There are stages to the development of employing nanotechnology to various devices\/products.\u00a0 It has been an evolution in application and not a revolution. Among the earliest applications that reached the consumer market was the application of Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs).\u00a0 From the automotive application, Toyota employed CNTs in epoxies to create light weight and stronger bumpers for vehicles.\u00a0 The advantage was an increase in strength while providing reduced weight, which translated into better vehicle mileage.\u00a0 About the same time, Zyvex was instrumental in applying CNTs to sports products like tennis racquets and baseball bats.\u00a0 Again, the advantage was strength with reduced weight and the ability to withstand greater forces as compared with the traditional products.\u00a0 This could be considered Stage One in the application of nanotechnology.<\/p>\n
There are numerous advances in the medical community.\u00a0 Gold nanoparticles and CNTs are being developed for the treatment of certain types of cancer.\u00a0 Researchers in Germany have employed iron-oxide nanoparticles for treatment of brain cancers.\u00a0 These nanomaterials have been \u201cgrafted\u201d on to viruses or similar biological entities that cancer cells consume.\u00a0 The application of external sources of power to destroy the cancerous cells.\u00a0 This is a Stage Two effort that incorporates the nanomaterial properties, but is \u201cnano\u201d only because the carrier mechanism is in the nano realm.<\/p>\n
Graphene and similar two-dimensional materials have been shown to provide a promising basis for electronics.\u00a0 CNT transistors have been demonstrated.\u00a0 There have been two questions on applying these materials.\u00a0 The first one is the purity or quality of the material.\u00a0 Graphene tends to have voids in larger sheets, although new research indicates that it might be possible to post-cure the voids that exist.\u00a0 The question for Stage Three, which is the application of nanomaterials that employ unique properties of the materials in the nano realm, is how does the mass production of these unique structures occur?<\/p>\n
Nanomaterials have shown promise, but the applications are still being developed.\u00a0 The observable exception is the red coloring in the stained glass windows from the Middle Ages and before, which coloring is caused by the inclusion of gold nanoparticles in the glass.<\/p>\n
When the need is to use actual nanomaterial structures, the ability to manufacture them is more problematic.\u00a0 The initial thought is \u201cWhat about semiconductors?\u201d\u00a0 Their structures are on the nanometer scale.\u00a0 That is absolutely correct, but the product is much larger than nanometer-sized devices.\u00a0 The question is how to we measure, test, and handle nano-scale products\/devices?\u00a0 As an example of this question, consider the following.\u00a0 If I manufacture 30 nm gold particles, how do I know the distribution of the size?\u00a0 What is the half-width of the distribution?\u00a0 Can I use the same method for a gram? a Kilogram? and a ton?\u00a0 How accurate will the measurements be?\u00a0 There is still a large amount of significant development that is required before there will be true nanomaterial products.\u00a0 It is coming, but it is not ready yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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