportunities for different fields to team up to exploit the fact that seemingly stable materials develop weird and wonderful properties in the nano form.

Gold, for example, has scientists excited and not for its more than $US1600 an ounce price tag.

RMIT University's Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Suresh Bhargava says for centuries gold has been defined as a noble metal, or a stable one that's resistant to corrosion and oxidisation.

"But the same metal, when it comes to nano forms, is full of fantastic properties," Professor Bhargava says.

Nano sizes can be easier to comprehend when people realise a human hair is about 80,000 times bigger than a nano particle, the molecular biologist says.

One of Prof Bhargava's projects is using nano-engineered flecks of gold in a sensor to attract and measure one of the world's most poisonous air pollution substances, mercury.

"Mercury is a very toxic element. Sixty thousand babies in the US alone are born each year with mercury-related diseases," he says.

The sensor is almost ready for commercialisation and they are also working on ways to remove the toxic element from the air.

"It is not far away," he told AAP this week.

Australian researchers are also making waves in electronics.

They announced on Friday, in the journal Advanced Materials, they had developed a new two-dimensional material made up of layers of crystal known as molybdenum oxides, with properties that encourage the free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds.

This could boost speed of communication and capacitance - the ability to store an electrical charge in a small chip.

One of the team, CSIRO's Serge Zhuiykov, says the importance of the new discovery will mean they'll be able to transfer data more quickly, and the functionality of devices will improve.

"At the moment it is beyond our imagination where this new material could be applied, but it could be employed to create thinner mobile phones, new types of flexible electronics or lighter laptops," he said.

Prof Bhargava says nanotechnology is being exploited by a raft of industries including oil and gas exploration, where a lot of sensors are required.

"It can become more cost effective, more environmentally friendly, it is 21st century exploration," he said.

But one of the biggest hurdles to making the most of innovation in nanotechnology in Australia is getting support for multidisciplinary research through project funding, resourced networking and research infrastructure.

Vipul Bansal, of RMIT's School of Applied Sciences, is working on a nanochip biosensor for malaria and other diseases.

He is also using nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles and working with cancer researchers to improve detection imaging.

"The biggest challenge is lack of opportunity for biological scientists and material scientists to work together," Dr Bansal said.

People who work on the interface of medical and material sciences can't have research funded by the two main commonwealth funding bodies - the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council, he said.

"Commonwealth money is used but they don't work together, which is a shame," he said.

Prof Bhargava says competition for funding can impede co-operation.

"Instead of competing in the same area, when the market and the funding is getting very short, do it in a complementary way," he says.

Late last year the Australian Academy of Science's National Nanotechnology Research Strategy was launched with a warning that economies and industries that failed to invest in nano-inspired technology could be left behind as products with improved or new functionality replaced the old.

The national strategy called for industry, academia and government to form an alliance to maximise the potential economic, social and environmental gains made possible through nanotechnology.

Building complex products atom by atom with advanced nanotechnology: if and when this is accomplished, the resulting applications could radically transform many areas of human endeavor.

Products are manufactured in our modern industrial society for a variety of purposes, including transportation, recreation, communication, medical care, basic needs, military support, and environmental monitoring, among others. In this column I'll consider products in each category in order to convey a sense of the extent to which the early stages of the nanotech "revolution" could be limited by practical design problems, and to explore how those impacts, while limited, may still be quite profound.

Molecular manufacturing (MM) will be able to build a wide variety of products -- but only if their designs can be specified. If we know what kind of product we want and only need to enter the design into a CAD program, then certain nanofactory-built products may be relatively easy to design Extremely dense functionality, strong materials, integrated computers and sensors, and inexpensive full-product rapid prototyping will combine to make product design easier.

However, there are several reasons why the design of other products may be difficult. Requirements for backward compatibility, advanced requirements, complex or poorly understood environments, regulations, and lack of imagination are only a few of the reasons why a broad range of nanofactory products will be difficult to get right. Some applications will be a lot easier than others. So, let's look at what can -- and what can't -- be expected in the early stages of the "next industrial revlution."

Transportation is simple in concept: merely move objects or people from one place to another place. Efficient and effective transportation is quite a bit more difficult. Any new transportation system needs to be safe, efficient, rapid, and compatible with a wide range of existing systems. If it travels on roads, it will need to comply with a massive pile of regulations. If it uses installed pathways (future versions of train tracks), space will have to be set aside for right-of-ways. If it flies, it will have to be extremely safe to reassure those using it and avoid protest from those underneath.

Despite these problems, MM could produce fairly rapid improvements in transportation. There would be nothing necessarily difficult about designing a nanofactory-built automobile that exceeded all existing standards. It would be very cheap to build, and fairly efficient to operate -- although air resistance would still require a lot of fuel. Existing airplanes also could be replaced by nanofactory-built versions, once they were demonstrated to be safe. In both cases, a great deal of weight could be saved, because the motors would be many orders of magnitude smaller and lighter, and the materials would be perhaps 100 times as strong. Low-friction skins and other advances would follow shortly.

Molecular manufacturing could revolutionize access to space. Today's rockets can barely get there; they spend a lot of energy just getting through the atmosphere, and are not as efficient as they could be. The most efficient rocket nozzle varies as atmospheric pressure decreases, but no one has built a variable-nozzle rocket. Far more efficient, of course, would be to use an airplane to climb above most of the atmosphere, as Burt Rutan did to win the X Prize. But this has never been an option for large rockets. Another problem is that the cost of building rockets is astronomical: they are basically hand-built, and they must use advanced technology to minimize weight. This has caused rocketry to advance very slowly. A single test of a new propulsion concept may cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

When it becomes possible to build rockets with automated factories and materials ten times as strong and light as today's, rockets will become cheap enough to test by the dozen. Early advances could include disposable airplane components to reduce fuel requirements; far less weight required to keep a human alive in space; and far better instrumentation on test flights -- instrumentation built into the material itself -- making it easier and faster to determine the cause of failures. It seems likely that the cost of owning and operating a small orbital rocket might be no more than the cost of owning a light airplane today. Getting into space easily, cheaply, and efficiently will allow rapid development of new technologies like high-powered ion drives and solar sails. However, all this will rely on fairly advanced engineering -- not only for the advanced propulsion concepts, but also simply for the ability to move through the atmosphere quickly without burning up.

Recreation is typically an early beneficiary of inventiveness and new technology. Because many sports involve humans interacting directly with simple objects, advances in materials can lead to rapid improvements in products. Some of the earliest products of nanoscale technologies (non-MM nanotechnology) include tennis rackets and golf balls, and such things will quickly be replaced by nano-built versions. But there are other forms of recreation as well. Video games and television absorb a huge percentage of people's time. Better output devices and faster computers will quickly make it possible to provide users with a near-reality level of artificial visual and auditory stimulus. However, even this relatively simple application may be slowed by the need for interoperability: high-definition television has suffered substantial delays for this reason.

A third category of recreation is neurotechnology, usually in the form of drugs such as alcohol and cocaine. The ability to build devices smaller than cells implies the possibility of more direct forms of neurotechnology. However, safe and legal uses of this are likely to be quite slow to develop. Even illegal uses may be slowed by a lack of imagination and understanding of the brain and the mind. A more mundane problem is that early MM may be able to fabricate only a very limited set of molecules, which likely will not include neurotransmitters.

Medical care will be a key beneficiary of molecular manufacturing. Although the human body and brain are awesomely complex, MM will lead to rapid improvement in the treatment of many diseases, and before long will be able to treat almost every disease, including most or all causes of aging. The first aspect of medicine to benefit may be minimally invasive tests. These would carry little risk, especially if key results were verified by existing tests until the new technology were proved. Even with a conservative approach, inexpensive continuous screening for a thousand different biochemicals could give doctors early indications of disease. (Although early MM may not be able to build a wide range of chemicals, it will be able to build detectors for many of them.) Such monitoring also could reduce the consequences of diseases inadvertently caused by medical treatment by catching the problem earlier.

With full-spectrum continuous monitoring of the body's state of health, doctors would be able to be simultaneously more aggressive and safer in applying treatments. Individual, even experimental approaches could be applied to diseases. Being able to trace the chemical workings of a disease would also help in developing more efficient treatments for it. Of course, surgical tools could become far more delicate and precise; for example, a scalpel could be designed to monitor the type and state of tissue it was cutting through. Today, in advanced arthroscopic surgery, simple surgical tools are inserted through holes the size of a finger; a nano-built surgical robot with far more functionality could be built into a device the width of an acupuncture needle.

In the United States today, medical care is highly regulated, and useful treatments are often delayed by many years. Once the technology becomes available to perform continuous monitoring and safe experimental treatments, either this regulatory system will change, or the U.S. will fall hopelessly behind other countries. Medical technologies that will be hugely popular with individuals but may be opposed by some policy makers, including anti-aging, pro-pleasure, and reproductive technologies, will probably be developed and commercialized elsewhere.

Basic needs, in the sense of food, water, clothing, shelter, and so on, will be easy to provide with even minimal effort. All of these necessities, except food, can be supplied with simple equipment and structures that require little innovation to develop. Although directly manufacturing food will not be so simple, it will be easy to design and create greenhouses, tanks, and machinery for growing food with high efficiency and relatively little labor. The main limitation here is that without cleverness applied to background information, system development will be delayed by having to wait for many growing cycles. For this reason, systems that incubate separated cells (whether plant, animal, or algae) may be developed more quickly than systems that grow whole plants.

The environment already is being impacted as a byproduct of human activities, but molecular manufacturing will provide opportunities to affect it deliberately in positive ways. As with medicine, improving the environment will have to be done with careful respect for the complexity of its systems. However, also as with medicine, increased ability to monitor large areas or volumes of the environment in detail will allow the effects of interventions to be known far more quickly and reliably. This alone will help to reduce accidental damage. Existing damage that requires urgent remediation will in many cases be able to be corrected with far fewer side effects.

Perhaps the main benefit of molecular manufacturing for environmental cleanup is the sheer scale of manufacturing that will be possible when the supply of nanofactories is effectively unlimited. To deal with invasive species, for example, it may be sufficient to design a robot that physically collects and/or destroys the organisms. Once designed and tested, as many copies as required could be built, then deployed across the entire invaded range, allowed to work in parallel for a few days or weeks, and then collected. Such systems could be sized to their task, and contain monitoring apparatus to minimize unplanned impacts. Because robots would be lighter than humans and have better sensors, they could be designed to do significantly less damage and require far fewer resources than direct human intervention. However, robotic navigation software is not yet fully developed, and it will not be trivial even with million-times better computers. Furthermore, the mobility and power supply of small robots will be limited. Cleanup of chemical contamination in soil or groundwater also may be less amenable to this approach without significant disruption.

Advanced military technology may have an immense impact on our future. It seems clear that even a modest effort at developing nano-built weapon systems will create systems that will be able to totally overwhelm today's systems and soldiers. Even something as simple as multi-scale semi-automated aircraft could be utterly lethal to exposed soldiers and devastating to most equipment. With the ability to build as many weapons as desired, and with motors, sensors, and materials that far outclass biological equivalents, there would be no need to put soldiers on the battlefield at all. Any military operation that required humans to accompany its machines would quickly be overcome. Conventional aircraft could also be out-flown and destroyed with ease. In addition to offensive weapons, sensing and communications networks with millions if not billions of distributed components could be built and deployed. Software design for such things would be far from trivial, however.

It is less clear that a modest military development effort would be able to create an effective defense against today's high-tech attack systems. Nuclear explosives would have to be stopped before the explosion, and intercepting or destroying missiles in flight is not easy even with large quantities of excellent equipment. Hypersonic aircraft and battle lasers are only now being developed, and may be difficult to counter or to develop independently without expert physics knowledge and experience. However, even a near parity of technology level would give the side with molecular manufacturing a decisive edge in a non-nuclear exchange, because they could quickly build so many more weapons.

It is also uncertain what would happen in an arms race between opponents that both possessed molecular manufacturing. Weapons would be developed very rapidly up to a certain point. Beyond that, new classes of weapons would have to be invented. It is not yet known whether offensive weapons will in general be able to penetrate shields, especially if the weapons of both sides are unfamiliar to their opponents. If shields win, then development of defensive technologies may proceed rapidly until all sides feel secure. If offense wins, then a balance of terror may result. However, because sufficient information may allow any particular weapon system to be shielded against, there may be an incentive to continually develop new weapons.

This overview has focused on the earliest applications of molecular manufacturing. Later developments will benefit from previous experience, as well as from new software tools such as genetic algorithms and partially automated design. But even a cursory look at the things we can plan for today and the problems that will be most limiting early in the technology's history shows that molecular manufacturing will rapidly revolutionize many important areas of human endeavor. 

The Center for Nano-Optics, a research center whose focus on the science of developing tools and instruments as small as 1,000 times thinner than a human hair could lead to major breakthroughs in technology and biomedicine, has been created at Georgia State University.

"Creation of the Center for Nano-Optics is an important next step for the university," said James Weyhenmeyer, vice president of research and economic development. "Under the leadership of Georgia State Physics Professor Mark Stockman, a group of physics faculty will expand the university's nanotechnology focus and continue the development of two university inventions - the spaser and the nanoplasmonic metal funnel."

The spaser is a laser that is 1,000 times smaller than the smallest laser and also 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Success in incorporating spaser technology into transistors, something that cannot be done now, may lead to computer processors that operate 100 to 1,000 times faster than today's processors. The spasers may also help biomedical researchers identify and track single cancer cells in the bloodstream.

The second invention is the plasmonic metal funnel designed with a very thin needle at the end. This technology allows energy to be delivered to very small spaces. The funnel is already widely used in microscopes to give researchers the ability to see on the nanoscale.

"The center will unite a group of talented physics faculty that has been developing within the department for close to a decade," Stockman said. "This [center] designation will allow us to unite our efforts and significant resources, providing a common vision and general plan for the continued development of our inventions."

In addition to Stockman, the center faculty includes: Vadym Apalkov, Nikolaus Dietz, Xiaochun He, Alexander Kozhanov, Steven Manson, Ramesh Mani, Unil Perera, and Murad Sarsour. Their combined research efforts have led to the accumulation of more than $11 million in federal funding and publication in premier science journals, including Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Physical Review Letters and Nature Communications. They have formed international partnerships with researchers in Germany, France, India, Italy, S. Korea, Taiwan, China and Australia.

Stockman and the center team have also been named leaders of a $7.5 million U.S. Department of Defense Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant. In the framework of this MURI grant, the researchers will work with Purdue University, the University of Central Florida, the University of California at Berkeley, Yale University and Cornell University to study random lasers, nano-spasers and optical rogue waves.

Georgia State's strategic plan places a high importance on the creation of new centers and enhancement of existing collaborative research groups. The university is already home to the Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection; and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience.

Nanotechnology is the application of objects that are a billionth of a meter in size. This can be used in many assay technologies and inventions , including the adaptation of the clothes by using nanofabrics . The fabrics are made of much smaller than ordinary fibers , allowing them to incorporate numerous benefits, including medical benefits. They can also be used in military armor . Nanofabrics are a very important use of nanotechnology.
Nanofabrics have many useful features . They repel liquid spills , so if you spilled something on yourself you just slide . They also have a resistance to stains to allow less frequent washing , and adding to the washing simply allow the nanofibers . This fabric also makes comfortable clothes with natural perspiration . Clothing Nano is also very economical . In general , they are very cost effective and last longer than standard , so you can buy some . These special features make nanofabrics an important invention.
Technology Nanofabric adds special features to help maintain wellness. Is antibacterial and by preventing the bacteria come in contact , the reduced chance of getting sick . Nanofabrics also improve circulation, thereby reducing swelling. They are anti - allergenic , allowing anyone to use it . Deodorized are , therefore , making the user smell better . Furthermore, the nanofabric clothes avoid sun exposure by being anti- UV . Special health services contribute to the success of nanofabric .
Besides being used as a consumer product , nanofabrics used in the military. The body armor is lighter and reduces the load of the soldiers have to carry. The armor, despite being lighter, is much stronger and increases protection . Some exchange NanoArmor impact strength, intelligence incorporated and are adaptable to the environment. Nanofabrics are very important for military use .
Nanofabrics are a very useful application of nanotechnology. They have many benefits , including many medical uses. It is even used in the military. Nanofabrics improve the future of our clothes , starting from the standard materials used today .

Transcription, like replication, displaces nucleosomes from DNA, and reassembly appears to occur in the wake of the RNA polymerase. Most transcribed genes thus retain a nucleosome structure, although the pattern of nucleosome phasing characteristic of non transcribed genes is lost, resulting in a smear of DNA fragments following digestion with micrococcal nuclease and a restriction enzyme, rather than a discrete band.

 Experiments which examine the progress of the polymerase complex through the nucleosome have shown that pausing occurs about half-way through the core DNA, which may reflect the build-up of torsional strain enzyme attempts to negotiate the first coil released from the nucleosome. The strain is release the enzyme moves past this point, indicating that the octamer is expelled. The octamer then reassociates with DNA behind the enzyme, perhaps because it remains attached to the nontran scribed strand, or perhaps because it is transiently associated with the enzyme itself.

In heavily transcribed genes sucha s the rRNA genes of Zampbrush chromosomes (q.v.), the extended conformation of chromatin indicates that it is nucleosome-free. This probably reflects failure ofthe displaced histones to reassemble on post transcribed DNA because of a following transcriptionalelongation complex. In very active genes, there would be a convoy of RNA polymerases which would maintain an definite nucleosome-free region of chromatin.manipulating nanomachines, now available commercially. In general, natural bionanomachines are remarkably robust.

THE UNFAMILIAR WORLD OF BIONANOMACHINES:

Biological machinery is different from anything we build with our familiar,human-sized technology. Natural biomolecules have organic, visceral, and often unbelievable shapes, unlike the tidy designs of toasters and tractors.They perform their jobs in a foreign environment, where jittery thermal motion is constantly pushing and pulling on their component parts. They are held together by a complex collection of bonding and non bonding forces. At their small scale, bionanomachines are almost immune to the laws of gravity and inertia that dominate our machines. The world of bionanotechnology is an unfamiliar, shifting world that plays by different rules.

Until fairly recently, the resolution of light microscopes was limited by the wavelength of the light. This means that details finer than 200 nanometers (millionths of millimeters) cannot be observed. There are non-optical methods, such as electron microscopy, but light microscopy is still the only way to observe the interior of whole, or even living, cells.

The use of fluorescent dyes makes it possible to selectively obtain images of individual cell components, for example, proteins. Today, the wavelength dogma is overcome. Hell received the German Future Prize in 2006 for the first concept breaking the wavelength barrier the stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope . Molecules are transferred from a “dark” (non-fluorescent) to a “bright” (fluorescent) excited energy state—with a spacial sharpness far beyond those 200 nanometers.

Now the german team is demonstrating the power of another concept. They use molecules that are not only transferred but can be “switched” from “fluorescent” to “non-fluorescent” and back. In contrast to the STED and other related methods of the team, only separate, isolated marker molecules are randomly switched on at the same time. Their fluorescence is registered, and then they get switched off again automatically. In this way, the simultaneously fluorescing (switched on) markers are farther apart from each other than the minimum distance that the microscope can resolve.

This is only possible using switchable molecules that emit many photons, one after the other, when switched on. If these photons are captured with a camera, the centers of the individual fluorescing dots can be distinguished. After the exposure, the molecule becomes dark again (switches off), allowing further, neighboring molecules to be photographed. This process is repeated many times, until many dots become a picture. The full distribution can be reconstructed—at a resolution not limited by the wavelength of light.
The researchers have now found a class of substances that fulfill all the requirements of this technique: rhodamine amides. At the core of these molecules lies a system of five rings. In this form, the compound is colorless and does not fluoresce. Irradiation with light induces an isomerization in which one of the rings is opened. This form of the molecule is red and can be excited several times.

Most importantly: rhodamine amides can be switched on by either a UV photon or two photons in the red part of the spectrum. This two-photon excitation can be focused onto a thin plane, which allows biological samples to be photographed layer by layer. The individual images can then be reconstructed into a single multilayer image. The resolution reached in the focal plane is far beyond the diffraction barrier (10–30 nm).

As technology enters the close of the first decade this millennium, nanotechnology becomes increasingly more important in product development. Processors, chipsets, memory, displays and other electronics are marching toward the use of nanotech at and astonishing rate. In the U.S., we're already developing technology manufactured at the nanometer and sub-nanometer (picometer) level.

Carbon nanotubes, a high strength and versatile material composed of molecular configurations of pure carbon, may be the key to next generation technology in everything from the space elevator to high-speed processors. But outside of research, nanotech is here already. Research advocates have identified more than 400 consumer products in the U.S. labeled as "nano-based."  Some of these products, like microprocessors, pose relatively little risk to consumer, but the long term effects of other products like nano-aerosols is a bit less understood.  Additionally, the manufacturing by-products of these products are completely unregulated or monitored.

Nanotech and the production of nano-based devices create a type of pollution that is so small, it is extremely difficult to detect or contain. Researchers are afraid of the effect that nanopollution might have on humans, animals and other living organisms.

Nanoparticles are so small that they easily penetrate cells, a handy technique when geneticists attempt to modify genes when done intentionally. However, even when deliberate, the body detects foreign objects and creates phagocytes to break down invading material. Of course, if the body's phagocytes are busy digesting nanoparticles, the cells can't break down bacteria or other debris inside the body. Quantum dots, or nanoparticles used for semiconductors, are so small that they will actually pass right through cell walls -- yet we have relatively little research on what occurs when quantum dots interact with the human body.

Discover innovative tools that pave the way from circuit and physical design to fabrication processing Nano–CMOS Design for Manufacturability examines the challenges that design engineers face in the nano–scaled era, such as exacerbated effects and the proven design for manufacturability (DFM) methodology in the midst of increasing variability and design process interactions. In addition to discussing the difficulties brought on by the continued dimensional scaling in conformance with Moore's law, the authors also tackle complex issues in the design process to overcome the difficulties, including the use of a functional first silicon to support a predictable product ramp. Moreover, they introduce several emerging concepts, including stress proximity effects, contour–based extraction, and design process interactions. 

The sequel to Nano–CMOS Circuit and Physical Design, taking design to technology nodes beyond 65nm geometries. It is divided into three parts: Part One, Newly Exacerbated Effects, introduces the newly exacerbated effects that require designers' attention, beginning with a discussion of the lithography aspects of DFM, followed by the impact of layout on transistor performance Part Two, Design Solutions, examines how to mitigate the impact of process effects, discussing the methodology needed to make sub–wavelength patterning technology work in manufacturing, as well as design solutions to deal with signal, power integrity, WELL, stress proximity effects, and process variability Part Three, The Road to DFM, describes new tools needed to support DFM efforts, including an auto–correction tool capable of fixing the layout of cells with multiple optimization goals, followed by a look ahead into the future of DFM Throughout the book, real–world examples simplify complex concepts, helping readers see how they can successfully handle projects on Nano–CMOS nodes. It provides a bridge that allows engineers to go from physical and circuit design to fabrication processing and, in short, make designs that are not only functional, but that also meet power and performance goals within the design schedule.

Much research has been done over the past years on self-emulsifying drug delivery systems, their main interest being the simplicity of the formulation processes, the great stability of the systems and their high potential in pharmaceutical applications and industrial scaling-up. Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems are generally described in the literature indiscriminately as either nano-emulsions or micro-emulsions. Although this misconception appears to be common, these two systems are fundamentally different, based on very different physical and physicochemical concepts. 

Their differences result in very different stability behaviors, which can have significant consequences regarding their applications and administration as nanomedicines. This paper aims at clarifying the problem, first by reviewing all the physical and physicochemical fundamentals regarding these two systems, using a quantitative thermodynamic approach for micro-emulsions. Following these clarifications, we show how the confusion between nano-emulsions and micro-emulsions appears in the literature and how most of the micro-emulsion systems referred to are actually nano-emulsion systems. 

Finally, we illustrate how to clear up this misconception using simple experiments. Since this confusion is well established in the literature, such clarifications seem necessary in order to improve the understanding of research in this important field.

Nanochemistry is a branch of nanoscience dealing with synthesis, characterisation and applications of nanomaterials. Various chemical and physical techniques are used to manipulate atoms and molecules ranging in size between 1-100nm. These are used as building blocks to form nanomaterials, nanostructures, nanobots and nanoassemblies. When these are coupled with biological materials such as neurons or electronics or computers exciting new  possibilities and  applications emerge. 

Chemical reactions can be used to assemble atoms in molecular structures and physical techniques are employed to manipulate and position atoms for specific applications. Novel chemical synthesis can be used to make nanoscale structures used for building blocks with the desired shapes, surface area, structure, composition and size. The nanoscale feature endows unique structural and optical properties for use in catalysis, electro-optical devices and nanocarrier systems for drug delivery.There are many naturally occuring nanoassemblies such as liposomes, polypeptide miscelles etc.Nanomaterials exhibit properties that are distinct  to those of bulk materials and have important applications such as sunscreens to block harmful UV light from the sun and catalysts with an unusually large surface area to speed up chemical reactions in industrial production of important compounds and medical products.

One of the most popular nanomaterial is the carbon nanotube.  These have 1/6th  the weight of steel but much stronger.  Other materials may also form nanotubes. They can be excellent insulators or conduct electricity better than copper used in semiconductor devices. TiO2 is commonly used in self cleaning windows and ovens.

Nanomaterials have attracted significant attention in recent years for various fascinating applications, including ultrasensitive chemical/biological sensors, recording media, electronic circuits, nano-medical treatments, and so forth. Spectroscopy at high spatial and time resolutions is needed to attain direct access to the fundamental nature of nanomaterials. The spatial resolution of conventional optical microscopes is diffraction-limited to approximately several hundreds of nm. Near-field optical methods overcome the diffraction limit of light and achieve nanometric spatial resolution. The advantages of the near-field method go beyond high spatial resolution and include potential compatibility with various advanced spectroscopic techniques, such as time-resolved and nonlinear methods developed in the field of laser spectroscopy. The near-field methods enable us to obtain spectroscopic information of nanomaterials in a real space.

The research interests currently focus on the properties of surface plasmon resonances excited in noble metal nanostructures and their significance for chemical reactions. Plasmons confine optical fields in the vicinity of nanomaterials and enhance optical fields locally. This enhancement is of several orders of magnitude, opening up not just new research fields, but various potential applications. For basic research, since the spatial scale of the optical field becomes comparable to that of the materials, we expect strong, anomalous light-matter interactions beyond the dipole approximation. On the other hand, in applications, for instance, the optical field can be utilized for sensing purposes, since the enhanced field significantly amplifies Raman scattering from molecules to achieve detection sensitivity capable of detecting even single molecules. Imaging the plasmon wave function is essential for designing and controlling the properties of plasmon-based materials and for finding applications to basic research.

State-of-the-art analysis and measurement technology for the physico-chemical characterisation of nanomaterials is available at BAM. Testing procedures for specific tasks are developed and validated in are labs. Many testing procedures are ISO-certified. Most of our characterisation and testing work is carried out in accredited laboratories.

More and detailed technical information on our measuring techniques, resolution, accuracy, practical requirements and application areas beyond nanotechnology.The following measurement technology is available:

X-ray analysis
Measuring techniques:

With the emergence of any new technology, nanotechnology creates opportunities as well as challenges in adapting the patent regime to its particular context. There is some consensus that patenting nanotechnology innovations poses more problems than other technologies, owing to their multi-disciplinary character, cross-sectoral applications, broad claims as well as difficulties in fulfilling the patentability criteria.

 This is aggravated by the lack of a standardized terminology which impedes easy identification of nano-patents and also the fact that patent offices may not be well-equipped to handle nanotechnology. These problems are likely to be compounded for developing and least developed countries, which irrespective of their state of technological advancement, and capacity of the domestic regime, are obliged to confer IPR in the new technology.

In order to keep a desired level of in depth analysis this work will only contemplate the TRIPS Agreement. The paper finally arrives at certain recommendations, to help reconcile the need to incentivize innovation in the new technology, with the imperative of ensuring that the public interest is served and access to the patented knowledge is not hindered.

In the past two decades the nanotech community has progressed from theory to the commercialisation of nanotechnology. Advances in the nanotechnology have the potential to reshape every aspect of industry and commerce offering business and consumers more efficient solutions to life's challenges and significant profit potential to investors who recognize the possibilities.

Today there is a widely accepted definition of nanotechnology; the design, production, and application of structures, devices, and systems by controlled manipulation of size and shape at the nanometer scale (atomic, molecular, and macromolecular) that produces at least one new or superior characteristic or benefit.

But moving from the science to commercialisation of nanotechnology is about more than just throwing money at research and hoping some of it will get lucky and find a rare entrepreneur who understands both the complexities of the technology and how to market it. Investors need to have an understanding about which sectors are likely to benefit from the science; like clean energy and healthcare and when those profits are likely to materialize. Some ideas come too early for widespread acceptance or offer profits in the too-distant future. Portfolio managers need to match the development and commercialization of the product with the investment horizon of the investor.

The first thing to understand about nanotechnology is that much of the groundwork it being done in university labs. Most nanotech businesses end up spinning off from these labs. Gittins refers to nanotechnology as "the dawn of the next industrial revolution." It will be increasingly important for entrepreneurs to know about and leverage nanotech discoveries. To that end, keep an eye on what the research labs are doing.

Find the business connection. Universities may be where the research happens, but they don't usually specialize in commercialization. There's a need for smart businesspeople to help make that leap. "Nanotechnology is driving a change in the way universities deal with businesses," says Gittins. You don't necessarily have to be a nanotech researcher to bring nanotech advances to the consumer and business markets.Leverage new discoveries. Nanotech is moving right along, and new discoveries are popping up on a regular basis. Keep an eye on the nanotech scene to see if any of the new breakthroughs are right for your business or products.Uncover the compelling reasons. Technology for technology's sake usually isn't a good idea. And that includes nanotech. Just because you can apply a nanotech coating to your existing product, doesn't necessarily mean you should. Look for the compelling reasons for why it truly makes your product better or sets you apart from the competition

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Nanoemulsions have many interesting physical properties that are different from or are more extreme than those of larger microscale emulsions. In this section, we focus on a few of the physical properties that distinguish nanoemulsions from microscale emulsions as an important new class of soft materials. We examine the relative transparency of nanoemulsions, their response to mechanical shear or ‘rheology’ and the enhanced shelf stability of nanoemulsions against gravitationally driven creaming. We do not intend to provide a comprehensive review of all of the possible properties, but these particular properties serve as a few primary examples.Nanoemulsions appear visibly different from microscale emulsions since the droplets can be much smaller than optical wavelengths of the visible spectrum.

By contrast, nanoemulsions can appear nearly transparent in the visible spectrum and exhibit very little scattering despite significant refractive index contrast. Quantitative measurements of the optical transparency of nanoemulsions in the visible and ultraviolet wavelengths are shown through transmission measurements .Nanoemulsions having a = 40 nm at several different f have been loaded into 0.2 mm pathlength quartz cells, and the per cent transmission intensity has been measured as a function of light wavelength. For all f, the transmission in the visible spectrum is near 100%, especially toward red wavelengths, indicating a high degree of transparency. By contrast, in the ultraviolet (UV) part of the spectrum, as the wavelength of light begins to approach the droplet radius, the nanoemulsions scatter light significantly. 

As it increases from the dilute regime up to about f ˜ 0.13, the transmission in the ultraviolet drops as the number of scatterers increases, yet at higher f > 0.13, the UV transmission increases again, indicating that more concentrated emulsions scatter less light. This increase and subsequent decrease in the scattering of light by the droplets as f is increased arises from the behaviour of the nanoemulsion’s structure factor in the low q (transmission) limit. In effect, correlations in the droplet positional structure cause the increased transparency at higher f. The smaller the droplet radius, the broader the range of visible wavelengths over which the transparency is found, especially toward the blue and the ultraviolet wavelengths.

Among the remarkable variety of semiconducting nanomaterials that have been discovered over the past two decades, single-walled carbon nanotubes remain uniquely well suited for applications in high-performance electronics, sensors and other technologies. The most advanced opportunities demand the ability to form perfectly aligned, horizontal arrays of purely semiconducting, chemically pristine carbon nanotubes.

 Here, we present strategies that offer this capability. Nanoscale thermocapillary flows in thin-film organic coatings followed by reactive ion etching serve as highly efficient means for selectively removing metallic carbon nanotubes from electronically heterogeneous aligned arrays grown on quartz substrates. The low temperatures and unusual physics associated with this process enable robust, scalable operation, with clear potential for practical use. 

We carry out detailed experimental and theoretical studies to reveal all of the essential attributes of the underlying thermophysical phenomena. We demonstrate use of the purified arrays in transistors that achieve mobilities exceeding 1,000 cm2 V-1 s-1 and on/off switching ratios of ~10,000 with current outputs in the milliamp range. Simple logic gates built using such devices represent the first steps toward integration into more complex circuits.