| Small Is The New "Big" — Nanotechnology Set For Large Market Gains The days of "bigger is better" are numbered — in nanometers, to be exact. Imagine what 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter looks like, and you'll start to get the picture. Put another way, ten nanometers is equal to one-thousandth the diameter of human hair. Nanotechnology is big these days. Nanoscale science, engineering and technology are emerging fields in which scientists and engineers — as well as many businesses — are beginning to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular scales level in order to obtain materials and systems with significantly improved properties. Nanotech Market Growing Quickly According to the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), estimates in U.S. News & World Report put the nanotech market zooming to $1 trillion by 2013 or a paltry $35 billion by 2020. No matter which figure is right, a stampede is on — spurred by both universities and private companies — to enter the nanotech business and gobble up Federal dollars. The U.S. government alone is expected to spend $847 million on nanotech research in fiscal 2004, up 9.5% from 2003. The Department of Energy is building five nanoscale science research centers. And commercial applications are on the horizon for ceramic, metal and metal oxide nano powders in electronics, medical and semiconductor markets. A New Generation of Advanced Composites For decades, microstructures — which are thousands of times larger than nanostructures — have formed the basis of current technologies for ceramics, alloy fabrication and electronics. Ordinarily, these materials are made up of atomic clusters that range from microns to millimeters in diameter. However, the study of materials at the atomic and molecular scale is enabling the synthesis of new materials with radically different properties and functions. The characteristics of nanostructures are often significantly different from the same material in the bulk. While nanomaterials may exhibit chemical properties that are the same as their ordinary counterparts, the clusters are thousands of times smaller, measuring from 1 to 100 nanometers (billionths of meters). Thus, a human hair about 50 microns wide would be 1,000 times fatter than a 50-nanometer particle of material. At these sizes, fundamental mechanical, optical, chemical, electrical and magnetic properties change. Nanostructures are, in a sense, a unique state of matter — one with particular promise for new and potentially very useful products. In materials sciences, fabrication using nanostructures results in alloys and composites with radically improved properties. The ability to precisely control the arrangements of impurities and defects with respect to each other, and the ability to integrate perfect inorganic and organic nanostructures, holds forth the promise of a completely new generation of advanced composites. For instance, the addition of aluminum oxide nanoparticles converts aluminum metal into a material with the wear resistance equal to that of the best bearing steel. Also, nanoscale layered materials can yield a four-fold increase in the performance of permanent magnets. Advances in Nanotechnology Continue Nanotechnology is still considered a "new millenium" program. The results are still in the future — but the not-to-far-distant future. We will see the advent of structural and compositional freedoms that will allow the design of materials having specific desired characteristics directly from our knowledge of atomic structure. In time, dimensions will "disappear," with zero-dimensional dots or nanocrystals, one-dimensional wires and two-dimensional films, each with unusual properties distinctly different from those of the same material with "bulk" dimensions. We could design materials for lightweight batteries with high storage densities, for turbine blades that can operate at 2500°C and perhaps even for quantum computing. As stated at the conclusion of the Executive Summary of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences report, Complex Systems — Science for the 21st Century, "Although a great deal has been accomplished in this area in the past few decades, far more remains to be done. A complexity program will complement the existing programs and will ensure the success of both. The benefits are, as they have been at the start of all previous scientific 'revolutions,' beyond anything we can now foresee."
For more information about nanotechnology, please refer to the following links: www.er.doe.gov/production/bes/NNI.htm
www.rpi.edu/dept/research/nanotechnology.html
www.rpi.edu/dept/research/nanotech_abstract2.html
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