Skilled blacksmiths have been producing the renowned Damascus steel in a complex manufacturing process for for 2,000 years. Layers of various steels are piled, forged together, continuously folded over and flattened until a substance consisting of up to several hundred of these layers is eventually created, similar to how a baker kneads dough.
Damascus steel is highly hard while also being incredibly flexible when compared to regular steel. It is now recognized that the incorporation of carbon nanotubes with lengths of up to 50 nm and diameters of 10 to 20 nm is responsible for these exceptional material characteristics.
Of course, ancient and medieval blacksmiths had no knowledge of nanotubes because their procedures were totally dependent on trial and error.
As further examples, humans were already producing gleaming metallic nanoparticle surfaces on ceramics 3,400 years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt, while the Romans used nanoparticles to seal their everyday ceramics, and red stained glass windows were made with glass containing gold nanoparticles in the Middle Ages.
- Nanoparticle-based materials have been made and utilized since the beginning of time. We can now comprehend and even enhance materials like Damascus steel thanks to quantum physics' insight.
- Millennia-old forging methods can be further enhanced by carefully specifying the inclusion of particular materials.
- Nanometer-sized nickel, titanium, molybdenum, or manganese particles can be introduced into the iron crystal lattice of steel for this purpose. Nickel and manganese, in particular, encourage the development of nanocrystals, which maintain their structure even when the metal is bent, ensuring the material's resilience.
- Due to the precise dispersion of these nanocrystals, the steel becomes very flexible and bendable. Despite accounting for a relatively tiny portion of the overall mass, the extra particles provide far better characteristics than the pure iron crystal lattice. This strategy is employed, for example, in the automobile and aerospace industries, where more deformable and robust steels enable lightweight materials and energy-saving building processes.
- The notion of introducing super-fine distributions of nanoparticles into materials (known as "doping" in semiconductors) underpins a variety of nanomaterial manufacturing processes.
The “seasoning” of materials with single atoms or nano-atomic compounds can give them completely new properties, allowing us to make:
• foils that conduct electricity,
• semiconductors with precisely controlled characteristics (which have been the foundation of computer technology for decades), and
• creams that filter out UV components from sunlight. Nanotechnology can also be used to replicate goods that have evolved naturally.
Spider silk is a fine thread that is just a few thousandths of a millimetre thick yet is very ductile, heat-resistant up to 200 degrees, and five times stronger than steel. For decades, scientists have wished to create such a chemical in the lab. This dream has now become a reality.
- A mixture of chain shaped proteins and small fragments of carbohydrate with lengths in the nanometer range is the secret of natural spider's thread.
- Artificial spider silk may be utilized to make super-textiles that help troops wear blast-resistant gear, athletes wear super-elastic clothes, and breast implant encasements avoid unpleasant scarring.
Nanomaterials were created and exploited by evolution long before humanity did. We can reconstruct and even enhance these now thanks to quantum physics discoveries.
~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan
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