Table of contents SERIAL NO: TITLE PAGE NO 1 ABSTRACT 1/24 2 INTRODUCTION 3/24 3 HISTORY 4/24 4 MOLECULAR NANOTECHNOLOGY 6/24 CARBON NANOTECHNOLOGY 7/24 6 TYPES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY 7/24 7 IMPACT ON EVERYDAY LIFE 9/24 8 PRODUCTS OF NT 10/24 9 APPLICATIONS OF NT 12/24 0ADVANTAGE OF NT 20/24 11DISADVANTAGE OF NT 21/24 12 FUTURE OF NT 21/24 13CONCLUSION 24/24 14REFERENCES 24/24 ABSTRACT Nanotechnology, shortened to “nanotech”, is the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular scale.
Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale. There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in medicine, electronics and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues as with any introduction of new technology, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios. These concerns have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on whether special regulation of nanotechnology is warranted.
The first use of the concepts found in ‘nano-technology’ (but pre-dating use of that name) was in “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” a talk given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman described a process by which the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules might be developed, using one set of precise tools to build and operate another proportionally smaller set, and so on down to the needed scale.
In the course of this, he noted, scaling issues would arise from the changing magnitude of various physical phenomena: gravity would become less important, surface tension and vander Waals attraction would become increasingly more significant, etc. Name – Swarnalipi Behera Regd. no – 0601211053 Roll. no – 106321 Branch – IT 1. Introduction Nanotechnology is an essentially modern scientific field that is constantly evolving as commercial and academic interest continues to increase and as new research is presented to the scientific community.
The field’s simplest roots can be traced, albeit arguably, to 1959 but its primary development occurred in both the eighties and the early nineties. In addition to specific scientific achievements such as the invention of the STM, this early history is most importantly reflected in the initial vision of molecular manufacturing as it is outlined in three important works. Overall, an understanding of development and the criticism of this vision is integral for comprehending the realities and potential of nanotechnology today. Nanotechnology, shortened to “nanotech”, is the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular scale.
Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, from developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale to investigating whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale. There has been much debate on the future implications of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology has the potential to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in medicine, electronics and energy production. On the other hand, nanotechnology raises many of the same issues as with any introduction of new technology, including concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, and their potential effects on global economics, as well as speculation about various doomsday scenarios. These concerns have led to a debate among advocacy groups and governments on whether special regulation of nanotechnology is warranted.
In order to understand the unusual world of nanotechnology, we need to get an idea of the units of measure involved. A centimeter is one-hundredth of a meter, a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter, and a micrometer is one-millionth of a meter, but all of these are still huge compared to the nanoscale. A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, smaller than the wavelength of visible light and a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair . [pic] As small as a nanometer is, it’s still large compared to the atomic scale. An atom has a diameter of about 0. 1 nm. An atom’s nucleus is much smaller — about 0. 0001 nm. Atoms are the building blocks for all matter in our universe. You and everything around you are made of atoms. Nature has perfected the science of manufacturing matter molecularly. For instance, our bodies are assembled in a specific manner from millions of living cells. Cells are nature’s nanomachines. At the atomic scale, elements are at their most basic level. On the nanoscale, we can potentially put these atoms together to make almost anything. 2. HISTORY The first use of the concepts found in ‘nano-technology’ (but pre-dating use of that name) was in “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” a alk given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman described a process by which the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules might be developed, using one set of precise tools to build and operate another proportionally smaller set, and so on down to the needed scale. In the course of this, he noted, scaling issues would arise from the changing magnitude of various physical phenomena: gravity would become less important, surface tension and vander Waals attraction would become increasingly more significant, etc.
This basic idea appeared plausible, and exponential assembly enhances it with parallelism to produce a useful quantity of end products. The term “nanotechnology” was defined by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in a 1974 paper as follows: “‘Nano-technology’ mainly consists of the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule. ” In the 1980s the basic idea of this definition was explored in much more depth by Dr. K.
Eric Drexler, who promoted the technological significance of nano-scale phenomena and devices through speeches and the books Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (1986) and Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation,[3] and so the term acquired its current sense. Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology is considered the first book on the topic of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology and nanoscience got started in the early 1980s with two major developments; the birth of cluster science and the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM).
This development led to the discovery of fullerenes in 1985 and carbon nanotubes a few years later. In another development, the synthesis and properties of semiconductor nanocrystals was studied; this led to a fast increasing number of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and quantum dots. The atomic force microscope (AFM or SFM) was invented six years after the STM was invented. In 2000, the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative was founded to coordinate Federal nanotechnology research and development. 3. MOLECULAR NANOTECHNOLOGY
Molecular nanotechnology, sometimes called molecular manufacturing, describes engineered nanosystems (nanoscale machines) operating on the molecular scale. Molecular nanotechnology is especially associated with the molecular assembler, a machine that can produce a desired structure or device atom-by-atom using the principles of mechanosynthesis. Manufacturing in the context of productive nanosystems is not related to, and should be clearly distinguished from, the conventional technologies used to manufacture nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.
When the term “nanotechnology” was independently coined and popularized by Eric Drexler (who at the time was unaware of an earlier usage by Norio Taniguchi) it referred to a future manufacturing technology based on molecular machine systems. The premise was that molecular scale biological analogies of traditional machine components demonstrated molecular machines were possible: by the countless examples found in biology, it is known that sophisticated, stochastically optimised biological machines can be produced..
In general it is very difficult to assemble devices on the atomic scale, as all one has to position atoms are other atoms of comparable size and stickiness. Another view, put forth by Carlo Montemagno, is that future nanosystems will be hybrids of silicon technology and biological molecular machines. Yet another view, put forward by the late Richard Smalley, is that mechanosynthesis is impossible due to the difficulties in mechanically manipulating individual molecules. This led to an exchange of letters in the ACS publication Chemical & Engineering News in 2003.
Though biology clearly demonstrates that molecular machine systems are possible, non-biological molecular machines are today only in their infancy. Leaders in research on non-biological molecular machines are Dr. Alex Zettl and his colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories and UC Berkeley. They have constructed at least three distinct molecular devices whose motion is controlled from the desktop with changing voltage: a nanotube nanomotor, a molecular actuator, and a nanoelectromechanical relaxation oscillator. 4. CARBON NANOTUBE
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, which is significantly larger than any other material. These cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science, as well as potential uses in architectural fields. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient thermal conductors.
Their final usage, however, may be limited by their potential toxicity and controlling their property changes in response to chemical treatment. Nanotubes are members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical buckyballs. The ends of a nanotube might be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Their name is derived from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers (approximately 1/50,000th of the width of a human hair), while they can be up to several millimeters in length (as of 2008).
Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). The nature of the bonding of a nanotube is described by applied quantum chemistry, specifically, orbital hybridization. The chemical bonding of nanotubes is composed entirely of sp2 bonds, similar to those of graphite. This bonding structure, which is stronger than the sp3 bonds found in diamonds, provides the molecules with their unique strength. Nanotubes naturally align themselves into “ropes” held together by Van der Waals forces. [pic] 5. TYPES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY • Bottom-up approaches • Top-down approaches • Functional approaches
BOTTOM-UP APPROACHES These seek to arrange smaller components into more complex assemblies. • DNA nanotechnology utilizes the specificity of Watson–Crick basepairing to construct well-defined structures out of DNA and other nucleic acids. • Approaches from the field of “classical” chemical synthesis also aim at designing molecules with well-defined shape (e. g. bis-peptides[14]). • More generally, molecular self-assembly seeks to use concepts of supramolecular chemistry, and molecular recognition in particular, to cause single-molecule components to automatically arrange themselves into some useful conformation.
TOP-DOWN APPROACHES These seek to create smaller devices by using larger ones to direct their assembly. • Many technologies that descended from conventional solid-state silicon methods for fabricating microprocessors are now capable of creating features smaller than 100 nm, falling under the definition of nanotechnology. Giant magnetoresistance-based hard drives already on the market fit this description,[15] as do atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques.
Peter Grunberg and Albert Fert received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of Giant magnetoresistance and contributions to the field of spintronics in 2007. [16] • Solid-state techniques can also be used to create devices known as nanoelectromechanical systems or NEMS, which are related to microelectromechanical systems or MEMS. • Atomic force microscope tips can be used as a nanoscale “write head” to deposit a chemical upon a surface in a desired pattern in a process called dip pen nanolithography. This fits into the larger subfield of nanolithography.
FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES These seek to develop components of a desired functionality without regard to how they might be assembled. • Molecular electronics seeks to develop molecules with useful electronic properties. These could then be used as single-molecule components in a nanoelectronic device. [17] For an example see rotaxane. • Synthetic chemical methods can also be used to create synthetic molecular motors, such as in a so-called nanocar. 6. IMPACT ON EVERYDAY LIFE • Nanotechnology was seen to have the second greatest impact, trailing only genetic engineering. Nanotechnology – The control of extremely small, sub-atomic matter: 22% • Genetic engineering – Manipulating genetic material: 31% • Fusion Power – Energy generated from nuclear fusion reactions: 7% • Solar power – Gathering and storing energy from the light of the sun: 15% • It will be a technology that has not yet been invented: 12% • Not sure/other: 14% [pic] 7. PRODUCTS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY • Sunscreen – Many sunscreens contain nanoparticles of zinc oxide or titanium oxide.
Older sunscreen formulas use larger particles, which is what gives most sunscreens their whitish color. Smaller particles are less visible, meaning that when you rub the sunscreen into your skin, it doesn’t give you a whitish tinge. • Clothing – scientist are using nanoparticles to enhance your clothing. By coating fabrics with a thin layer of zinc oxide nanoparticles, manufacturers can create clothes that give better protection from UV radiation. Some clothes have nanoparticles in the form of little hairs or whiskers that help repel water and other materials, making the clothing stain-resistant. Scratch-resistant coatings – Engineers discovered that adding aluminum silicate nanoparticles to scratch-resistant polymer coatings made the coatings more effective, increasing resistance to chipping and scratching. Scratch-resistant coatings are common on everything from cars to eyeglass lenses. • Antimicrobial bandages – Scientist Robert Burrell created a process to manufacture antibacterial bandages using nanoparticles of silver. Silver ions block microbes’ cellular respiration . In other words, silver smothers harmful cells, killing them. • Swimming pool cleaners and disinfectants – EnviroSystems, Inc. eveloped a mixture (called a nanoemulsion) of nano-sized oil drops mixed with a bactericide. The oil particles adhere to bacteria, making the delivery of the bactericide more efficient and effective. 8. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY [pic] Typical AFM setup. A microfabricated cantilever with a sharp tip is deflected by features on a sample surface, much like in a phonograph but on a much smaller scale. A laser beam reflects off the backside of the cantilever into a set of photodetectors, allowing the deflection to be measured and assembled into an image of the surface.
There are several important modern developments. The atomic force microscope (AFM) and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) are two early versions of scanning probes that launched nanotechnology. There are other types of scanning probe microscopy, all flowing from the ideas of the scanning confocal microscope developed by Marvin Minsky in 1961 and the scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) developed by Calvin Quate and coworkers in the 1970s, that made it possible to see structures at the nanoscale. The tip of a scanning probe can also be used to manipulate nanostructures (a process called positional assembly).
Feature-oriented scanning-positioning methodology suggested by Rostislav Lapshin appears to be a promising way to implement these nanomanipulations in automatic mode. However, this is still a slow process because of low scanning velocity of the microscope. Various techniques of nanolithography such as optical lithography ,X-ray lithography dip pen nanolithography, electron beam lithography or nanoimprint lithography were also developed. Lithography is a top-down fabrication technique where a bulk material is reduced in size to nanoscale pattern.
Another group of nanotechnological techniques include those used for fabrication of nanowires, those used in semiconductor fabrication such as deep ultraviolet lithography, electron beam lithography, focused ion beam machining, nanoimprint lithography, atomic layer deposition, and molecular vapor deposition, and further including molecular self-assembly techniques such as those employing di-block copolymers. The top-down approach anticipates nanodevices that must be built piece by piece in stages, much as manufactured items are made.
Scanning probe microscopy is an important technique both for characterization and synthesis of nanomaterials. Atomic force microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes can be used to look at surfaces and to move atoms around. In contrast, bottom-up techniques build or grow larger structures atom by atom or molecule by molecule. These techniques include chemical synthesis, self-assembly and positional assembly. Another variation of the bottom-up approach is molecular beam epitaxy or MBE. Researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories like John R.
Arthur. Alfred Y. Cho, and Art C. Gossard developed and implemented MBE as a research tool in the late 1960s and 1970s. Samples made by MBE were key to the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect for which the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded. MBE allows scientists to lay down atomically-precise layers of atoms and, in the process, build up complex structures. Important for research on semiconductors, MBE is also widely used to make samples and devices for the newly emerging field of spintronics. 9.
APPLICATION OF NANOTECHNOLOGY With nanotechnology, a large set of materials and improved products rely on a change in the physical properties when the feature sizes are shrunk. Nanoparticles, for example, take advantage of their dramatically increased surface area to volume ratio. For example, traditional polymers can be reinforced by nanoparticles resulting in novel materials which can be used as lightweight replacements for metals. Therefore, an increasing societal benefit of such nanoparticles can be expected.
Such nanotechnologically enhanced materials will enable a weight reduction accompanied by an increase in stability and improved functionality. Practical nanotechnology is essentially the increasing ability to manipulate (with precision) matter on previously impossible scales, presenting possibilities which many could never have imagined – it therefore seems unsurprising that few areas of human technology are exempt from the benefits which nanotechnology could potentially bring. Medicine The biological and medical research communities have exploited the unique properties of nanomaterials for various applications (e. . , contrast agents for cell imaging and therapeutics for treating cancer). Terms such as biomedical nanotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanomedicine are used to describe this hybrid field. Functionalities can be added to nanomaterials by interfacing them with biological molecules or structures.. Thus far, the integration of nanomaterials with biology has led to the development of diagnostic devices, contrast agents, analytical tools, physical therapy applications, and drug delivery vehicles. Diagnostics
Nanotechnology-on-a-chip is one more dimension of lab-on-a-chip technology. Magnetic nanoparticles, bound to a suitable antibody, are used to label specific molecules, structures or microorganisms. Multicolor optical coding for biological assays has been achieved by embedding different-sized quantum dots into polymeric microbeads. Nanopore technology for analysis of nucleic acids converts strings of nucleotides directly into electronic signatures. Drug delivery Nanotechnology has been a boom in medical field by delivering drugs to specific cells using nanoparticles.
The overall drug consumption and side-effects can be lowered significantly by depositing the active agent in the morbid region only and in no higher dose than needed. This highly selective approach reduces costs and human suffering. An example can be found in dendrimers and nanoporous materials. Another example is to use block co-polymers, which form micelles for drug encapsulation. They could hold small drug molecules transporting them to the desired location. Another vision is based on small electromechanical systems; Nanotechnology is useful in cancer treatment [pic]
Chemistry and environment Chemical catalysis and filtration techniques are two prominent examples where nanotechnology already plays a role. The synthesis provides novel materials with tailored features and chemical properties: for example, nanoparticles with a distinct chemical surrounding (ligands), or specific optical properties. In this sense, chemistry is indeed a basic nanoscience. In a short-term perspective, chemistry will provide novel “nanomaterials” and in the long run, superior processes such as “self-assembly” will enable energy and time preserving strategies.
In a sense, all chemical synthesis can be understood in terms of nanotechnology, because of its ability to manufacture certain molecules. Thus, chemistry forms a base for nanotechnology providing tailor-made molecules, polymers, etcetera, as well as clusters and nanoparticles. Catalysis Chemical catalysis benefits especially from nanoparticles, due to the extremely large surface to volume ratio. The application potential of nanoparticles in catalysis ranges from fuel cell to catalytic converters and photocatalytic devices. Catalysis is also important for the production of chemicals.
Platinum nanoparticles are now being considered in the next generation of automotive catalytic converters because the very high surface area of nanoparticles could reduce the amount of platinum required. Nanofiltration may come to be an important application, although future research must be careful to investigate possible toxicity Filtration A strong influence of nanochemistry on waste-water treatment, air purification and energy storage devices is to be expected. Mechanical or chemical methods can be used for effective filtration techniques.
One class of filtration techniques is based on the use of membranes with suitable hole sizes, whereby the liquid is pressed through the membrane. Nanoporous membranes are suitable for a mechanical filtration with extremely small pores smaller than 10 nm (“nanofiltration”) and may be composed of nanotubes. Nanofiltration is mainly used for the removal of ions or the separation of different fluids.. Magnetic nanoparticles offer an effective and reliable method to remove heavy metal contaminants from waste water by making use of magnetic separation techniques.
Using nanoscale particles increases the efficiency to absorb the contaminants and is comparatively inexpensive compared to traditional precipitation and filtration methods. Energy The most advanced nanotechnology projects related to energy are: storage, conversion, manufacturing improvements by reducing materials and process rates, energy saving (by better thermal insulation for example), and enhanced renewable energy sources. Increasing the efficiency of energy production
Today’s best solar cells have layers of several different semiconductors stacked together to absorb light at different energies but they still only manage to use 40 percent of the Sun’s energy. Commercially available solar cells have much lower efficiencies (15-20%). Nanotechnology could help increase the efficiency of light conversion by using nanostructures with a continuum of bandgaps. The degree of efficiency of the internal combustion engine is about 30-40% at the moment. Nanotechnology could improve combustion by designing specific catalysts with maximized surface area.
In 2005, scientists at the University of Toronto developed a spray-on nanoparticle substance that, when applied to a surface, instantly transforms it into a solar collector. The use of more environmentally friendly energy systems An example for an environmentally friendly form of energy is the use of fuel cells powered by hydrogen, which is ideally produced by renewable energies. Probably the most prominent nanostructured material in fuel cells is the catalyst consisting of carbon supported noble metal particles with diameters of 1-5 nm. Suitable materials for hydrogen storage contain a large number of small nanosized pores.
Therefore many nanostructured materials like nanotubes, zeolites or alanates are under investigation. Nanotechnology can contribute to the further reduction of combustion engine pollutants by nanoporous filters, which can clean the exhaust mechanically, by catalytic converters based on nanoscale noble metal particles or by catalytic coatings on cylinder walls and catalytic nanoparticles as additive for fuels. Recycling of batteries Because of the relatively low energy density of batteries the operating time is limited and a replacement or recharging is needed.
The huge number of spent batteries and accumulators represent a disposal problem. The use of batteries with higher energy content or the use of rechargeable batteries or supercapacitors with higher rate of recharging using nanomaterials could be helpful for the battery disposal problem. Information and communication Current high-technology production processes are based on traditional top down strategies, where nanotechnology has already been introduced silently. The critical length scale of integrated circuits is already at the nanoscale 50 nm and below) regarding the gate length of transistors in CPUs or DRAM devices. Memory Storage Electronic memory designs in the past have largely relied on the formation of transistors. However, research into crossbar switch based electronics have offered an alternative using reconfigurable interconnections between vertical and horizontal wiring arrays to create ultra high density memories. Two leaders in this area are Nantero which has developed a carbon nanotube based crossbar memory called Nano-RAM and Hewlett-Packard which has proposed the use of memristor material as a future replacement of Flash memory.
Novel semiconductor devices An example of such novel devices is based on spintronics. The dependence of the resistance of a material (due to the spin of the electrons) on an external field is called magnetoresistance. This effect can be significantly amplified (GMR – Giant Magneto-Resistance) for nanosized objects, for example when two ferromagnetic layers are separated by a nonmagnetic layer, which is several nanometers thick (e. g. Co-Cu-Co). The GMR effect has led to a strong increase in the data storage density of hard disks and made the gigabyte range possible..
In 1999, the ultimate CMOS transistor developed at the Laboratory for Electronics and Information Technology in Grenoble, France, tested the limits of the principles of the MOSFET transistor with a diameter of 18 nm (approximately 70 atoms placed side by side). This was almost one tenth the size of the smallest industrial transistor in 2003 (130 nm in 2003, 90 nm in 2004, 65 nm in 2005 and 45 nm in 2007). It enabled the theoretical integration of seven billion junctions on a €1 coin. Novel optoelectronic devices
In the modern communication technology traditional analog electrical devices are increasingly replaced by optical or optoelectronic devices due to their enormous bandwidth and capacity, respectively. Two promising examples are photonic crystals and quantum dots. Photonic crystals are materials with a periodic variation in the refractive index with a lattice constant that is half the wavelength of the light used. They offer a selectable band gap for the propagation of a certain wavelength, thus they resemble a semiconductor, but for light or photons instead of electrons.
Quantum dots are nanoscaled objects, which can be used, among many other things, for the construction of lasers. The advantage of a quantum dot laser over the traditional semiconductor laser is that their emitted wavelength depends on the diameter of the dot. Quantum dot lasers are cheaper and offer a higher beam quality than conventional laser diodes. Quantum computers Entirely new approaches for computing exploit the laws of quantum mechanics for novel quantum computers, which enable the use of fast quantum algorithms. The Quantum computer has quantum bit memory space termed “Qubit” for several computations at the same time.
This facility may improve the performance of the older systems. Heavy Industry An inevitable use of nanotechnology will be in heavy industry. Aerospace Lighter and stronger materials will be of immense use to aircraft manufacturers, leading to increased performance. Spacecraft will also benefit, where weight is a major factor. Nanotechnology would help to reduce the size of equipment and thereby decrease fuel-consumption required to get it airborne. Hang gliders may be able to halve their weight while increasing their strength and toughness through the use of nanotech materials.
Nanotech is lowering the mass of supercapacitors that will increasingly be used to give power to assistive electrical motors for launching hang gliders off flatland to thermal-chasing altitudes. Nanotechnology has the potential to make construction faster, cheaper, safer, and more varied. Automation of nanotechnology construction can allow for the creation of structures from advanced homes to massive skyscrapers much more quickly and at much lower cost. [pic] Vehicle manufacturers Much like aerospace, lighter and stronger materials will be useful for creating vehicles that are both faster and safer.
Combustion engines will also benefit from parts that are more hard-wearing and more heat-resistant. Consumer goods Nanotechnology is already impacting the field of consumer goods, providing products with novel functions ranging from easy-to-clean to scratch-resistant. Modern textiles are wrinkle-resistant and stain-repellent; in the mid-term clothes will become “smart”, through embedded “wearable electronics”. Already in use are different nanoparticle improved products. Especially in the field of cosmetics, such novel products have a promising potential.
Foods Complex set of engineering and scientific challenges in the food and bioprocessing industry for manufacturing high quality and safe food through efficient and sustainable means can be solved through nanotechnology. Bacteria identification and food quality monitoring using biosensors; intelligent, active, and smart food packaging systems; nanoencapsulation of bioactive food compounds are few examples of emerging applications of nanotechnology for the food industry. Nanotechnology can be applied in the production, processing, safety and packaging of food.
A nanocomposite coating process could improve food packaging by placing anti-microbial agents directly on the surface of the coated film.. Nano-foods New foods are among the nanotechnology-created consumer products coming onto the market at the rate of 3 to 4 per week, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), based on an inventory it has drawn up of 609 known or claimed nano-products. On PEN’s list are three foods — a brand of canola cooking oil called Canola Active Oil, a tea called Nanotea and a chocolate diet shake called Nanoceuticals Slim Shake Chocolate.
Household The most prominent application of nanotechnology in the household is self-cleaning or “easy-to-clean” surfaces on ceramics or glasses. Nanoceramic particles have improved the smoothness and heat resistance of common household equipment such as the flat iron. Optics The first sunglasses using protective and anti-reflective ultrathin polymer coatings are on the market. For optics, nanotechnology also offers scratch resistant surface coatings based on nanocomposites. Nano-optics could allow for an increase in precision of pupil repair and other types of laser eye surgery. Textiles
The use of engineered nanofibers already makes clothes water- and stain-repellent or wrinkle-free. Textiles with a nanotechnological finish can be washed less frequently and at lower temperatures. Nanotechnology has been used to integrate tiny carbon particles membrane and guarantee full-surface protection from electrostatic charges for the wearer. Cosmetics One field of application is in sunscreens. The traditional chemical UV protection approach suffers from its poor long-term stability. A sunscreen based on mineral nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide offer several advantages.
Titanium oxide nanoparticles have a comparable UV protection property as the bulk material, but lose the cosmetically undesirable whitening as the particle size is decreased. Agriculture Applications of nanotechnology have the potential to change the entire agriculture sector and food industry chain from production to conservation, processing, packaging, transportation, and even waste treatment. NanoScience concepts and Nanotechnology applications have the potential to redesign the production cycle, restructure the processing and conservation processes and redefine the food habits of the people. 10. ADVANTAGES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY Nanoparticles are so small that they can easily penetrate into the skin and thus help in repairing the skin tissues. It is because of this factor that you can prevent skin aging by using the products which have the nanotechnology built into it. • This technology is also used in preventing the hair loss and graying issues. • Sunscreens and some anti-aging products are the main cosmetic products on the market currently being made using nanotechnology. They are designed to penetrate the upper layers of the skin and stimulate new skin cell production which gives skin a new, plump, and youthful appearance. We all know the cosmetic range from L’Oreal which has brought the fantastic wrinkle-free creams for the aged women who want to look elegant and gorgeous. The wrinkle-free creams have given the immediate results because the products contain nanosiomes of Pro-Retinol A. • Some of the nanoparticles such zinc oxide and titanium dioxide have been included in sunscreen. • The products that use this nanotechnology are costlier as compared to others. • Some of the products that they have introduced which incorporate the use of nanosomes are Biotherm Age Fitness Nuit, Vichy Reti C, and Revitalift Double Lifting. 1. DISADVANTAGES OF NANOTECHNOLOGY • Nanotech particles will penetrate living cells and accumulate in animal organs, and can perhaps enter the food chain. • There is no regulatory body dedicated to check this potent and powerful invasion Their impact on environment is unknown. e. g. Nanotubes of carbon use gallium & arsenic and minute traces of gallium arsenide in the body could prove toxic. • Changes in the proteins due to the presence of nano particles in the blood stream could trigger dangerous effects like blood clotting . A whole new class of toxins or the environmental problems may be created due to nanotechnology. • Reaction of humans and existing environment to these nanoparticles and nanobots and their acceptance is not known. 12. FUTURE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY The future of nanotechnology is completely uncharted territory. It is almost impossible to predict everything that nanoscience will bring to the world considering that this is such a young science. There is the possibility that the future of nanotechnology is very bright, that this will be the one science of the future that no other science can live without.
There is also a chance that this is the science that will make the world highly uncomfortable with the potential power to transform the world. This technology could end world hunger. At the same time, this process could lead to experimental molecular manufacturing with live beings. The future of nanotechnology could improve the outlook for medical patients with serious illnesses or injuries. Physicians could theoretically study nano surgery and be able to attack illness and injury at the molecular level.
This, of course, could eradicate cancer as the surgical procedures would be done on the cellular base. Cancer cells would be identified, removed, and the surgical implantation of healthy cells would soon follow. Moreover, there would be an entire nano surgical field to help cure everything from natural aging to diabetes to bone spurs. There would be almost nothing that couldn’t be repaired (eventually) with the introduction of nano surgery. While this sounds like a promising future, the natural process of life and death would be completely interrupted.
Without death, the world would become overpopulated and leave no place for the ecosystems that we rely on for our survival. We could potentially end up in a world that requires the personally controlled delivery of oxygen through tanks and masks. [pic][pic] Nano robotics The future of nanotechnology could very well include the use of nanorobotics. These nanorobots have the potential to take on human tasks as well as tasks that humans could never complete. The rebuilding of the depleted ozone layer could potentially be able to be performed. Nanorobots could single out molecules of water contaminants.
We could put these tony robots to use keeping the environment cleaner than ever since they could break it down to each atom of water pollution. These nanorobots could also take over human jobs, especially those in high tech positions. If we wipe out too many human high paying, high tech positions then we threatened the world economy. The future of nanotechnology rests in the hands of the current scientists that are ready and able to help guide this very young science into the next realm. There are those who fear the future of nanoscience and there are those who are ready to embrace it.
Walking a careful line in cohesive junction with human interests is going to be a tricky but worthwhile accomplishment. To develop nanoscopic machines, called assemblers, that scientists can program to manipulate atoms and molecules at will. Rice University Professor Richard Smalley points out that it would take a single nanoscopic machine millions of years to assemble a meaningful amount of material. In order for molecular manufacturing to be practical, you would need trillions of assemblers working together simultaneously.
Eric Drexler believes that assemblers could first replicate themselves, building other assemblers. Each generation would build another, resulting in exponential growth until there are enough assemblers to produce objects [pic] nanogears 13. CONCLUSION While nanotechnology came into existence through Feynman’s and then Drexler’s vision of molecular manufacturing, the field has evolved in the 21st century to largely include research in chemistry and materials science as well as molecular engineering.
As evidenced by Smalley’s debate, this evolution is partly a response to the criticism of Drexler’s views in both Engines of Creation and the Foresight Institute. Thus, in regards to the development of nanotechnology in the present, Drexler’s vision can be viewed as an indirect influence through the sheer interest and subsequent criticism that he created in the field. As Toumey argues, Drexler and therefore Feynman did not have a direct role in the three most important breakthroughs in nanotechnology, the invention of the STM, the invention of the AFM, and the first manipulation of atoms [16].
Instead, Drexler, through Molecular Manufacturing and Engines of Creation, brought scientists from all over the world to the brand new field. Consequently, criticism for Drexler’s vision was established by researchers such as Dr. Smalley. Through this reevaluation and the parallel breakthroughs in microscope technology, nanotechnology as a scientific field was established in a way that diverged from Drexler’s original vision of molecular manufacturing. 14. REFERENCES www. google. com www. authorstream. com www. nanotitan. com www. smalltimes. com www. bowlesphysics. com[pic]
