Nanotechblog

Chip manufacturers are facing the problem of power and heat in devices embedding their chips. Companies are facing the problem of thermal management as they continue to churn out smaller devices. Now nanotechnology comes into the picture and carbon nanotubes can be integrated for solving this problem. Heat has been found out to cause reduced product life, increasing building costs, poor performance and lack of consumer acceptance.

In order to bring down temperatures researchers have found out that nnaotubes could be used for dissipating chip heat as effectively as copper. Nanotubes were found out to be more resilient, flexible and ten times lighter as compared to other cooling materials available in the market. A team of U.S. and Finnish researchers have developed nanotube heat sinks which can be manufactured cost effectively. It is expected that there would be a tough competition among research groups around the globe for developing one of the most effective and efficient CNT coolers.

Via nanowerk

If we consider the views of materials scientists then viruses can be termed as organic nanoparticles and since their surface has specific tools it can cross the barriers of the host cells. As a result viruses are implemented in materials sciences as scaffolds for covalently linked surface modifications. This technique is emerging as a basis for engineering approaches for nanomaterials and has also opened up a number of applications beyond medicine and biology.

Since viruses can be multiplied in appropriate tissue and cell cultures despite the fact that they don’t have any metabolic activity of their own still nature viral particles can be used as a durable building block for composite material. Along with a combination of molecular biology approaches it provides a new possibility for production and engineering of hybrid composite materials from nanoparticles. Professor Donath along with Martin Fischlechner have become the first people to publish a review on the merging uses of viruses as building blocks in nanotechnology. Though it’s still in its infancy but promising growth is expected in this arena.

Via nanowerk

Indians too are realizing the benefits of nanotechnology. Researchers at IIT Madras have developed a water purifier which uses nanotechnology. This can be regarded as the world’s first nanoparticle based water filter. This water purifier will be launched by Eureka Forbes in the market and cleans pesticide from the water by using metal nanoparticles. Department of Science and Technology had funded this project and in a country where water quality is quite poor it should work as a blessing in disguise.

With the water purifier hitting the market soon it is expected that there would lesser water contamination diseases in the country. I was just wondering will this technology only reach the rich or efforts would be made for bringing it to the masses.

I believe the benefits should also reach the poor who don’t have access to quality water and this will surely help in improving the health standards in the country and also bring down the death rate as a result.

Via businessline

For all those speed freaks who want to live life in the fast lane, here is a nanotechnology battery powered motorcycle which can reach 0 to 60 mph in just under 1.5 seconds. This is KillaCycle which regarded as the quickest electric motorcycle in the world and this time it created a speed record with the help of lithium-ion batteries developed using highly active nanoscale materials.

Bill Dube, Designer, Builder and Owner of The KillaCycle had to say something on the nanotechnology propelled bike:

We continue to be thrilled with the superior performance of these cells, which we first started using last year. The improvements we’ve made to the bike in the past three months paid off and we improved our time by over 0.6 seconds, a huge performance increase in such a short time. With these batteries, we know that we will be able to continue to improve our performance and establish new records.

These lithium ion batteries created using nanophosphate cells offer enhanced performance, life and safety. With KillaCycke nanotechnology has proved that how batteries could enable automotive applications to experience a higher level of battery performance.

Via nanowerk

Counterfeiting can be really disastrous and it is responsible for millions of dollars of losses world wide each year. Now nanotechnology will be taking care of fake art pieces in the world of art. At times it becomes really difficult to figure out whether it is a genuine or a fake product by some of the best experts too. Now nanoentonography will take care of the trouble as this process can protect brands and products from counterfeiting. In this case microscopic layers of covert markers are incorporated for creating brand owner specific information into products.

As of now there are eight different layers of security which can be applied to the covert markers which are mere microns wide. This makes it really difficult to duplicate the product since it offers fool proof coding.

This process has been developed by ARmark Authentication Technologies for using it across a wide range of brand owner applications. It can be used across a number of sectors such as food, apparel, pharma, documents and currency and lot more. Now get ready to say goodbye to fake products.

Via nanowerk

Now one can easily detect specific sequences of DNA as Purdue researchers have found out that nanopore channels can emerge as an instrument for genomic applications in environmental monitoring, medicine and homeland security. Created using silicon, these channels are ten to twenty diameter in size and a few hundred nanometers long. This is for the first time that researchers have attached specific strands of DNA inside silicon based channels and used it for detection of specific DNA molecules found in liquid bath.

Fabrication of channels was done in thin silicon membrane and bathed in fluids having DNA. Since DNA is charged negatively therefore application of voltage across membrane caused the genetic material in bath to flow through the channel. As a result the single strands of DNA flowed faster and were transported in high numbers across the pores.

Detection of translocation of specific types of DNA strands can be measured with electrical current across the channel and as a result specific signature pulses can be measured due to specific DNA movement. This will certainly help scientists involved in the study of DNA.

Via nanotechwire

Cell biology is set to gain from nanotechnology as researchers of College of Engineering have successfully created a carbon nanotube tipped pipette which can contribute towards study in DNA sequencing and organelle-targeted drug delivery. This is being considered an important development since now it would be possible to probe the fluid not only inside the cell but also in specific regions in the cells. Up till now there was a vacuum in the existing microscale technologies and nanoscale interactions but now it would be very much possible to transfer carbon nanotubes in and out of the pipette.

Developed by Dr.Adam Fontecchio and Gennady Friedman it can help in enhancing in-situ DNA sequencing. Since with this pipette DNA can be examined inside the living cell therefore the tissue is neither damaged nor cultured. As it has tips which are smaller as compared to other cells therefore small quantities of drugs can be injected in certain regions organelles within a cell. Now the researchers are looking towards improving the pipette fabrication process for increasing the yield and demonstration of magnetic deflection of CNTs. Certainly an important development for cell biology.

Via nanowerk

How about composite films inspired from mollusk shells? University of Michigan and Northwestern University researchers have created a high performance composite film which has been inspired from natural nanostructure of nacre. Let me tell you this is the strongest and toughest internal layer of mollusk shells and mussels. In this case layer by layer or LBL assembly technique has been used for preparing the nanostructured analogue from inorganic sheets of clay and polyelectrolyte. Here the properties and structure were found out to be similar to that of lamellar bones and natural nacre.

Since it is a simple technique it produced better results for combining multiple functions in a single composite. Also in order to improve upon the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite a synthetic polymer was also developed by the researchers which retained the hardening and binding properties of protein based adhesive material which is secreted by mussels. Nature can inspire a thousand things and researchers have probably tried to gain the best out of it using nanotechnology.

Via merid

How about getting invisible, probably this was always a childhood dream of mine. Nanotechnology has gone ahead to realize this dream of a lot of us by creating an optical cloaking device which can make objects invisible by moving light around whatever is placed inside this cloak. In this case engineers from Purdue University have created a theoretical design for use in a range of tiny needles radiating outwards from a central spoke.

The designing is similar to a round hairbrush bends light around the object being cloaked and in this case one can see the background object but not the objects surrounded by cylindrical array of nano needles. Keep one thing in mind that the design can work just for the single wavelength and not for the whole frequency range of the visible spectrum. Objects could be rendered invisible in a wavelength of 632.8 nanometers corresponding to the red color. This design could also be used for cloaking other single wavelength in a visible spectrum. The device is expected to be created from non magnetic meta materials. So now get ready for invisible game.

Via nanowerk

Up till now people of New Zealand had been generating electricity from silicon based photo electric solar cells but now Massey University researchers have developed a solar cell technology which can generate electricity at one tenth of the cost. The researchers have developed various color dyes including some natural ones in order to sensitize solar cells. It can work during cloudy condition and the dye can even be used in tinted glasses for electricity generation.

These green solar cells are considered to be environment friendly since they have been developed from titanium oxide which is environment friendly. Since the cost is one tenth of a silicon based panel therefore it can emerge as an attractive device for households. The researchers even plan to use the dyes in wall panels and roofing materials. They have been using nanotechnology since it can assist in developing better solar cells and can generate much more electricity from sunlight as compared to the traditional solar panels. I would love to get one since electricity can prove to be a costly affair and it will surely bring down my monthly electricity bills without upsetting the budget.

Via nanowerk