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Nanotechnology in Fabrics

How can nanotechnology improve fabric?
Making composite fabric with nano-sized particles or fibers allows improvement of fabric properties without a significant increase in weight, thickness, or stiffness as might have been the case with previously-used techniques. For example incorporating nano-whiskers into fabric used to make pants produces a lightweight water and stain repellent material.

Fabric: Current Nanotechnology Applications
Nanowhiskers that cause water to bead up, making the fabric water and stain resistant.
Silver nanoparticles in fabric that kills bacteria making clothing odor- resistant.
Nanopores providing superior insulation for shoe inserts in cold weather.
Nanoparticles that provide a "lotus plant" effect for fabric used awnings and other material left out in the weather, causing dirt to rinse off in the rain.

Introduction to Nanotechnology for Electronics

Nanotechnology has already reached the electronics industry with features in microprocessors now less than 100 nanometres (nm) in size (Intel’s Prescott processor uses 90 nm size features). Smaller sizes allow faster processing times and also more processing power to be packed into a given area. However, these advances are really only a continuation of existing microelectronics, and will reach their limit sometime around the end of the next decade (2018 or so) when it will be both physically impossible to “write” or “etch” smaller features in silicon, and also because at extremely small sizes (less than 20 nm) silicon becomes electrically “leaky” causing short circuits.

Nanoelectronics on the otherhand offer a new approach for the electronics industry in the form of new circuit materials, processors, information storage and even ways of transferring information such as optoelectronics.

MP3 Players
The advancement of technologies has helped increasing the size of memory. Now we can have tens of gigabytes of space in a very small storage device. The MP3 players we use today use either a flash memory or a mini hard disk for storing data. Flash memory is a large non-volatile storage device like an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) based on the common CMOS manufacturing technique. This storage technology is rapidly replacing its magnetic predecessor by rising in capacity while diminishing the dimensions of its transistors.

Cooling Systems

The cooling equipment like refrigerators and air conditioning have also been benefited by the nanotechnology revolutions. Silver has been used for antimicrobial purposes in several products. It has helped check the growth of microbes and ensure a healthy and hygienic environment. Now silver is also used in filters for washing machines.

Hard Disks
The hard disks have been able to store such gigantic amount of data due to the use of Giant Magneto Resistance (GMR) effect. It is a quantum mechanical effect. The use of this technology enabled to store well above 100 gigabits per square inch. In current hard disks, the magnetic domains are oriented in-plane, while those of the next generation will stand upright. For reading densely stored data, more sensitive and efficient read-and-write heads are required. It can be achieved through the even more sophisticated Tunneling Magneto Resistance (TMR) effect.

Effects of carbon nanotubes on primary neurons and glial cells

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are among the most promising novel nanomaterials and their unique chemical and physical properties suggest an enormous potential for many areas of research and applications. As a consequence, the production of CNT-based material and thus the occupational and public exposure to CNTs will increase steadily. Although there is evidence that nanoparticles (NPs) can enter the nervous system via the blood stream, olfactory nerves or sensory nerves in the skin, there is still only little knowledge about possible toxic effects of CNTs on cells of the nervous system.

The goal of the present study was to analyse the influences of single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) with different degrees of agglomeration on primary cultures derived from chicken embryonic spinal cord (SPC) or dorsal root ganglia (DRG). As measured by the Hoechst assay treatment of mixed neuro-glial cultures with up to 30 μg/mL SWCNTs significantly decreased the overall DNA content. This effect was more pronounced if cells were exposed to highly agglomerated SWCNTs as compared to better dispersed SWCNT-bundles. Using a cell-based ELISA we found that SWCNTs reduce the amount of glial cells in both peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS) derived cultures. Neurons were only affected in DRG derived cultures, where SWCNT treatment resulted in a decreased number of sensory neurons, as measured by ELISA. Additionally, whole-cell patch recordings revealed a diminished inward conductivity and a more positive resting membrane potential of SWCNT treated DRG derived neurons compared to control samples.

The SWCNT suspensions used in this study induced acute toxic effects in primary cultures from both, the central and peripheral nervous system of chicken embryos. The level of toxicity is at least partially dependent on the agglomeration state of the tubes. Thus if SWCNTs can enter the nervous system at sufficiently high concentrations, it is likely that adverse effects on glial cells and neurons might occur.

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