Improving Lithium Ion Battery Performance
Lithium ion batteries seem to be everywhere these days. They power most of the electronic devices we carry around with us cellphones, laptops, MP3 players, digital cameras, and so on. They get their name from the lithium ion that moves from the anode to the cathode during discharge and from the cathode to the anode during recharging. Because of their good energy-to-weight ratios, lithium batteries are some of the most energetic rechargeable batteries available today. In terms of weight and...
NanotoxicologyAssessing the Risks
New technology, whether it is a novel cancer treatment or an innovative approach to making a new material, almost always comes with risk. Nano-technologies are no exception. Certain nanofabrication techniques employ toxic chemicals, the production of carbon nanotubes results in dangerous by-products, and the big question as to what degree certain engineered nanoparticles could be harmful to humans and the environment has not yet been answered. The potentially adverse health effects of fine and...
Toxic Nanotechnologya Problem that Could Result in Surprising Benefits
The fight against infections is as old as civilization. Silver, for instance, was already recognized in ancient Greece and Rome for its infection-fighting properties and it has a long and intriguing history as an antibiotic in human health care. Modern pharmaceutical companies developed powerful antibiotics as an apparently high-tech solution to get nasty microbes under control. In the 1950s, penicillin was so successful that the U.S. Surgeon General at the time, William H. Stewart, declared it...
Removing Heavy Metals from Water
Numerous nanomaterials are in various stages of research and development, each possessing unique functionalities that are potentially applicable to the remediation of polluted industrial wastewater, groundwater, surface water, and drinking-water. The main goal of most of this research is to develop cheap and environmentally friendly materials for removal of heavy metals from water. One example is a novel, low-cost magnetic sorbent material for the removal of heavy metal ions from water,...
Peacock Feathers and Butterfly Wings Inspire Biotemplated Nanomaterials
Photonic crystals also known as photonic bandgap material are similar to semiconductors, except that the electrons are replaced by photons i.e. light . By creating periodic structures out of materials that differ in their dielectric constants, it becomes possible to guide the flow of light through the photonic crystals in a way similar to how electrons are directed through doped regions of semiconductors. The photonic bandgap which forbids propagation of a certain frequency range of light gives...
Textile Transistors to Create Truly Wearable Electronics
If current research is an indicator, wearable electronics will go far beyond just very small electronic devices. Not only will such devices be embedded on textile substrates, but an electronics device or system could become the fabric itself. Electronic textiles e-textiles will allow the design and production of a new generation of garments with distributed sensors and electronic functions. Such e-textiles will have the revolutionary ability to sense, act, store, emit, and move think biomedical...
Nanotechnologys Medical Applications
For centuries, humans have searched for miracle cures to end suffering caused by disease and injury. Many researchers believe nanotechnologies may be our first giant step toward this goal. Whether this belief is based on fact or hope, many corporations and governments are willing to invest a great deal of resources to find out what happens when nanotechnology is used for medical applications the emerging field of nanomedicine. Hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars have been invested...
Selfhealing Anticorrosion Coatings as an Alternative to Toxic Chromium
Remember the blockbuster movie Erin Brockovich The film is based on a real-world legal case that revolved around hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium vi , used by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company PG amp E to control corrosion in cooling towers in its compressor station in Hinkley, California. Chromium vi , a natural metal, is known to be toxic and is recognized as a human carcinogen via inhalation. It also is widely used by industry in the manufacture of stainless steel, welding,...
Native Protein Nanolithography that can Write Read and Erase
Proteins are very specific about which other proteins or biochemicals they will interact with, and are therefore very useful for biosensing applications. If a malignant cancer develops in the human body, the cancer cells produce certain types of proteins. Identifying such proteins enables early detection of cancer. One of the goals of nanobiotechnology is to develop protein chips that respond sensitively to a very tiny amount of specific proteins in order to enable such early diagnosis. A...
Inhaling Bubbles to Fight Lung Cancer
Inhalation or respiratory therapy is a traditional medical treatment that dates back to ancient times and not always for purely therapeutic effects witness the hookah. In the late 18th century, earthenware inhalers became popular for the inhalation of air drawn through infusions of plants and other ingredients, and about 50 years ago the first pressurized metered dose inhaler was put on the market. People suffering from asthma are very familiar with inhalers devices that help deliver a specific...
Turning Diesel Soot into Carbon Nanotubes
Diesel-burning engines are a major contributor to environmental pollution. They emit a mixture of gases and fine particles that contain some 40 mostly toxic chemicals including benzene, butadiene, dioxin, and mercury compounds. Diesel exhaust is listed as a known or probable human carcinogen by several regulatory agencies. Wouldn't it be nice if diesel soot could be rendered harmless before it is released into the environment Wouldn't it even be nicer if this soot could be used to manufacture...
A Biosensor for Salmonella Detection
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a handbook called the Bad Bug Book3 which provides basic facts regarding food-borne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins. It contains all you always wanted to know about Salmonella, E. coli, parasitic protozoa, worms, viruses and natural toxins that, when they get into your food, as they do from time to time, can make you quite sick, even kill you. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC keep some pretty scary...
Nanoparticle Photodynamic Therapy for Deep Cancer Treatment
Photodynamic therapy PDT is a cancer treatment that combines a chemical compound, called a photosensitizer, with a particular type of light to kill cancer cells. The treatment works like this the photosensitizing agent is injected into the bloodstream. The agent is absorbed by cells all over the body, but stays in cancer cells longer than it does in normal cells. One to three days after injection, when most of the agent has left normal cells but remains in cancer cells, the tumor is exposed to...
Green Nanotechnology
'Green nanotechnology' is usually defined as a set of technologies that offer the possibility of changing the manufacturing process in two ways Incorporating nanotechnology for efficient, controlled manufacturing would drastically reduce waste products and the use of nanomaterials as catalysts for greater efficiency in current manufacturing processes by minimizing or eliminating the use of toxic materials and the generation of undesirable byproducts and effluents.''1 In a broad sense, this term...
Nanoscale Water Pump Imitating Cell Pores
Nanofluidic channels that confine and transport tiny amounts of fluids are the pipelines that make the cellular activities of organisms possible. Nanoscale channels carry nutrients and water into cells and transport waste and water out. Body temperature, digestion, reproduction, fluid pressure in the eye, and water conservation in the kidney are only a few of the processes in the human body that depend on the proper functioning of cellular water channels. Special proteins called aquaporins can...
Chapter 2 Building Nanostructuresfrom the Top Down and from the
2.1 Applying a 250 Year Old Discovery to Nanofabrication 30 2.2 Single Atom Manipulation on a 3-D Surface 32 2.3 Native Protein Nanolithography that can Write, Read, and Erase 33 RSC Nanoscience and Nanotechnology No. 8 Nano-Society Pushing the Boundaries of Technology By Michael Berger Michael Berger 2009 Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, www.rsc.org 2.4 Playing Rubik's Cube with Nanoparticles 35 2.5 Nanofabrication Based on Inorganic Replicas of Complex Biotemplates 38 2.6 Viruses...
Preface
This book is a journey through the world of nanotechnology research and development that takes a very personal look at how nanotechnologies are created today. You will read about 122 research projects that are taking place in laboratories around the world and you will meet the scientists who developed the theories, conducted the experiments, and built the new materials and devices that will each take us one step further into our nanotechnology future. Chemists and biologists have always dealt...