BY

•SURAJ OF EEE(III YEAR)

WHAT IS NANO TECHNOLOGY? i) Nanotechnology, shortened to "nanotech", is

the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular

scale. ii) It is usually measured in nanometer(nm).

Often hailed as a revolutionary new

technology, nanotechnology has the

potential to impact almost every area of

society.

i)At the nanoscale, objects are so small that we can't see

them - even with a light microscope.

ii)Nanoscientists have to use tools like scanning tunneling microscopes or atomic force microscopes to observe anything at the nanoscale

W h a t i s n e e d o f n a n o t e c h n o l o g y ?

i)Nanotechnology can be used to deal with almost all the kinds

of basic problems in a very smaller size.

ii)There is a principle that smaller sized objects can be held at every place,

but bigger objects cannot be used at the fields that are smaller in size than the object.

iii)Thus, the benefits of smaller sizes are huge, and nanotechnology deals with technology of smaller sizes..

PREDICTION OF NANO TECHNOLOGY:In 1965, Gordon

Moore , one of the founders of

Intel Corporation, made the outstanding prediction

that the number of transistors that could be fit in a given area would double every

18 months for the next ten years.

From the graph, it is observed that the number of transistors used increases ,and his is made possible by nano Technology.

  

Fields using Nano Technology:1.Medicine i)Diagonistics ii)Drug Delivery iii)Tissue Engineering2.Energy i)Reduction of energy consumption ii)Increasing the efficiency of energy production iii)The use of more user friendly energy systems3.Information and Communication4.Heavy Industries i)Aerospace ii)Refineries iii)Vehicle manufactures

1.Medicinei)The biological and medical research

communities have exploited the unique properties

of Nanomaterials for various applications

ii)Terms such as biomedical nanotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and nanomedicine are used to describe this

hybrid field.iii)The size of nanomaterials is similar to

that of most biological molecules and structures;

therefore, nanomaterials can be useful for both in vivo and in vitro biomedical

research and applications.

i)Diagnostics i)Nanotechnology-on-a-chip is one more

dimension of lab-on-a-chip technology. ii)Magnetic nanoparticles, bound to a suitable antibody, are used to label

specific molecules, structures or microorganisms.

iii)Gold nanoparticles tagged with short segments of DNA can be used for detection of genetic

sequence in a sample.

II.Drug deliveryi)Nanotechnology has been a boom in

medical field by delivering drugs to specific cells using nanoparticles.

ii)The overall drug consumption and side-effects can be lowered significantly by

depositing the active agent in the morbid region only and in no higher dose than

needed..

III)TISSUE ENGINEERINGi)Nanotechnology can

help to reproduce or to repair damaged

tissue. ii)“Tissue engineering” makes use of artificially stimulated cell proliferation by using suitable

nanomaterial-based scaffolds and growth factors. iii)Tissue engineering might replace today’s conventional treatments like

organ transplants or artificial implants. Advanced forms of tissue engineering

may lead to life extension.

2.Energy:The most advanced nanotechnology projects related to energy are: storage, conversion, manufacturing improvements by reducing materials and process rates, energy saving (by better thermal insulation for example), and enhanced renewable

energy sources.

Reduction of energy consumption:Currently used light bulbs only convert approximately 5% of the electrical energy into light. Nanotechnological approaches like light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or quantum caged atoms (QCAs) could lead to a strong reduction of energy consumption for illumination.

II)Increasing the efficiency of energy production:i)Today's best solar cells have layers of several different semiconductors stacked together to absorb light at different energies but they still only

manage to use 40 percent of the Sun's energy.

ii)Commercially available solar cells have much lower efficiencies (15-20%). Nanotechnology could help

increase the efficiency of light conversion by using nanostructures

with a continuum of bandgaps.

III) Recycling of batteries i)Because of the relatively low energy density of batteries the operating time is limited and a replacement or recharging is needed. ii)The huge number of spent batteries and accumulators represent a disposal

problem. iii)The use of batteries with higher

energy content or the use of rechargeable batteries or

supercapacitors with higher rate of recharging using nanomaterials could

be helpful for the battery disposal problem.

3.Information and communicationi)Current high-technology production

processes are based on traditional top down strategies, where

nanotechnology has already been introduced silently.

ii)The critical length scale of integrated circuits is already at the

nanoscale (50 nm and below) regarding the gate length of

transistors in CPUs or DRAM devices.

i)Quantum computers

. The Quantum computer has

quantum bit memory space termed "Qubit"

for several computations at the

same time. This facility may improve the performance of

the older systems.This is made possible with

nano technology.

3.Heavy IndustryAn inevitable use of nanotechnology will be in heavy industry.I) Aerospace

i)Lighter and stronger materials will be of immense use to aircraft manufacturers,

leading to increased performance. ii)Spacecraft will also benefit, where weight

is a major factor. Nanotechnology would help to reduce the size of equipment and

thereby decrease fuel-consumption required to get it airborne.

iii)Hang gliders may be able to halve their weight while increasing their strength and toughness through the use of nanotech materials. iv)Nanotech is lowering the mass of supercapacitors that will increasingly be used to give power to assistive electrical motors for launching hang gliders off flatland to thermal-chasing altitudes.

II)RefineriesUsing nanotech applications, refineries producing materials such as steel and aluminium will be able to remove any impurities in the materials they create.

III)Vehicle manufacturersi)Much like aerospace, lighter and stronger materials will be useful

for creating vehicles that are both faster and safer.

ii)Combustion engines will also benefit from parts that are more

hard-wearing and more heat-resistant.