Nanotech - Nano Resolution Color Imaging To Help Create Nano Electronics

Researchers at UC Riverside have developed a method for squeezing tungsten lamp light into a 6-nanometer area at the end of a silver nanowire. 

Rather of having to settle with molecular vibrations, scientists may now achieve color imaging at a "unprecedented" level. 

The researchers tweaked an existing "superfocusing" technology (which was previously used to detect vibrations) to detect signals throughout the visible spectrum. 

Light travels along a conical path, similar to that of a flashlight. 

The device records the impact of an object on the form and color of the beam as the nanowire's tip passes over it (including through a spectrometer). 

The scientists can make color photographs of carbon nanotubes that would otherwise seem gray by using two sections of spectra for every 6nm pixel. 

Scientists have created new materials for next-generation electronics that are so small that they are not only unidentifiable when tightly packed, but they also don't reflect enough light for even the most powerful optical microscopes to reveal minute features like colors. 

Carbon nanotubes, for example, appear grey under an optical microscope. 

Scientists find it difficult to investigate nanoparticles' unique features and find methods to improve them for industrial application since they can't differentiate small details and variations between individual pieces. 

Researchers from UC Riverside describe a revolutionary imaging technology that compresses lamp light into a nanometer-sized spot in a new paper published in Nature Communications. 

Like a Hogwarts student learning the "Lumos" spell, it keeps the light at the end of a silver nanowire and utilizes it to show previously unseen features, including colors. 

Scientists will be able to examine nanomaterials in enough detail to make them more useful in electronics and other applications thanks to the breakthrough, which improves color imaging resolution to an unparalleled 6 nanometer level. 

With a superfocusing approach developed by the team, Ming Liu and Ruoxue Yan, associate professors at UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, created this unique instrument. 

Previous research has utilized the technology to examine molecular bond vibrations at 1-nanometer spatial resolution without the need of a focusing lens. 

Liu and Yan improved the method in the current paper to measure signals covering the whole visible wavelength range, which may be used to produce color and portray the object's electrical band structures rather than just molecular vibrations. 

Light from a tungsten lamp is squeezed into a silver nanowire with near-zero scattering or reflection, where it is conveyed by the oscillation wave of free electrons at the silver surface. 

The condensed light travels in a conical route from the silver nanowire tip, which has a radius of only 5 nanometers, similar to a flashlight's light beam. 

The impact of an item on the beam shape and color is detected and recorded as the tip passes over it. 

"It's like controlling the water spray from a hose with your thumb," Liu said. 

"You know how to change the thumb position to acquire the desired spraying pattern, and similarly, in the experiment, we read the light pattern to extract the specifics of the item obstructing the 5 nm-sized light nozzle." The light is then concentrated into a spectrometer, where it takes the shape of a small ring. 

The researchers can colorize absorption and scattering pictures by scanning the probe across an area and capturing two spectra for each pixel. 

The previously grey carbon nanotubes are photographed in color for the first time, and each carbon nanotube may now display its own distinct hue. 

"The imaging is dependent on the atomically clean sharp-tip silver nanowire and its almost scatterless optical coupling and focusing," Yan stated. 

"Otherwise, there would be a lot of stray light in the backdrop, which would sabotage the entire thing." The researchers believe the new approach will be useful in assisting the semiconductor sector in producing homogenous nanomaterials with consistent characteristics for use in electronic devices. 

The new full-color nano-imaging approach should help researchers learn more about catalysis, quantum optics, and nanoelectronics. 

Xuezhi Ma, who worked on the topic as part of his PhD research at UCR Riverside, joined Liu, Yan, and Ma in the study. 

The study is titled "6 nm super-resolution optical transmission and scattering spectroscopic imaging of carbon nanotubes employing a nanometer-scale white light source." 

Although the ability to compress light is impressive in and of itself, the creators believe it will play a significant role in nanotechnology. 

Semiconductor manufacturers may be able to create more consistent nanomaterials for use in chips and other tightly packed devices. 

The constricted light might also help mankind grasp nanoelectronics, quantum optics, and other scientific domains that haven't had this resolution before.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Read the research paper attached  below:

Nanoscale - Surface-To-Volume Ratio

Surface atoms in nanoscale things act differently from their bulk atoms. 

Consider the ratio of surface area A to volume V of a nanostructure to determine whether surface or bulk effects prevail. 

The ratio A/V of three solids in the shapes of a sphere, a cube, and a right-square pyramid is compared in Table. 

It demonstrates that this ratio scales as 1/r, where r is a linear size measure. 

All regular, basic constructions are found to scale in the same way. 

Even for a complex structure, if a single size parameter can be identified (for example, by enclosing the structure within a sphere of radius r), the same scaling holds roughly. 

Physically, the 1/r scaling means that the ratio A/V rises as the size of a three-dimensional structure decreases. 

In the example illustrated in Figure, the dramatic impact on surface area can be observed. 

The cube A has 1 m sides and a 6 m2 surface area. 

Each cube has a surface area of 6 cm2 when split into smaller 1 cm cubes (part B), however there are 106 of them, resulting in a total surface area of 600 m2. 

If cube A (part C) were cut into 1 nm cubes, the total surface area would be 6000 km2. 

Despite the fact that the overall volume stays the same in all three instances, the collective surface area of the cubes is significantly enhanced. 

A significant increase in the area of surfaces (or interfaces) may result in completely new electrical and vibrational states for each surface. 

Indeed, surface effects are responsible for melting that begins at the surface (pre-melting) and for a compact object's lower melting temperature (as compared to its bulk equivalent). 

Furthermore, significant changes in the thermal conductivity of nanostructures may be ascribed in part to increased surface area. 

A nanowire's thermal conductivity, for example, may be considerably lower than that of the bulk material, whereas carbon nanotubes have a much greater thermal conductivity than diamonds. 

Even though bulk gold is chemically inert, it exhibits significant chemical reactivity in the form of a nano size cluster, which is an example of surface effects. 

This is due in part to the number of surface atoms that act like individual atoms in a gold nanocluster. 

Bulk silver, on the other hand, does not react well with hydrochloric acid. 

The electrical structure of the surface states has been ascribed to the strong reactivity of silver nanoparticles with hydrochloric acid. 

An increase in surface area affects mechanical and electrical characteristics in addition to thermal and chemical properties. 

Indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires, for example, show a monotonic reduction in mobility as their radius approaches 10 nm. 

The low-temperature transport results clearly indicate that mobility deterioration is caused by surface roughness scattering. 

Furthermore, the existence of surface charges and a decreased coordination of surface atoms may result in a very high stress that is far outside the elastic regime. 

Charges on the polar surfaces of thin zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanobelts may spontaneously form rings and coils, which is unusual. 

Unexpected nanoscale phenomena like shape-based memory and pseudo elasticity may be explained by a high surface area and the associated surface effects. 

Young's modulus of films thinner than 10 atomic layers, for example, is found to be 30% lower than the bulk value. 

All of these findings suggest that increasing the surface-to-volume ratio is essential for nanoscale things.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Making An Appearance At The Nanoscale

Materials that interact with electromagnetic and other fields show a wide variety of spatial and temporal phenomena. 

The independence of any observation with regard to the choice of time, location, and units is a fundamental principle in physics. 

Physical quantities must rescale by the same amount throughout space-time, but this does not mean that physics is scale invariant. 

It is obvious that physics requires a quantized approach at the lowest scale, and Planck's constant h defines the least observable limit. 

Our world is governed by four basic forces: gravity, the weak force, the strong force, and the electromagnetic force, according to the standard model of constituent particles. 

Each of these forces has a distinct coupling strength as well as a distinct distance dependency. 

The gravitational and electromagnetic forces have a scale of 1/r 2 (known as the inverse-square rule) and may operate over vast distances, while the weak and strong forces only work over short distances. 

The strong force is virtually unobservable at distances larger than 1014 m, while the weak force has no effect at distances higher than 10 m. 

All of this indicates that we should be aware of the scale and units used to measure various amounts. 

All forces have the property of fading away as one travels away from the source. 

Using exchange particles, which are virtual particles produced from one item (source) and absorbed by the other, quantum field theory describes any force between two things (sink) Photons, gluons, weak bosons, and gravitons are four kinds of exchange particles that give birth to four forces; they all have a spin of one in units of h/(2 ) and transfer momentum between two interacting objects. 

The force produced between the two objects equals the rate at which momentum is transferred. 

Quantum field theory indicates that when the distance between objects grows, this force decreases. 

For example, the electromagnetic force between two charge particles diminishes as 1/r 2, while for dipole–dipole interactions, this dependency becomes 1/r4.

Because most physical or chemical characteristics can be traced back to interactions between atomic or molecular components, they all tend to retain vestiges of the inverse-distance dependency and appear as size-dependent traits for nanoscale objects. 

When at least one of the dimensions falls below 100 nm, the following material characteristics become size dependent (to varying degrees): 

• Mechanical properties: elastic moduli, adhesion, friction, and capillary forces; 

• Thermal properties: melting point, thermal conductivity; 

• Chemical properties: reactivity, catalysis; 

• Electrical properties: quantized conductance, Coulomb blockade; 

• Magnetic properties: spin-dependent transport, giant magnetoresistance; 

Engineers may adjust one or more characteristics of bulk materials by resizing them to the nano regime, which is a practical and beneficial element of this size dependency (1 nm to 100 nm). 

This property is at the heart of the idea of metamaterials, which are artificially created materials that enable nanotechnology to be used in real-world applications. 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Nanotechnology And Nanoscience.

In 1889, the International System of Units (SI, short for Système International) was established. 

It is based on seven basic units for measuring time, length, mass, electric current, temperature, quantity of material, and luminous intensity: second (s), meter (m), kilogram (kg), ampere (A), kelvin (K), mole (mol), and candela (cd). 

Multiples and submultiples of the original unit are created by adding prefixes denoting integer powers of ten to these basic units. 

The SI system additionally stipulates that negative powers of 10 should be expressed in Latin words (e.g., milli (m), micro (m), nano (n), and positive powers of 10 should be expressed in Greek terms (e.g., kilo (k), mega (M), giga (G) (G). 

In 1958, the term nano was used to denote 109 SI units. 

The term nano comes from the classical Latin nanus, or its ancient Greek etymon nanos (v o), which means dwarf, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. 

Norio Taniguchi used the term nanotechnology to characterize his work on ultrafine machining and its promise for building sub micrometer devices in 1974. 

This phrase now refers to a transformative technology capable of constructing, manipulating, and directing individual atoms, molecules, or their interactions on a nanoscale scale (1 to 100 nm). 

While this use reflects the spirit of modern nanotechnology, it is dependent on the size of the items involved, which has a number of flaws. 

For example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has suggested expanding the scope to include materials with at least one internal or surface feature, where the start of size dependent phenomena varies from the characteristics of individual atoms and molecules. 

By using nanoscale characteristics, such structures allow new applications and lead to better materials, electronics, and systems. 

The science of tiny devices is known as nanoscience. 

Essentially, nanoscience is a size where we can use both aspects to harness collective rather than individual characteristics of atoms and molecules — it is a scale where we can utilize both aspects to harness collective rather than individual properties of atoms and molecules. 

As we'll see later, the new features of nanostructures are primarily defined by the aggregate behaviors of individual building pieces. 

Figure below depicts a range of items with length scales ranging from 0.1 nanometers to one centimeter. 

On the right side of this image, an enlarged view of a few nanoscale (1 to 100 nm) items involved in the development of nanotechnology is displayed. 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Nanotechnology - A Historical Perspective

  

In 1867, James Clerk Maxwell suggested the use of small machines to defy thermodynamics' second rule, which says that the entropy of a closed system cannot decrease. 

According to this rule, heat must travel from hot to cold, preventing the construction of a perpetual motion machine. 

Maxwell's devil is a gedanken experiment that includes a machine (or demon) protecting a small opening between two gas reservoirs at the same temperature. 

The devil can determine the speed of individual molecules and allow only the fastest to pass, resulting in a temperature differential between the two reservoirs without requiring any effort. 

Maxwell's demon is unlikely to succeed since the second rule of thermodynamics has survived the test of time, but it is interesting to discover that molecular-level sensing and manipulation concepts were imagined more than 150 years ago. 

More recently, in a 1959 lecture to the American Physical Society titled “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” physicist Richard Feynman alluded to the possibility of having miniaturized devices, made of a small number of atoms and working in compact spaces, for exploiting specific effects unique to their size and shape to control synthetic chemical reactions and produce useful products. 

Humans have used the interaction of light with nanoparticles without knowing the physics underlying it, according to historical data. 

The Lycurgus Cup, illustrated in Figure, is an interesting example. 

It is believed to have been created in the fourth century by Roman artisans. 

The cup is made of glass with gold and silver nanoparticles implanted in it, and it has a color-changing feature that allows it to take on various colors depending on the light source. 

When seen in reflected light, it looks jade-green. 

From the outside, however, the cup looks translucent-red when light is shined into it. 

The ruby-red and deep-yellow hues of the second item in Figure, a stained-glass window at Lancaster Cathedral depicting Edmund and Thomas of Canterbury, are created by trapped gold and silver nanoparticles in the glass. 

Modern theories on plasmon production may explain these visual phenomena, but how ancient blacksmiths understood the exact material characteristics and compositions to achieve them in reality remains a mystery. 

Regardless of contemporary advancements that enable humans to harness the power of nanotechnology, natural processes have skillfully used nanotechnology effects for billions of years. 

Examples include collecting solar energy via photosynthesis, precise replication of the DNA structure, and DNA repair caused by endogenous or external causes. 

The primary goal of nanoscience is to discover such phenomena that are unique to the nanoscale. 

Nanotechnology, which helps society via particular applications such as longer-lasting tennis balls, more efficient solar cells, and cleaner diesel engines, is based on theoretical know-how and understanding gained through nanoscience. 

However, there are numerous examples from prehistoric times to the present day where the application of a technology preceded the underlying science; practitioners were unaware of the reasons for strange behavior they observed in materials and devices that were very different from familiar individual atoms, molecules, and bulk matter, but continued to use them in applications – a model that modern engineers and scientists appear to be following. 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Nanomachine Manufacture - A World Made of Dust—Nano Assemblers

Let us consider Feynman's ultimate vision: machines that can manufacture any substance from atomic components in the same way that children construct buildings out of Lego bricks. 

In a form of atomic 3D printer, a handful of soil includes all the essential atoms to allow such "assemblers" to construct what we want seemingly out of nowhere. 

• The term "nano-3D" may become a new tech buzzword in the near future. These devices would not be completely new! They've been around for 1.5 billion years on our planet. 
• Nanomachines manufacture proteins, cell walls, nerve fibers, muscle fibers, and even bone molecule by molecule in our body's two hundred distinct cell types using specific building blocks (sugar molecules, amino acids, lipids, trace elements, vitamins, and so on). 
• Here, very specialized proteins play a key function. The enzymes are the ones you're looking for. The energy required for these activities comes from the food we consume. 
• Biological nanomachines carry, create, and process everything we need to exist in numerous metabolic processes, like a small assembly line. 
• Nature's innovation of cell metabolism in living systems demonstrated that assemblers are conceivable a long time ago. Enzymes are the genuine masters of efficiency as nanomachines. 

What is preventing us, as humans, from producing such technologies? 

We can even take it a step further: if nanomachines can accomplish anything, why couldn't they construct themselves? 

• Nature has also demonstrated this on the nanoscale: DNA and RNA are nothing more than extremely efficient, self-replicating nanomachines. 
• Man-made nanomachines may not be as far away from self-replication as they appear. 
• Nature has long addressed the difficulty of nanomachine self-replication: DNA may be thought of as a self-replicating nanomachine. 
• Nanotechnology opens up a world of possibilities for us to enhance our lives. Nonetheless, most people are put off by the word "nano," as are the phrases "gene" and "atomic," which similarly relate to the incomprehensibly small. 
• Nanoparticles, genes, and atoms are all invisible to the naked eye, yet the technologies that rely on them are increasingly influencing our daily lives. 

What happens, though, when artificial nanomachines have their own momentum and are able to proliferate inexorably and exponentially? What if nanomaterials turn out to be toxic? 

The first of these issues has already arisen: nanoparticles used in a variety of items, such as cosmetics, can collect in unexpected areas, such as the human lung or in marine fish. 

What impact do they have in that area? 

Which compounds have chemical reactions with them and can attach to their extremely active surfaces? 

• According to several research, certain nanoparticles are hazardous to microorganisms. 
• To properly analyze not just the potential, but also the impacts of nanotechnologies, more information and education are necessary. 

This is especially true of the quantum computer.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Nano: Infinite Possibilities On The Invisible Small Scale

Norio Taniguchi was the first to define the word "nanotechnology" in 1974: Nanotechnology is primarily concerned with the separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by a single atom or molecule. 

• The word "nano" refers to particle and material qualities that are one nanometer to 100 nanometers in size (1 nm is one millionth of a millimeter). 
• The DNA double helix has a diameter of 1.8 nm, while a soot particle is 100 nm in size, almost 2,000 times smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence. 
• The nanocosm's structures are therefore substantially smaller than visible light wavelengths (about 380–780 nm). 

The nano range is distinguished by three characteristics: 

• It is the boundary between quantum physics, which applies to atoms and molecules, and classical rules, which apply to the macro scale. Scientists and engineers can harness quantum phenomena to develop materials with unique features in this intermediate realm. This includes the tunnel effect, which, as indicated in the first chapter, is significant in current transistors. 

• When nanoparticles are coupled with other substances, they aggregate a huge number of additional particles around them, which is ideal for scratch-resistant car paints, for example. 

• Because surface atoms are more easily pulled away from atomic complexes, nanoparticles function as catalysts for chemical processes when a fracture occurs in the material. This is demonstrated via a simple geometric consideration. A cube with a side of one nanometre (approximately four atoms) includes on average 64 atoms, 56 of which are situated on the surface (87.5 percent). In comparison to bulk atoms, the bigger the particle, the fewer surface atoms accessible for reactions. Only 7.3 percent of the atoms in a nanocube with a side of 20 nm (containing 512,000 atoms) are on the surface. Their percentage declines to 1.2 percent at 100 nm.

Nanoparticles are virtually totally made up of surface, making them extremely reactive and endowing them with surprising mechanical, electrical, optical, and magnetic capabilities. 

Physicists have known for a long time that this is true in (quantum) theory. However, the technologies required to isolate and treat materials at the nanoscale have not always been available. 

• The invention of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) by Gert Binning and Heinrich Rohrer in 1981 was a watershed moment in nanotechnology (for which they were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics). Single atoms can be seen with this gadget. The electric current between the tip of the grid and the electrically conductive sample reacts extremely sensitively to changes in their spacing as little as one tenth of a nanometer due to a particular quantum phenomena (the tunneling effect). 
• In 1990, Donald Eigler and Erhard Schweizer succeeded in transferring individual atoms from point A to point B by altering the voltage provided to the STM grid tip; the device could now not only view but also move individual atoms. With 35 xenon atoms written on a nickel crystal, the two researchers “wrote” the IBM logo. Researchers were able to construct a one-bit memory cell using just 12 atoms twenty-two years later (normal one-bit memory cells still comprise hundreds of thousands of atoms). 

What Feynman envisioned as a vision of the future in 1959, namely the atom-by-atom production of exceedingly small goods, is now a reality. 

Physicists and engineers are using quantum physics to not only manipulate atoms and create microscopic components, but also to produce new materials (and better comprehend existing ones).

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Nanomaterials - Materials Of Wonder.

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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Nanomaterials - Diamonds Aren't The Only Thing That's Valuable.

Pure nanomaterials have become available today.

Graphite is a fascinating example. 

• Graphite is a kind of elementary carbon that is commonly used to produce pencil leads. It's just a stack of carbon layers, each one the thickness of a single carbon atom. 
• Each layer is made up of graphene, a two-dimensional carbon molecule lattice regulated by quantum physics. 
• For many years, scientists have been researching these ultra-thin carbon layers theoretically. 
• Their quantum-physical calculations and simulations revealed that graphene must have incredible properties: 200 times the strength of steel, outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity, and transparency to visible light. 
• They merely needed verification that their theoretical calculations were true in practice. 
• Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov then succeeded in isolating pure graphene in 2004. Their plan was to use a graphite-based adhesive tape to remove it. 
• In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Has a Nobel Prize in Physics ever been granted for anything so simple? 

Graphene is the world's thinnest substance, with thicknesses on the order of one nanometer. 

• At the same time, its atoms are held together by densely packed “covalent” chemical bonds, which bind them all. 
• There are no flaws in this material, no areas where it may break, in a sense. 
• Because each carbon atom in this composite may participate in chemical processes on both sides, it exhibits exceptional chemical, electrical, magnetic, optical, and biological capabilities. 

Graphene might be used in the following ways: 

• Clean drinking water production: graphene membranes may be utilized to construct extremely efficient desalination facilities. 

• Energy storage: Graphene may be utilized to store electrical energy more effectively and long-term than other materials, allowing for the creation of long-lasting and lightweight batteries. 

• Medicine: graphene-based prosthetic retinas are being studied by experts (see below). 

• Electronics: graphene is the world's tiniest transistor. 

• Special materials: graphene might potentially be utilized as a coating to create flexible touchscreens, allowing mobile phones to be worn like bracelets. 

The EU believes graphene-based technologies have such promising futures that it designated research in this subject as one of two initiatives in the Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship Initiative, each with a one-billion-euro budget. 

The Human Brain Project is the other sponsored project, but a third has emerged in the meantime: the flagship project on quantum technologies. 

Graphene, a nanomaterial, is thought to be a future wonder material.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Microelectronics To Nanoelectronics

 

Doped silicon crystals are the basis of modern microelectronics. We've been pursuing the path from micro to nanoelectronics for quite some time now. 

And some of Feynman's vision has already come to fruition. In 1959, he claimed that a particle of dust could contain the information of 25 million books. 

• One bit must be held in 100 atoms to do this. It is now feasible to create elementary storage units with 12 atoms. So there's capacity for over 250 million books on a particle of dust. 
• Carbon nanotubes, commonly known as nanotubes, are an example of future nanomaterials in electronics. 
• Graphene layers have been rolled into tubes to create small carbon cylinders with a diameter of roughly 100 nanometers. 
• Only the rules of quantum physics can explain their unique electrical characteristics. 
• Because the electrons pass through the Nano tube almost without interference, i.e. without being deflected by blocking atoms as they would be in a metallic conductor, they carry electronic currents better than any copper conductor, depending on the diameter of the tube. 

Stanford University researchers have built a functioning computer with 178 nanotube transistors.  It possesses the processing capacity of a 1955 computer, which could occupy an entire gymnasium. Even farther, the nanomaterial "silicene" goes. 

• Atoms are stacked in two-dimensional layers with honeycomb patterns, similar to graphene. But, unlike graphene, which is formed of carbon, silicene is a foil formed of elementary silicon, a semiconductor, which makes it particularly attractive for computer chip fabrication. 
• The first transistor constructed of silicene was constructed in 2014 by researchers at the University of Texas. 

Despite the fact that silicene's manufacturing and processing are still technically challenging (it decays when exposed to oxygen, for example), there is high expectation that this substance can dramatically improve the performance of computer chips. 

• Transistors made of nanotubes or silicon might be switched significantly quicker, resulting in significantly more powerful computer processors. 
• The creation of nanotubes for use in computers, on the other hand, is not the end of the narrative.

Physicists and computer designers want to employ single molecules as transistors in the future. In reality, by flipping a switch, some organic molecules may be transformed from electrically conductive to insulating.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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When Biotechnology And Nanotechnology Collide

Richard Feynman foresaw sixty years ago that nanoparticles and nanomachines may be extremely useful in medicine. 

This aspect of his vision is also coming to fruition right now. Here are three examples of things that are already being done: 

• Nano-Retina, an Israeli startup, has invented an artificial nano-retina that allows the blind to sight again. 4: it is made up of a small, flat implant with a high-resolution network of nano-electrodes. The nano-retina activates the optic nerve, causing incoming light particles to be collected by the electrodes and relayed to the brain as visual sensations. 

• Nano biosensors detect antibodies and particular enzymes in human bodily fluids in a lab on a chip. On a credit card-sized chip, just one-thousandth of a millilitre of blood, urine, or saliva (or even less) is put. When it comes into touch with the desired substance, the nanoparticles embedded in it detect certain chemical, optical, or mechanical changes. As a result, the chip can identify a variety of medical signs in only a few minutes. 

• Nanoparticles deliver medications directly to locations of inflammation or mutant cells, allowing for a more effective pharmacological assault. Because blood is as sticky as honey for such small particles, the topic of how to transport nanostructures in the blood has remained unanswered for a long time. Magnetic fields, for example, may now be used to direct them. Bioengineers want to utilize them in precision chemotherapies against cancer cells, among other things. 

Nano-robots, often known as "nanobots," are extremely small nano-robots that hold great promise in medicine. Every two years, we'd go to the doctor for a health checkup, which would be replaced with a continuous nano-check. 

• Nanobots would roam our bodies indefinitely, detecting viruses, gene changes, and harmful deposits in the circulation before they became a problem. 
• They would then start treatment right away by administering medications straight to the illness location. 
• They'd combat infections, reduce inflammation, remove cysts and cellular adhesions, unblock clogged arteries to avoid strokes, and even do surgery. 
• They would submit the results immediately to the family doctor if required, who would then contact the patient to schedule an appointment. 
• Many small nano-robots—biomarkers, labs-on-a-chip, and other telemedical devices—permanently circulate inside our bodies for health care and healing, according to doctors. Nanoparticles, also known as nanobots, might be employed in our food. 
• They would assist us in digesting food in such a way that nutrients are absorbed as efficiently as possible by our bodies. This would be beneficial in the treatment of disorders that now necessitate a tight diet. 

Researchers are also working on developing meals with nanoparticles on the surface that would mimic the flavor of chips, chocolates, or gummy bears while being nutritious and even healthful.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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Ultra-Small Nano Machines - Masters Of The Nano-World

Our growing technical mastery of the nanoworld will open up a plethora of new technical possibilities, including Feynman's vision of ultra-small machines operating at the level of single atoms. 

• Nanowheels, nanomotors, and even a nano-elevator have previously been constructed.
• There is a nano-car with four distinct motors installed on a central support, powered by the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. 

Nanotechnologists can make things even smaller. 

• A single bent thioether molecule lying on a copper surface makes up the world's tiniest electric motor, which is only a nanometre in size. 
• Two differing length hydrocarbon chains (a butyl and a methyl group) hang like small arms on a central sulphur atom in this molecule. 
• The whole molecule is connected to the copper surface in a way that allows it to freely spin. It is powered by a scanning tunneling microscope, whose electrons use the tunnel effect to excite the molecule's rotating degrees of freedom. 
• The electrical current and the outside temperature can affect the motor's operating speed.  Nanomachines are currently being developed. 
• The molecular motor is on par with the electric motor in the 1830s in terms of progress. Nobody could have predicted that the electric motor would one day be used to power trains, dishwashers, and vacuum cleaners in 1830. 

When voting on the 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm foresaw a comparable promise for molecular nanomachines. 

Molecular motors are anticipated to be employed in sensors, energy storage systems, and the production of novel materials in the near future. 

Nanotechnology has progressed in a number of ways that have mostly gone unnoticed by the general public: 

• The first generation of nanotechnology products, such as Damascus steel, were still passive materials with well-defined properties that did not change when used. 

• The second generation of nanotechnology products, on the other hand, produced tiny machines that “do work”—in other words, they drive an active process, such as a transport vehicle for targeted drug delivery in the body (see below). Nanostructures now interact and react directly with other substances, causing them to change and/or their surroundings. 

• A third generation of nanotechnologies, known as "integrated nano-systems," is already on the horizon. Various active nano-components, such as copiers, sensors, motors, transistors, and so on, are employed as components and built into a working whole, similar to how an engine, clutch, electronics, tires, and so on, when combined, become a car. This paves the door for more complicated nanomachines to emerge.

 

Couple nanostructures with varied characteristics and capacities into sophisticated nanomachines is the next stage in nanotechnology.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You May Also Want To Read More About Nano Technology here.

Nanotechnology's Possibilities: Technology On The Smallest Scales

We currently employ nanotechnology in a variety of ways, but only a small percentage of the population is aware of it. Nanotechnology, in addition to the quantum computer, is the most interesting prospective technological application of quantum theory. 

Many of its uses are now part of our daily routines. Some examples include: 

• Sun cream lotions that use nanotechnology to give UV protection. 

• Nanotechnologically treated surfaces for self-cleaning window panes, scratch-resistant automobile paint, and ketchup that pours evenly from the bottle. 

• Textiles coated with nanoparticles to reduce perspiration odor. Antibacterial silver particles, for example, keep bacteria from turning our odorless perspiration into a foul-smelling body odor. 

The upcoming nanotechnologies are even more amazing. 

Nano-robots that automatically and permanently detect diseases in human bodies, as well as autonomous nanomachines that can generate almost anything from a mound of soil. 

Nanotechnology has long been ingrained in our daily lives, but this technological outgrowth of quantum physics has a brighter future. 

One can get the notion that “nano” is the key to everything fascinating and futuristic. 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You May Also Want To Read More About Nano Technology here.