Nanotechnology: the next big idea
Week 1: The nitty gritty
Maryse de la Giroday
6-week course
SFU Liberal Arts & Adults 55+ program
Course overview
• Week 1: Nanotechnology: The Nitty Gritty
• Week 2: Not as New as You Might Think
• Week 3: Pop Culture Portrayals of
Nanotechnology
• Week 4: Violent and Other Confrontations
• Week 5: The Geo-political Situation
• Week 6: Nanotechnology: Social and Scientific
Implications
Introductions
• Who are you?
Maryse de la Giroday
• Largest, independent, science blog in Canada
• Nanotechnology focus
• Technical writer, science writer, arts writer,
marketing communications writer, etc.
• Founding member of Science Borealis
• One of two bloggers mentioned in Science
Culture: Where Canada Stands (Council of
Canadian Academies [RSC, CAE, and CAHS)
Maryse de la Giroday
• My Nanotech Mysteries wiki is mentioned in
3rd edition of Digital Storytelling (Carolyn
Handler Miller)
• MA (creative writing and new media); project:
The Nanotech Mysteries (wiki)
• Have taught in the SFU writing program &
elsewhere
• About to write a series on alternatives to
animal testing for SEURAT-1 (EU project)
Counterintuitive introduction to
definitions
• Buckminsterfullerenes (1985)
• Carbon Nanotubes (1991)
• Graphene (2004)
Buckminsterfullerene
• Credit: Benjah-bmm2
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buckminsterfull
erene-2D-skeletal.png]
Carbon nanotube
• http://inhabitat.com/carbon-nanotubes-couldcreate-better-solar-cells/
Graphene (1 of 2)
Graphene (2 of 2)
• 2-dimensional
• Graphene is an atomic-scale honeycomb
lattice made of carbon atoms.
• The ideal crystalline structure of graphene is a
hexagonal grid. Uploaded by AlexanderAlUS
Created: August 26, 2010
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene#medi
aviewer/File:Graphen.jpg]
What is the error? (1 of 2)
• Quantum Nano Centre (QNC), which officially
opened on Sept. 21, 2012
What is the error? (2 of 2)
• The exterior is distinguished by a hexagonal
honeycomb lattice of structural steel, a
pattern inspired by the stable hexagonal
carbon structure of the nanotube.
• http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=8144 quoting a
news release from the architects: Kuwabara
Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB)
Risk Bites videos
• Carbon nanotubes
• http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=9543
Carbon nanotubes and the MacArthur
genius award (1 of 4)
• Mark Hersam, a professor of materials science
engineering, chemistry and medicine at
Northwestern University, has developed a
method to separate nanomaterials by size,
therefore providing a consistency in properties
otherwise not available. Moreover, the
solution came straight from the life sciences–
biochemistry, in fact.
Carbon nanotubes and the MacArthur
genius award (2 of 4)
• The technique, known as density gradient
ultracentrifugation, is a decades-old process used
to separate biomolecules. The National Science
Foundation (NSF)-funded scientist theorized
correctly that he could adapt it to separate
carbon nanotubes, rolled sheets of graphene (a
single atomic layer of hexagonally bonded carbon
atoms), long recognized for their potential
applications in computers and tablets, smart
phones and other portable devices,
photovoltaics, batteries and bioimaging.
Carbon nanotubes and the MacArthur
genius award (3 of 4)
• The technique has proved so successful that
Hersam and his team now hold two dozen
pending or issued patents, and in 2007
established their own company, NanoIntegris,
jump-started with a $150,000 NSF small business
grant. The company has been able to scale up
production by 10,000-fold, and currently has 700
customers in 40 countries.
“We now have the capacity to produce ten times
the worldwide demand for this material,” Hersam
says.
Carbon nanotubes and the MacArthur
genius award (4 of 4)
• What’s the problem with this description of
the MacArthur website?
– Graphene, a single atomic layer of hexagonally
bonded carbon atoms, and carbon nanotubes,
rolled sheets of graphene in single or multiple
layers, have long been recognized for their
potential applications in electronics,
photovoltaics, batteries, and bioimaging.
• http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14950 (video)
A list of sizes (going up)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1024 yotta Y
1021 zetta Z
1018 exa E
1015 peta P
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo k
102 hecto h
101 deka da
A list of sizes (going down)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10-1 deci d
10-2 centi c
10-3 milli m
10-6 micro µ
10-9 nano n
10-12 pico p
10-15 femto f
10-18 atto a
10-21 zepto z
10-24 yocto y
(US NIST: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html)
Nano in English
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
tenth
1795 (deci)
hundredth
1795 (centi)
thousandth
1795 (milli)
millionth
1960 (micro)
billionth
1960 (nano)
trillionth
1960 (pico)
quadrillionth
1964 (femto)
quintillionth
1964 (atto)
sextillionth
1991 (zepto)
septillionth
1991 (yocto)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-)
What is nano?
• From a 2008 news item, on CBC online,
• Nanotechnology, which is Latin for “dwarf
technology,” [emphasis mine] has medical and
industrial applications. It is the science of
building machines on an atomic and molecular
scale, or the making or manipulating of tiny
particles such as atoms and molecules on the
scale of a nanometre, which is one-billionth of
a metre. (http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=483)
Is nano all Greek to us?
• The prefix is derived from the Greek νᾶνος,
meaning "dwarf", and was officially confirmed
as standard in 1960.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano• From Latin nanus (“dwarf”), from Ancient
Greek νᾶνος (nânos).
• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nano-
Nano is
• A billionth
– time as in nanosecond
– distance as in nanometre
– volume as in nanogram/nanolitre
• Nanotechnology is not a translation from the
Latin or the Greek and it is definitely not
‘dwarf technology’
Nanomaterials/nanoparticles
• Quantum dots
• Silver (gold, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, etc.)
nanoparticles
• Carbon nanotubes
• Lignin nanotubes
• Graphene
• Buckminsterfullerenes ,aka, fullerenes
• Etc.
Introductions to nanotechnology (1 of
2)
• What is nano org? Has many introductory nano
videos.
• http://whatisnano.org/
• Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player
_embedded&v=Cm90Md81zZQ
• Kavli Foundation (2007)
• Narrated by Alan Alda, this introduction to
nanoscience gives us a brief overview of the field
and illuminates some of the interesting questions
being currently researched.
Introductions to nanotechnology (2 of
2)
• Scopey intro. to nano (Alberta’s Ingenuity Lab
video)
• http://ingenuitylab.ca/nextgen/scopey/
• Trynano.org (IEEE [Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers] and IBM and the New
York Hall of Science)
• http://trynano.org/
Nanoscience/Nanotechnology (1 of 2)
• Richard Feynman (1959 “There’s plenty of
room at the bottom”
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.ht
ml) contested history (more in week 2)
• Norio Taniguchi (coined the term
‘nanotechnology’ in 1974;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norio_Taniguchi)
Nanoscience/Nanotechnology (2 of 2)
• An engineer (Taniguchi) coming out of an
applied science community (technology)
coined the phrase and debates as to the
distinction between nanoscience and
nanotechnology have been occurring ever
since.
Physics:
theoretical/experimental/applied
• http://theconversation.com/looking-at-thefuture-through-graphene-goggles-31349
• Physicist: Michael Fuhrer
Nanotechnology gets known
• K. Eric Drexler, an engineer who studied with
Feynman, popularized nanotechnology with
his book Engines of Creation (1986)
• His latest book is Radical Abundance (2013).
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU_qq
MD08PFrDfPREoBEL6IQ&feature=player_detai
lpage&v=ylOCEmlnyHk
• Proselytizer (hints at hype associated with
nano)
‘Micro’scopy
• Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM Zürich
invented the scanning tunneling microscopy
(STM) in 1981
• A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is an
instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic
level. Its development earned its inventors, Gerd
Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1986.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling
_microscope)
Don Eigler/STM/xenon
• Wired
Eigler’s accomplishment
• Twenty years ago this week, on Sept. 28, 1989, an IBM
physicist, Don Eigler, became the first person to
manipulate and position individual atoms. Less than
two months later, he arranged 35 Xenon atoms to spell
out the letters IBM. Writing those three characters
took about 22 hours. Today, the process would take
about 15 minutes.
• “We wanted to show we could position atoms in a way
that’s very similar to how a child builds with Lego
blocks,” says Eigler who works at IBM’s Almaden
Research Center. “You take the blocks where you want
them to go.” (http://www.wired.com/2009/09/galleryatomic-science/all/)
STM gave birth to scanning probe
microscopy
• http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/training/AFM_tutor
ial/ (video)
• Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and
Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Microscopy is a bit of a misnomer with
STM and AFM
•
•
•
•
STM & AFM are haptic devices
The probes relay information about ‘touch’
These are not optical devices
The data derived from the probe’s interaction
with a surface is sent through a computer
programme which then creates an image for
the scientist.
20 bromine atoms and a Swiss Cross
• http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14830 (July 21,
2014 post)
Looks like I B M but has different
meaning
• The manipulation of atoms has reached a new
level: Together with teams from Finland and
Japan, physicists from the University of Basel
were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully
insulated surface at room temperature to
form the smallest “Swiss cross,” thus taking a
big step towards next generation atomic-scale
storage devices. …
University of Victoria & its microscope
(1 of 3)
• This new microscope at the University of
Victoria (UVic) was supposed to be unveiled in
2011 according to my July 28, 2009 posting
about the purchase …
• From: http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=10426 a
June 18, 2013 posting
University of Victoria & its microscope
(2 of 3)
• The world’s most powerful microscope, which resides
in a specially constructed room at the University of
Victoria, has now been fully assembled and tested, and
has a lineup of scientists and businesses eager to use it.
• The seven-tonne, 4.5-metre tall Scanning Transmission
Electron Holography Microscope (STEHM), the first
such microscope of its type in the world, came to the
university in parts last year,. A team from Hitachi,
which constructed the ultra high-resolution, ultrastable instrument, spent one year painstakingly
assembling the STEHM in a carefully controlled lab in
the basement of the Bob Wright Centre.
University of Victoria & its microscope
(3 of 3)
• Herring viewed gold atoms through the microscope at
a resolution of 35 picometres. One picometre is a
trillionth of a metre. This resolution is much better
than the previous best image with 49-picometre
resolution taken at the Lawrence Berkley National
Laboratory in California, and is about 20 million times
human sight [sic] .
• The STEHM allows researchers to see the atoms in a
manner never before possible. It has full analytical
capabilities that can determine the types and number
or elements present, and high-resolution cameras for
collecting data.
Brief bit about STEM (scanning
transmission electron microscopy)
• http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/multimedia/2014
/jan/21/scanning-transmission-electron-microscopyexplained
• In this film, SuperSTEM's Demie Kepaptsoglou explains
how a STEM works and why the technique is a crucial
tool for material scientists. She talks about how a STEM
is used to do atom-by-atom analysis of graphene. She
also previews the capabilities of the next microscope to
be installed at the facility. Called SuperSTEM III, the
instrument will be one of the best in the world and
should be up and running later this year.
Graphene, you sexy thing you
• Located at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire,
SuperSTEM played an important role in the
characterization of graphene by taking the first
lattice images of the material. Graphene was first
isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin
Novoselov at the nearby University of
Manchester, which is a member of SuperSTEM
along with the universities of Leeds, Liverpool,
Glasgow and Oxford. Geim and Novoselov bagged
the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics for their efforts
and graphene remains a hot topic in condensedmatter physics.
Flagship projects in Europe
• Graphene
• The Human Brain
• 1B Euros each over 10 years (announcement
made in Jan. 2013;
http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=9081)
• In the UK there are at least two major
graphene centres
– University of Manchester
– Cambridge University
Back to ‘micro’scopy (nanoscopy)
• ... the Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2014 ingeniously
circumvented a limitation.
• Their ground-breaking work has brought optical
microscopy into the nanodimension.
In what has become known as nanoscopy, scientists
visualize the pathways of individual molecules inside
living cells. They can see how molecules create
synapses between nerve cells in the brain; they can
track proteins involved in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and
Huntington’s diseases as they aggregate; they follow
individual proteins in fertilized eggs as these divide into
embryos. (http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14830)
NPL acknowledges Nobel prize winners
(1 of 3)
• In 1873, the microscopist Ernst Abbe
stipulated a physical limit for the maximum
resolution of traditional optical microscopy: it
could never become better than 0.2
micrometres. Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and
William E. Moerner are awarded the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry 2014 for having bypassed
this limit. Due to their achievements the
optical microscope can now peer into the
nanoworld.
NPL acknowledges Nobel prize winners
(2 of 3)
• Super-resolution microscopes use the fluorescence of
molecules to build up images at a higher resolution
than was presumed possible for most of the 20th
century. This allows scientists to see near molecularlevel detail inside cells, including structures such as
proteins and viruses.
• In collaboration with the University of Cambridge, NPL
has implemented a variant of the single-molecule
microscopy technique known as STORM (stochastic
optical reconstruction microscopy), which can achieve
resolutions up to 10 times better than traditional
optical microscopes.
NPL acknowledges Nobel prize winners
(3 of 3)
• It does this by using fluorescent dyes to label
molecules within cells. These dyes can be switched on
and off, and by doing so the centre position of each
individual fluorescent molecule can be identified and
plotted. The process is repeated thousands of times to
build up a highly detailed, super-resolution image using
all of the plotted positions from every repetition.
• Work from the field being done at UK’s National
Physical Laboratory:
http://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=31286
At the scale of the atom
• There is no absolute gap between living and
nonliving.
• Process and reality, 1929, by Alfred North
Whitehead (paraphrasing: A Key to
Whitehead's Process and Reality Paperback –
Sep 15 1981 by Donald W. Sherburne)
New understandings at the nanoscale
(1 of 2)
• Do the principles of quantum mechanics apply to
biological systems? Until now, says Prof. Ron Naaman
of the Institute’s Chemical Physics Department (Faculty
of Chemistry), both biologists and physicists have
considered quantum systems and biological molecules
to be like apples and oranges. But research he
conducted together with scientists in Germany, which
appeared recently in Science, definitively shows that a
biological molecule – DNA – can discern between
quantum states known as spin.
• (http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/biologicalmolecules-select-their-spin#.VEGMCFet--Y) April 2011
New understandings at the nanoscale
(2 of 2)
• At any one time, one quarter of water molecules
in the uppermost layer have one hydrogen atom
in water and the other vibrating freely above.
Such molecules straddle gas and liquid phases,
according to a new study that bears on
atmospheric chemistry and raises the question of
how exactly to define the air-water boundary.
• (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/
110608131322.htm)
Silver nanoparticles: liquid on the
outside; crystal on the inside (1 of 2)
• A surprising phenomenon has been found in
metal nanoparticles: They appear, from the
outside, to be liquid droplets, wobbling and
readily changing shape, while their interiors
retain a perfectly stable crystal configuration.
• The research team behind the finding, led by MIT
professor Ju Li, says the work could have
important implications for the design of
components in nanotechnology, such as metal
contacts for molecular electronic circuits.
Silver nanoparticles: liquid on the
outside; crystal on the inside (2 of 2)
• The experiments were conducted at room
temperature, with particles of pure silver less
than 10 nanometers across — less than onethousandth of the width of a human hair.
[emphasis mine] But the results should apply to
many different metals, says Li, senior author of
the paper and the BEA Professor of Nuclear
Science and Engineering.
• (http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14861) Oct. 14,
2014 post
Big business/small chips (1 of 2)
• On the heels of Intel’s announcement about a
deal utilizing their 14nm low-power
manufacturing process and speculations
about a 10nm computer chip (my July 9, 2014
posting), IBM makes an announcement about
a 7nm chip
• http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14066 July 11,
2014 post
Big business/small chips (2 of 2)
• A July 8, 2014 news item on Azonano describes a
manufacturing agreement between Intel and
Panasonic,
•
Intel Corporation today announced that it has
entered into a manufacturing agreement with
Panasonic Corporation’s System LSI Business Division.
Intel’s custom foundry business will manufacture
future Panasonic system-on-chips (SoCs) using Intel’s
14nm low-power manufacturing process.
(http://www.frogheart.ca/?p=14032 July 9, 2014
posting)
Which companies are most interested
in nano?
Cosmetics and nano (1 of 2)
• Cosmetics companies are deeply invested in
nanotechnology research, L'Oreal is the sixth
largest patent holder in the US (more than GE
Electric, Motorola, or Eastman Kodak). Their
direct competitors such as Estee Lauder, Shiseido,
Christian Dior, and Proctor & Gamble are also
heavily involved in adding nanoparticles to
cosmetic products. L'Oreal has been researching
the nanotechnology area since the 1980s and
introduced its first 'nano' products in 1990.
Cosmetics and nano (2 of 2)
• Revitalift, a heavily advertised L'Oreal product,
uses 'nanosomes' to transport vitamins and
other active ingredients into the skin's outer
layer. (Nanotech Mysteries,2006,
http://nanotechmysteries.pbworks.com/w/pa
ge/12355755/Marketers%20put%20the%20bu
y%20in%20nano)
Nanotechnology applications
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Environment
Energy
Health
Fashion
Electronics
Visual art/music/dance
Prosthetics
Biomimicry