NANOTECH INNOVATIONS

Many people have never even heard of nanotechnology and of those who have, most of them are not really clear about what the technology involves. This has quite probably got something to do with the fact that nanotechnology development is taking place in almost every area of science, medicine, healthcare and manufacturing so quite a confused picture can emerge of what it actually means. What is almost certain is that every person in the developed world will have used or be using one or more products that incorporate nanotechnology.

In this article we are going to look at the uses and potential uses of nanotechnology in building materials. Because the technology is relatively new, only in modern buildings are we likely to find many of the nanotechnology components we will be referring to, but as the application of the technology becomes more widespread, repairs and renovations to older buildings will see them join the nanotechnology revolution.

Pilkington is one of the largest glass manufacturers in the world. It has launched a self-cleaning glass which will require less human intervention to maintain. The glass is developed using a nanoparticle coating which will use sunlight to cause a reaction with organic dirt it comes into contact with, preventing the dirt from becoming fixed to the glass. The dirt will be removed by rainfall or can be simply rinsed off. The glass is also designed to stop raindrops from splattering, instead turning rainfall into an evenly spread sheet of water which makes the cleaning even more effective. And it blocks uva and uvb radiation, beneficial to health and useful in managing internal temperature.

Nanotechnology is being deployed in the manufacture of exterior paint. Exterior paint has a really tough job having to cope with the worst the elements can throw at it. It has to able to withstand snow, rain, blazing sunshine and everything in between. Even the most durable paints will be overcome eventually, necessitating a repaint of the building. The application of nanotechnology in paint manufacturing has resulted in paints that are far more durable then traditional paints and that actually assist in insulation.

You will also find nanotechnology used in the manufacture of solar panels. While solar panels are clearly beneficial as an environmental protector and energy cost saver, the purchase cost of the panels is sufficiently high enough to deter the majority. Many panel manufacturers believe that the cost savings achieved by using nanotechnology will bring the price of panels down enough to make them affordable to a lot more people.

Most new buildings will have environmental control panels for heating, air and water filtration and so on. Most modern panels used will incorporate nanotechnology making them more sophisticated yet cheaper control devices. And for houses being built in remote areas and not connecting to municipal sewage disposal systems, nanotechnology offers greatly improved filtration and breakdown systems.

There are many more products in the pipeline which will revolutionize the way modern houses are designed and built. And the nanotechnology revolution will affect not only the building materials, but also in the future everything inside the house from furniture to electronics to utensils.

When you look at history, you come across inspiring names. You come across people that have changed the world with their speeches, actions and inventions. You come across people you want to be like but you envy at the same time. People all over the world like knowing who is responsible for what in a specific area. Technology is not left out. People like knowing who is behind the computer, who is behind the vehicle, who is behind the cure for small pox and so on. Technology has improved so much that we can now manipulate atoms and molecules the way we want. We can manipulate the universe. This form of technology is nanotechnology. I know what you are going to ask. Who invented nanotechnology?

When you stroll through history, you will realize that there is no single name behind this kind of technology. In short, there is no single name that we can point out as the inventor of nanotechnology. However, the word itself was coined by Norio Taniguchi in 1974. He was a professor. The idea on the other hand, was first thought of by Richard Feynman in the year 1959. He first talked of the idea while giving a lecture at the American Physical Meeting Society. He discussed a process through which molecules and atoms could be controlled using instruments that were specially designed. Obviously at this time the word nanotechnology had not yet emerged. However, his lecture was an accurate description of the science.

Interesting facts about nanotechnology came about with Taniguchi’s work. He further described the procedure as the consolidation or separation of atoms or molecules in his 1974 paper. The man who completely popularized nanotechnology was Dr. K Eric Drexler in his book “Engines of Creation” which came out in 1986. It was the first book in history to give a detailed concept on the subject.

The creation of the scanning tunneling microscope and the discovery of fullerenes further propelled nanotechnology’s popularity in the mid 80s. Its evolution was catapulted by the emergence of semiconductor nanocrystals which consequentially led to an increase of metal oxide nanoparticles. Quantum dots also grew from this. These quantum dots help a lot when it comes to applying nanotechnology in medicine.

By 1988, courses on the subject were being offered in universities. Since knowledge was being distributed, the atomic force microscope came into existence in 1991 and further down the same decade, there was increased use and manipulation of carbon nanotubes. Of course when you talk about a new phenomenon, there has to be benefits and risks. One of its major benefits is that it can create pure and clean water. It can also help in producing cheap energy and efficient drugs and medicines. The major risk is that people still do not know how much it can affect the environment and human health.

Every time you ask who invented nanotechnology, remember Richard Feynman, Professor Taniguchi and the inventors of the scanning tunneling microscope and fullerenes. These are the names that you should envy. These are the names that you should forever store in your memory.

Atom-thick sheets unlock future technologies A new way of splitting layered materials to give atom thin "nanosheets" has been discovered. This has led to a range of novel two-dimensional nanomaterials with chemical and electronic properties that have the potential to enable new electronic and energy storage technologies. The collaborative* international research led by the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Oxford has been published in this week's Science. The scientists have invented a versatile method for creating these atom thin nanosheets from a range of materials using common solvents and ultrasound, utilising devices similar to those used to clean jewellery. The new method is simple, fast, and inexpensive, and could be scaled up to work on an industrial scale. "Of the many possible applications of these new nanosheets, perhaps the most important are as thermoelectric materials. These materials, when fabricated into devices, can generate electricity from waste heat. For example, in gas-fired power plants approximately 50% of energy produced is lost as waste heat while for coal and oil plants the figure is up to 70%. However, the development of efficient thermoelectric devices would allow some of this waste heat to be recycled cheaply and easily, something that has been beyond us, up until now," explained Professor Jonathan Coleman, Principal Investigator at CRANN and the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin who led the research along with Dr Valeria Nicolosi in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford.

Coleman's work will open up over 150 similarly exotic layered materials – such as Boron Nitride, Molybdenum disulfide, and Bismuth telluride – that have the potential to be metallic, semiconducting or insulating, depending on their chemical composition and how their atoms are arranged. This new family of materials opens a whole range of new "super" materials. For decades researchers have tried to create nanosheets from layered materials in order to unlock their unusual electronic and thermoelectric properties. However, previous methods were time consuming, laborious or of very low yield and so unsuited to most applications. "Our new method offers low-costs, a very high yield and a very large throughput: within a couple of hours, and with just 1 mg of material, billions and billions of one-atom-thick nanosheets can be made at the same time from a wide variety of exotic layered materials," explained Dr Nicolosi, from the University of Oxford. These new materials are also suited for use in next generation batteries – "supercapacitors" – which can deliver energy thousands of times faster than standard batteries, enabling new applications such as electric cars. Many of these new atomic layered materials are very strong and can be added to plastics to produce super-strong composites. These will be useful in a range of industries from simple structural plastics to aeronautics.