Nanotechnology

 Nanotechnology

Introduction

Nanotechnology is the design, characterization, production, and application of structures, devices, and systems by controlled manipulation of size and shape at the nanometer scale (atomic, molecular, and macromolecular scale) that produces structures, devices, and systems with at least one novel/superior characteristic or property.

 A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter: ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. The diameter of a human hair is, on average, 80,000 nanometers. At such scales, the ordinary rules of physics and chemistry no longer apply. For instance, materials' characteristics, such as their colour, strength, conductivity and reactivity, can differ substantially between the nanoscale and the macro. Carbon 'nanotubes' are 100 times stronger than steel but six times lighter.

Nanotechnology as defined by size is naturally broad, including fields of science as diverse as surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, energy storage, engineering, microfabrication, and molecular engineering. The associated research and applications are equally 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 direct control of matter on the atomic scale.

Nano Engineering

Nanoengineering is the engineering field focused on the study, development and refinement of materials at a very small scale. It can be thought of as the practical application of nanoscience, similar to how mechanical engineering applies the principles of physics. The word “Nano” is derived from a Greek word meaning “dwarf” and denotes one one-billionth (i.e., 10^-9) of the the unit in question. For context, a human is almost one hundred thousand nanometers wide and a strand of DNA is typically less than three nanometers in diameter.

A man-made product that small — tinier even than a bacterium — might not seem like it would be substantial or strong enough to make any difference in the real world. A vast range of products, from tennis rackets to antibacterial bandages, incorporate nanomaterials. Nanoengineers direct the manufacturing of these nanomaterials via multiple techniques such as electron beam lithography and micromachining.

Nanoengineering is interdisciplinary, as it intersects with all of the subtypes of engineering and with fields such as chemistry and medicine. The nanomaterials that engineers work with can be incorporated into both everyday products and niche applications by mechanical engineers, chemists, medical scientists and many others. Current examples of common nanomaterials in the real world include:

• Kitchen sink filters, many of which use carbon and silver nanoparticles to capture debris.
• Dishwashing liquids, when they break down into spherical micelles that trap grease, fat and oil.
• Laundry detergents, which derive a significant portion of their weights from cage-like zeolites that absorb other molecules.
• Carbon nanotubes, commonly used in tennis rackets and golf ball to add strength with only minimal weight.
• Nanoparticles within catalytic converters in automobiles, designed for capturing some harmful chemicals from car exhaust.

Materials used in Nanotechnology

• Carbon Nanotubes: 

These cylindrical molecules consist of hexagonal arrangements of carbon atoms, made from rolled-up graphene. They have excellent tensile strength and thermal conductivity while also being incredibly lightweight.

Current applications for carbon nanotubes include using them as additives in epoxy to create a stronger adhesive and incorporating them into bicycle parts for greater durability. Hypothetical applications range from possible use in lithium-ion batteries to improve their cyclability (i.e., they could be recharged more times without noticeable degradation of their capacity) to use in water treatment systems for more efficient capture of certain contaminants.

• Nanocomposites

A nanocomposite is formed by adding nanoparticles to a solid to create a multiphase material with greater durability and flexibility. Integrating carbon nanotubes into a manufacturing process is a prominent example, but there are many other possibilities, including conductive polymers and fluorescent-magnetic composites.

In 2004, a material marketed as Metal Rubber demonstrated the potential to combine the best aspects of metal and rubber. It could be stretched to several times its original length while still retaining the conductivity of steel. Similar polymers have also been proposed for use in windmill blades with higher strength-to-weight ratios and in scaffolding that could help broken bones heal faster.

• Quantum dots 
  

A quantum dot is a nanoscale semiconductor with distinctive optical and electronic characteristics. In practice, they are often used to emit specific colors in devices such as LCD TVs, in which case they’re rolled into film sheets that are included in the set’s display.

With quantum dots in place, a TV wastes less light. The quantum dots purify the colors and lessen the amount of light that is unusable by the device’s color filters, resulting in better electrical efficiency and superior picture quality. Quantum dots can also be built into LCDs without needing to overhaul the common LCD fabrication process.

Nanotechnology innovations on the horizon

While the future applications of nanotechnology are definitely promising, there are already a wide array of products and services that utilize nanomaterials. The term “nanotechnology” is often associated with futuristic advances in medical technology and chemistry, but its use cases are much more subtle and widespread than that, encompassing everyday innovations such as:

• The composite materials within plastic bottles, which are safer, better insulated and cheaper to manufacture than some types of glass.
• The lithium iron phosphate batteries frequently included in devices such as rechargeable power tools; they have higher power densities and superior safety profiles compared to more common designs using lithium cobalt oxide.
• The nanoparticles incorporated into some articles of clothing for the reduction of static, prevention of sunburn and resistance to both stains and water damage.
• The key ingredients in skincare and cosmetic products for enabling deeper delivery of vitamins to slow the aging process and possibly enhance appearance.
• The stretchable gold that allows for the fabrication of flexible circuit boards capable of fitting into cutting-edge devices, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and aerospace equipment.

• Cancer treatments and medications

The three core cancer treatments are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. This trio has been instrumental in saving millions of lives from early cancer-related death, but they all have distinctive limitations, especially when it comes to their precision in targeting individual cells. In other words, they often damage healthy tissues while failing to completely eradicate cancerous ones.

Enter nanoparticles for chemotherapy delivery. Researchers from multiple universities have explored the use of these particles for delivering medications. A group at MIT combined the drug Doxil with an RNA interference therapy and coated the combo with hyaluronic acid to ensure survival within the bloodstream.

The use of nanotech may also be beneficial for earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer. For example, a nanodevice might help capture proteins associated with cancer, along with circulating tumor DNA and exosomes from tumors. More efficient detection can increase the chances of multi-year survival, pending proper treatment.

• Renewable energy infrastructure

The prices of solar cells have been falling for years, leading to a rapid expansion of renewable energy infrastructure. Between 2008 and 2017, the price per watt of a solar panel installation fell from $8.82 to $3.36 – a decrease of more than 60 percent.

However, solar still accounted for only 1 percent of electricity production in the U.S. in 2016 and was dwarfed by other renewables, not to mention non-renewables. To increase its market share, it needs even better affordability compared to cheap non-renewable sources such as natural gas. Nanotechnology can help on this front by providing:

• Better light absorption.
• More efficient conversion of light to electricity.
• Improved storage and transport of solar energy.

More specifically, nanoscopic structures made from gold and magnesium fluoride may be the key to the development of thermophotovoltaic cells, which in theory are much more efficient than conventional solar technology. They can harvest energy even in the dark via infrared radiation and emit their heat within specific spectral ranges, instead of equally in all directions across a broad range.

• Agricultural production and food processing

Food demand is set to continually increase as the global population keeps growing. The earth’s human population quadrupled between 1915 and 2015, surpassing 7 billion. An additional 2.4 billion people could be born by 2050. A 2013 study in Agricultural Economics projected food demand would surge between 59 percent and 98 percent by then.

6 Areas where nanotechnology is affecting developing nations

Nanotechnology holds the promise of solving some of the most critical problems facing developing nations today. 

• Water : Nanotechnology can create a light-activated water filter that draws in contaminants and breaks them down at the molecular level. One filter can deliver water to rural communities for less than 3$ a year per family

• Healthcare: A nanotechnology "lab on a chip" is a coin-sized device that contains the diagnostics abilities of a full sized lab. It can be used for health screenings in small, remote clinics. 

• Poverty: Productive nanotechnology systems will aid the development of more efficient and inexpensive production processes that have the potential to lower the price of goods.

• Energy: Nanotechnology is creating a new generation of hydrogen fuel cells, storage systems, solar cells and more that are compact and made from cheaper, lightweight materials.

• Agriculture: Nanotech materials an control water and fertilizers for plants and monitor their health. they can also manage nutrients and medicine for livestock to increase food production.

• Diplomacy: The benefits of nanotechnology - more self-reliant developing nations, improved environment - could encourage world powers to work together to share the technology.

Advantages of Nanotechnology

To enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology, let us first run through the good things this technology brings:

• Nanotechnology can actually revolutionize a lot of electronic products, procedures, and applications. The areas that benefit from the continued development of nanotechnology when it comes to electronic products include Nano transistors, Nano diodes, OLED, plasma displays, quantum computers, and many more.
• Nanotechnology can also benefit the energy sector. The development of more effective energy-producing, energy-absorbing, and energy storage products in smaller and more efficient devices is possible with this technology. Such items like batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells can be built smaller but can be made to be more effective with this technology.
• Another industry that can benefit from nanotechnology is the manufacturing sector that will need materials like nanotubes, aerogels, Nano particles, and other similar items to produce their products with. These materials are often stronger, more durable, and lighter than those that are not produced with the help of nanotechnology.
• In the medical world, nanotechnology is also seen as a boon since these can help with creating what is called smart drugs. These help cure people faster and without the side effects that other traditional drugs have. You will also find that the research of nanotechnology in medicine is now focusing on areas like tissue regeneration, bone repair, immunity and even cures for such ailments like cancer, diabetes, and other life threatening diseases.

Disadvantages of Nanotechnology

When tackling the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology, you will also need to point out what can be seen as the negative side of this technology:

• Included in the list of disadvantages of this science and its development is the possible loss of jobs in the traditional farming and manufacturing industry.
• You will also find that the development of nanotechnology can also bring about the crash of certain markets due to the lowering of the value of oil and diamonds due to the possibility of developing alternative sources of energy that are more efficient and won’t require the use of fossil fuels. This can also mean that since people can now develop products at the molecular level, diamonds will also lose its value since it can now be mass produced.
• Atomic weapons can now be more accessible and made to be more powerful and more destructive. These can also become more accessible with nanotechnology.
• Since these particles are very small, problems can actually arise from the inhalation of these minute particles, much like the problems a person gets from inhaling minute asbestos particles.
• Presently, nanotechnology is very expensive and developing it can cost you a lot of money. It is also pretty difficult to manufacture, which is probably why products made with nanotechnology are more expensive.

Future Scope

• Doctors inside body: 

Wearable fitness technology means we can monitor our health by strapping gadgets to ourselves. There are even prototype electronic tattoos that can sense our vital signs. But by scaling down this technology, we could go further by implanting or injecting tiny sensors inside our bodies. This would capture much more detailed information with less hassle to the patient, enabling doctors to personalize their treatment.

• Sensors:

These sensors rely on newly-invented nanomaterials and manufacturing techniques to make them smaller, more complex and more energy efficient. For example, sensors with very fine features can now be printed in large quantities on flexible rolls of plastic at low cost. This opens up the possibility of placing sensors at lots of points over critical infrastructure to constantly check that everything is running correctly. Bridges, aircraft and even nuclear power plants could benefit.

• Self Healing Structures

If cracks do appear then nanotechnology could play a further role. Changing the structure of materials at the nanoscale can give them some amazing properties – by giving them a texture that repels water, for example. In the future, nanotechnology coatings or additives will even have the potential to allow materials to "heal" when damaged or worn. For example, dispersing nanoparticles throughout a material means that they can migrate to fill in any cracks that appear. This could produce self-healing materials for everything from aircraft cockpits to microelectronics, preventing small fractures from turning into large, more problematic cracks.