NANOTECHNOLOGY SEMINAR
THE PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND ENGINEERING OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
CHEN 481-505
SPRING 2012
Course Information
Class room: 112 Jack E. Brown, Chem. Eng. Bldg.
Class time: Friday 9:10 – 10:00 am
Pre-requisite: None
Instructor Information:
Name: Jorge M. Seminario
Research URL: http://research.che.tamu.edu/groups/Seminario/index-1.html
Office: 239 JEB
E-mail: seminario@tamu.edu
Office hours: roughly 3:00-4:00 PM, after class. However, you are free to see me at any time; just make sure I see
you if I am with some else in my office. The only times I am asking you to avoid looking for me is before class. I
need to prepare it carefully.
Virtual office hours: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just send me your question by e-mail and I will respond in
a matter of seconds (through the web site) most of the times or in a few hours in case I am away or the question is
difficult.
Course Goals
Basically the course has two main goals:
1) To introduce all students to the basics and tools of the exciting field of nanotechnology. This includes a review of
the state of the art as well as discussions of present research such that presently or after graduation the student can be
ready to work in this multidisciplinary field; and
2) Re-orient and re-tool students with nanotechnology approaches and algorithms to analyze, design, and simulate
systems of their own interest or of their own research. The effort will focus on developing, modifying, adapting, and
creating tools to solve specific problems in the field.
Grading
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
30%
30%
40%
The same formula is used for everyone. No student may obtain extra credit by special arrangement. Final grades are
assigned as indicated below. I am not committed to giving a certain percentage of A's or F's to every class.
The following table will give you a precise idea of your grade:
From
90
to
100
A
80
89
B
70
79
C
60
69
D
Less than 60
F
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive
civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students
with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their
disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of
Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities Cain Hall, Room B118, or call 845-1637. For additional
information visit http://disability.tamu.edu
The Texas A&M University Academic Integrity Statement
“An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do”
The Aggie Honor Code provides a standard of conduct in which each student promises not to lie, cheat, or steal and
not to tolerate violations by others. I support the Aggie code and I assume the students do also. Remember that the
honor system can be effective only if everyone supports it! For further information, please see the Academic
Integrity Task Force, 2004 at http://aggiehonor.tamu.edu. In summary, do not cheat on exams, test, quizzes, or
homework. Please spare me the difficulty of seeing those sorts of cases through the prosecution system.
Bibliography
No textbook but current journal articles in the field and lecture notes will be used as well as the following books as
reference material.
Here are two interesting books edited by the instructor:
Jorge M. Seminario, Molecular and Nano Electronics, Elsevier, 2006
P. B. Balbuena and J. M. Seminario, Nanomaterials: Design and Simulation, Elsevier 2006.
Other very important books are:
 Nanotechnology: Importance And Applicationsm, M.H. Fulekar, I. K. International Pvt Ltd , 2010
 Nanotechnology in drug delivery, Melgardt M. de Villiers, Pornanong Aramwit, Glen S. Kwon, Springer, 2009
 Nanotechnology: an introduction to nanostructuring techniques, J. Michael Köhler, Dr. Wolfgang Fritzsche,
2004
 Nanotechnology: Fundamentals And Applications, Karkare, I. K. International Pvt Ltd, 2008
 C. P. Poole and F. J. Owens, Introduction to Nanotechnology, Wiley, 2003.
 Jorge Kohanoff, Electronic Structure Calculations for Solids and Molecules, Cambridge, 2006
 G. L. Timp (ed.), Nanotechnology, Springer-Verlag, 1998.
 Aviram, M. Ratner, and V. Mujica (ed.), Molecular Electronics II, NYAS, 2003.
 Introduction to Mesoscopic Physics, Yoseph Imry, Oxford University Press (1997)
 Molecular Electronics, James M. Tour, World Scientific; (2003)
 Modern Quantum Chemistry, A. Szabo and N. S. Ostlund, MacMillan, New York (1982)
 Molecular Quantum Mechanics, P. W. Atkins, Second edition, Oxford University, (1983)
 Silicon Quantum Integrated Circuits, E. Kasper and D.J. Paul, Springer
 Atoms, Molecules and Clusters in Electric Fields, G. Maroulis, Imperial College Press (2006)
 Gaussian 2009 Information
 Crystal 2006 Information
 VASP 2009 Information
 LAMMPS Molecular Dynamics Program information
 Artificial Intelligence Methods
 Monte Carlo Methods
Review of Basic Stuff from Materials:
1) Atomic and molecular
2) Electrical properties
3) Magnetic properties
4) Optical properties
“Always read in advance the material for class”
Class Outline:
Paper Review, Presentations, and Discussions:
Paper Review
You must read each paper and turn in notes about each paper:
Presenting students will show the paper as a ppt presentation for 20 minutes
Discussion follows to help understanding of paper
Goal is to use the paper for further research
Presentations
For the presenters:
1) Chose one or more papers regarding applications of nanotechnology to your assigned/selected topic
2) Prepare a ppt presentation of 20 minutes, containing.
a. Title slide (title of your presentation and names of participants)
b. Before the introduction, add at least one slide summarizing the research, include figures.
c. Introduction (background, etc)
d. Basic principles
e. Work performed (add a reference to each figure that is not yours (use font 10-12))
f. Conclusions
g. Your assessment of the work (how to improve it, follow up, analysis)
h. Further research you suggest
i. References
3) Send me the ppt in advance to get feedback
4) Decide who is (are) presenting for a total of 20 minutes
PPT files of the presentations are due two days before the class in which you will present your assignment as
indicated in the schedule shown below.
Additional tips:
 Use figures that correspond with the concept or the text in the slide, do not use them to fill space.
 Use figures or graphs self-explanatory or a least put captions on them.
 Explain the concepts that are going to be used on the presentation
 Summarize your ideas and show it as key words or phrases using bullets.
 Do not use other presentations done in others classes.
 Do not choose one paper and copy exactly what it says; do a review of your project, looking up for information
in other papers/books
 Summarize the work going on in your selected topic (motivation, relevance, preliminary work, actual work you
want to explain, alternatives, and further research)
 You should cite the journal papers or any figure of the paper properly
 The citation of a paper or a figure on a paper should be in the following way:
Examples,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 16448.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 1996, 77, or
Wang, D. L.; Li, K.; Teo, W. K. J. Membr. Sci. 1995, 105, 89.
Suggestion: Choose papers from recent issues in Science or Nature
Discussion (for the Audience):
 Listen and take notes on the prepared sheet with your review about the presentation (individually, attendance
required, no make-ups)
Interesting Topics
See the Nanotechnology Class: http://research.che.tamu.edu/orgs/groups/Seminario/nanotechnology/
See the nanoMaterials page: http://research.che.tamu.edu/groups/Seminario/materials/
Additional Information from the materials class is here: Materials
Solar Energy (material collected from undergraduate class in petroleum engineering)
I strongly advise you to see the 14 topics prepared by the materials class of spring-2011. These presentations will
allow you to browse the diverse areas related to nanotechnology. I also included important chapters from the
material’s class that can help you further to refresh some basics stuff that I am sure you learn before.
Example of Topics Applications of Nanotechnology to
 Process to control nanotubes chirality
 Nanotech applic.: Oil, gas industry
 Solar Cells; Chemistry & Surface chemistry
 Electromechanical oscillator
 Reservoir Engineering
 Nano-porous membranes in Gas separation
 Nano-Sensors; Microtubule dynamic instability
 Biodegradable Polymer Nanoparticles for drug delivery through mucosal Membranes
 Deliver chemicals to a specific location
 Biomedical sensing- biosensing
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Nano-robots
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Gas & oil industry
Carbon-nanotubes
Energy, Food production & sustainability
Carbon-nanotubes
Mechano-transduction; piezoelecctricity
Nano-fabrics, Chemical Eng. Industry at IBM, Intel
Industrial applications
Nanowire photonics
Semiconductor manufacturing techniques
Nanotech in Agriculture
Molec. Circuits using NDR composites
Solid state Chemistry
NEMs
Graphene technology
Food/ beverages industry, Consumer products
Thermal conductivity
Metal organic frameworks
Nanotechnology in Daily Life
Quantum mechanical devices, tunnel FETs
Nanotech applic. Mechanical
Nanotechnology in Aerospace Applications
Self-ordered devices
Nanotech applic: Pharmaceuticals
Zeolites in the Petrochemical Industry
Applications to genomics
Sequencing Cancer Genomes
Notice: these were topics chosen in earlier related courses. I am providing them just for reference. Any application
of nanotechnology to engineering, especially chemical engineering is allowed. Also notice that the extent of
chemical engineering has grown in recent years far beyond of traditional chemical engineering. Thus you have to be
prepared to take the challenge, if you want to get a good job.
Make-Up Policy
There are NOT make-up presentations; if you have a proved emergency (properly documented and submitted to me
as soon it is possible, i.e., the next class you are able to attend after the emergency) that does not allow you to attend
the presentation; your next score will be used instead for the presentation you missed. If the emergency does not
allow you to take the final presentation and if you have a valid reason your grade will be based on the ppt file that
your group submitted. If you do not have a valid emergency, you will get a zero in the presentation. There are few
situations in which a make-up of the final presentation has to be done; if so, please provide the needed information
as soon as you can.
The same rules also apply for other cases not explicitly considered as emergencies such as, jury duty, job interviews,
or presentations of your research work in meetings. Consistent with University Student Rules, students are required
to notify the instructor and provide supporting information if they have a problem to attend the presentations. If no
documentation is presented after one week of the end of the emergency, you will receive a zero. If the absence is
planned, you will need to provide the documentation in advance too.
Please send me an e-mail if you have further questions.
Attendance, Attendance is strongly suggested though not enforced. Please come on time.
Day
Date
Class and Assignment Schedule
Applications of technology to
Fri
20-Jan
Introduction
Fri
27-Jan
TBA-Presentation
G1-G2
Fri
3-Feb
TBA-Presentation
G3-G4
Fri
10-Feb
TBA-Presentation
G5-G6
Fri
17-Feb
TBA-Presentation
G7-G8
Fri
24-Feb
TBA-Presentation
G9-G1
Fri
2-Mar
TBA-Presentation
G2-G3
Fri
9-Mar
TBA-Presentation
G4-G5
Fri
16-Mar
TBA-Presentation
G6-G7
Fri
23-Mar
TBA-Presentation
G8-G9
Fri
30-Mar
TBA-Presentation
G1-G2
Fri
6-Apr
TBA-Presentation
G3-G4
Fri
13-Apr
TBA-Presentation
G5-G6
Fri
20-Apr
TBA-Presentation
Fri
27-Apr
TBA-Presentation
G# = groups of 2 people
G# = groups of 3 people
group
Evaluation Form - see below the items to be evaluated
1) Quality of slides:
Figures in ALL slides
Figures of proper size
Balance figures-text
Font-size (readable, ~20pt)
Text in figures/tables similar to body text
Figures are fully visible
High quality figures/equations
PPT long enough for 20 minutes
Consistency of slide sequence
Graphics helps to understand
Background has a purpose
material from others was PROPERLY CITED
Slides conveyed the information to the audience?
All slides are self-explanatory
explain figures with text/captions
use short sentences, bullets
use all the space in the slide
Try to show comparisons/differences
spelling/grammar OK
2) INTRODUCTION:
Educational
Show motivation/relevance
Showed prelim work
Equations of basic theory
Recent/relevant/attractive paper
Additional information was searched
Found work in favor
Found work against
Paper stands respect to the whole field
3) Oral presentation:
FOOD WAS PROVIDED
Dress code
Eye-contact
Interaction with audience
Level/tone/clarity of voice
Body posture/ Poise
Expression/ Polite
Confidence
Coherency/ Convincing
Use of filler words
Q&A session
Content level /depth /scope
Knowledge of the subject/ state-of-the-art
Sharpness
Critical analysis
All group participated in Q/A?
Use of microphone/laser pointer
Read off slides
Rushed
4) Impact:
Do the presenters help to further develop of the
topic
Speaker believes the topic
Speaker adherence to topic
Other alternatives shown
Others doing controversial work
Follow-up research
Who will benefit
Speaker contacted authors or other experts for
unpublished material