in
The Next Really
BIG
SMALL Thing
D. JAGAN MOHAN
New Technology Research Centre
University of West Bohemia
Plzen, Czech Republic
Nano..History
Nano..Technology in today’s life
Nano..Materials
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)
Applications
Advantages/Disadvantages
1 nm = 0.000000001 m
Nanotechnology is the creation and use of materials or devices at extremely
small scales.
Nano is Greek for “dwarf”
Manipulation of matter < 100nm (1 10,000th the size of a bacterium)
80,000X smaller than a human hair
10 hydrogen atoms lined up measure about 1 nm
A grain of sand is 1 million nm
How small is Nanoscale……..?
A nanometer is…
………one billionth of a meter
DNA Sample
Approx. 2 nm
Human hair
Approx. 1 X 10-5 nm
Cutting down a cube of gold
If you have a cube of pure gold and cut it, what color
would the pieces be..?
Now you cut those pieces. What color will each of the
pieces be?
If you keep doing this - cutting each block in half - will
the pieces of gold always look “gold”?
Well… strange things happen at the small scale
If you keep cutting until the gold pieces are in
the nanoscale range, they don’t look gold
anymore… They look RED!
Nanoparticles of gold can appear red, orange
or even blue depending on size.
Nano-Gold colloids exhibit different colours at
different sizes and concentrations
Nano…sized particles exhibit different properties than larger particles of the same substance
Learn more about the nature of matter
Develop new theories
Discover new questions and answers in many areas, including health care, energy,
and technology
Figure out how to make new products and technologies that can improve
people’s lives
“Why cannot we write the entire 24
volumes
of
the
Encyclopedia
Britannica on the head of a pin?”
Dr. Richard P. Feynman
(1918-1988)
1959
R. Feynman Delivers “ Plenty of Room at the Bottom”
1974
First Molecular Electronic Device Patented
1981
Scanning Tunneling Microscopic (STM)
1986
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Invented
1987
First single-electron transistor created
1991
Carbon Nanotubes Discovered
Nanoscience is about the phenomena that occur in systems with
nanometer dimensions.
top-down
Photolitography
Microprinting
Nanocluster
0.1 nm
1 nm
10 nm
Biomolecules
bottom-up
Organic synthesis
Self-assembly
100 nm
1 m
10 m
Nanoparticle Properties
Realization of miniaturized devices and systems while providing more functionality
Attainment of high surface area to volume ratio
Manifestation of novel phenomena and properties, including changes in…
Physical Properties (e.g. melting point)
Chemical Properties (e.g. reactivity)
Electrical Properties (e.g. conductivity)
Mechanical Properties (e.g. strength)
Optical Properties (e.g. light emission)
The naked eye can see to about 20 microns
A human hair is about 50-100 microns thick
Light microscopes let us see to about 1 micron
Bounce light off of surfaces to create images
Red blood cells (400x)
Light microscope
(magnification up to 1000x)
Scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), invented in the 1930s, to see objects as
small as 10 nanometers
Bounce electrons off of surfaces to create images
Higher resolution due to small size of electrons
Blood Cells
Greater resolution to see things like blood cells in greater detail
Scanning probe microscopes, developed in
the 1980s, give us a new way to “see” at
the nanoscale
We can now see really small
things, like atoms, and move them too!
This is about how big atoms are compared
with the tip of the microscope
Types of Nanomaterial
Nanopowder
Building blocks (less than 100 nm in
diameter)
for
more
complex
nanostructures.
Nanotube
Carbon nanotubes are tiny strips of
graphite sheet rolled into tubes a few
nanometers in diameter and up to
hundreds of micrometers (microns) long.
CNT is a tubular form of carbon with diameter as
small as 1nm.
Length: few nm to microns.
100 time stronger than steel and very flexible
CNT is configurationally equivalent to a two
dimensional graphene sheet rolled into a tube.
If added to materials like car bumpers, increases
strength and flexibility
Efficient electrical conductors
Can act as both thermal conductors and thermal
insulators
CNT
SWNT can be conceptualized by wrapping a
one-atom-thick layer of graphite called graphene
into a seamless cylinder. (diameter ~ 1nm)
Multiple rolled layers of graphene sheets (5-50 nm)
More resistant to chemical changes than SWNTs
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWNT)
[ Sumio Ijyma (Nature,1991)]
Single-Walled carbon Nanotube (SWNT)
[ Ijyma, Bethune et al. (1993)]
Single Crystals of SWNT
[ R.R.Schlittler et al. (Science, May 2001)]
Carbon Buckyballs (C60)
Incredible strength due to their bond structure and “soccer
ball” shape
Could be useful “shells” for drug delivery
Can penetrate cell walls
Are nonreactive (move safely through blood stream)
Precise
Industrial
Durable
Stronger
Lighter
Cheaper
Medical
End of Illnesses (i.e. cancer, heart disease)
Universal Immunity (i.e. aids, flu)
Body Sculpting(i.e. change your appearance)
Computers can become a billion
times faster and a million times
smaller
Automatic Pollution Cleanup
Manufacturing at almost no cost
Electronics
Materials
Nano Transistors
Nanotubes
Nano Diodes
Aerogel
OLED
Nanoparticles
Applications
Energy
Life Sciences
Batteries
Targeted Drug Delivery
Fuel cells
Solar cells
Artificial Retina
Electronics
Plasma Displays
Quantum Computers
Tissue Regeneration
Power shirt
The perfect match for the power tie? Meet the "Power
Shirt," a piece of nanotechnology-infused clothing that
will be able to generate enough electricity to power small
electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers, or just
about anyone whose physical motion can be harnessed
and converted to electrical energy.
Super thin battery
Concept:
Backed
by
Thin-film
nanotechnology, super thin battery is
capable of generating power up to 10-20
times more than regular batteries. Boasting
of merely 200 microns thickness, it is
thinner than a sheet of paper. It consists of
lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON) that
imparts it with its flexible quality and
increased storage capacity. In addition, it
gets charged up to 80% in just 15 minutes.
Energy
Solar cells
Fuel cells
Batteries
Bio fuels
Information Technology
Smaller, faster, more energy efficient and
powerful computing and other IT-based
Consumer Foods
systems
Foods and beverages
Advanced packaging materials, sensors,
Medicine
Appliances and textiles
Stain proof, water proof / wrinkle free textiles
Cancer treatment
Household and cosmetics
Bone treatment
Self-cleaning and scratch free products, paints
Drug delivery
Appetite control
Drug development
Medical tools
Diagnostic tests
Imaging
Disadvantages
Loss of jobs (in manufacturing, farming, etc)
Carbon Nanotubes could cause infection of lungs
Oil & Diamonds could become worthless
Atomic weapons could be more accessible and destructive