Nanotechnology Made Clear

Nanotechnology can be a complicated topic. The Understanding Nanotechnology website is dedicated to providing clear and concise explanations of nanotechnology applications along with information on companies working in each area. This website has been referenced by some of the most respected organizations working in nanotechnology today.

Check out our latest feature, Nanotechnology in Building Materials. You can find information on this and other nanotechnology applications through the links to the left, or browse through the topics introduced below.

Researchers at MIT have used carbon nanofibers to make lithium ion battery electrodes that show four times the storage capacity of current lithium ion batteries.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have shown that gold nanoparticles with attached antibodies can provide quick diagnosis of flu virus.
Carbon Nanofiber Flame Retardant: Researchers from the NIST and Texas A and M University have developed a carbon nanofiber coating for the foam used in furniture that is a very effective flame retardant.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley have demonstrated an inexpensive process for making solar cells. These solar cells are composed of cadmium sulfide nanowires coated with copper sulfide.
Researchers at MIT have evaluated the interaction of silica nanoparticles with polymer to optimize a silica-polymer nanocomposite for strength and scratch resistance.
Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated that sheets of graphene deposited on a aluminum mesh can be used in flexible displays in place of indium tin oxide used in current rigid flat panel displays. They have shown that the combination of the graphene and the nanowire mesh results in the required conductivity, transparency, and flexibility.
Researchers at UCLA have shown that gold nanoparticles can improve the efficiency of organic solar cells.

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Labs have demonstrated nanocrystals composed of zinc and zirconium oxides that form a very effective catalyst for converting ethanol from plant matter to isobutene, a chemical useful in various commercial applications.
Researchers are developing materials, such as a carbon nanotube based composite developed by NASA that bends with when a voltage is applied, that will need only an electrical voltage to change the shape (morphing) of aircraft wings and other structures. This video from NASA gives you an idea of what a future morphing aircraft might look like.
Lightweight windmill blades made with an epoxy containing carbon nanotubes. The strength and low weight provided by the use of nanotube filled epoxy allows ... click here to read about Nanotubes and Windmills.
Using carbon nanotubes as the pores in reverse osmosis membranes. This can decrease the power needed to run reverse osmosis desalination plants because water molecules pass through carbon nanotubes more easily than through other types of nanopores. This is because the inside walls of the nanotubes are much smoother than the walls of other types of nanopores.
Drug filled nanoparticles, coated with proteins that attach to damaged portions of arteries. This could allow delivery of drugs that prevent ... click here to read about this method under development to fight cardiovascular disease.
Iron oxide nanoparticles can used to improve MRI images of cancer tumors. The nanoparticle is coated with a peptide that binds to a cancer tumor, once the nanoparticles are attached to the tumor the magnetic property of ... click here to read about Improving MRI scans with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles.
Researchers at Pacific Northwestern Laboratory have developed a material to remove mercury from groundwater. The material is called SAMMS, which is short for Self-Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports. This translates taking a ceramic particle whose surface has many nano-size pores and lining the nanopores with molecules that have sulfur atoms on one end, leaving a hole in the center that is lined with sulfur atoms. They line the nanopores with molecules containing sulfur because it bonds to mercury, so mercury atoms bond to the sulfur and are trapped in the nanopores.
Piezoelectric nanoribbons in flexible silicon rubber sheets that can generate electricity when incorporated into a shoe to power devices like cell phones. Also since the silicon rubber is biocompatible researchers believe these nanoribbon containing rubber sheets could be implanted into ... click here to read about Energy Harvesting Rubber Sheets.
Electric power plants fired by fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) produce about a third of the man-made carbon dioxide released into the air in the United States. Several methods exist or are under development to try to reduce the problem. The challenge seems to be developing a method that can be inexpensively and easily retrofitted into existing power plants. Nanotechnology may be one way to help reduce carbon dioxide in a cost-effective ... click here to read about Carbon Dioxide and Nanotechnology.
Inexpensive nanotube based sensor that detects bacteria in drinking water. Antibodies sensitive to the particular bacteria are bound to the nanotubes, which are then deposited onto a paper strip. When the bacteria is present it attaches to the antibodies, changing the spacing between the nanotubes and the ... click here to read about this Nanotube Based Sensor.
Combining carbon nanotubes, bucky-balls and polymers to produce inexpensive solar cells that can be formed by simply ... click here to read about this Solar Cell Using Nanotubes and Buckyballs.
Using battery electrodes formed with silicon nanowires can increase the capacity of Li-ion batteries ... click here to read about this Li-ion Battery with Silicon Nanowire Anode.
A layer of closely spaced palladium nanoparticles that detect hydrogen. When hydrogen is absorbed the palladium nanoparticles ... click here to read about this nanoparticle based hydrogen sensor.
Injecting a gel containing nanofibers into a damaged joint can stimulate the production of ... click here to read about this method developed to regrow cartilage in damaged joints.
Gold tipped carbon nanotubes trap oil drops polluting ... click here to read about this nanotechnology based method for cleaning up oil spills.
Using gold nanoparticles embedded in a porous manganese oxide as a room temperature catalyst, instead of the high temperature catalysts available currently, to breakdown volatile organic compounds in air ... click here to read about this nanoparticle contribution to cleaning up air pollution.
In order to develop more effective chemotherapeutics and imaging agents, scientists need to improve their aim—switching to a sniper’s rifle to deliver agents more accurately to tumors. Nanoparticles, with the ability to store large payloads within their cores and “targeting” molecules on their surfaces, would seem ideally suited ... click here to read about Targeted Drug Delivery for Chemotherapy.
Building individual transistors with nanotubes is one thing. Now researchers at Stanford have shown how to assemble circuits with nanotube based transistors, an important step toward make integrated circuits with nanotube transistors ... click here to read about nanotube transistor circuits.
Magnetic nanoparticles that attach to cancer cells in the blood stream may allow the cancer cells to be removed before ... click here to read about this method under development to fight the spread of cancer tumors.
A lightweight, low power anti-icing system using carbon nanotubes in a layer coated onto aircraft wing surfaces. The low power consumption and weight can be very useful in ... click here to read more about this nanotube based anti-icing system.

Introduction to Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study and use of structures between 1 nanometer and 100 nanometers in size. To give you an idea of just how small that is, it would take eight hundred 100-nanometer particles placed side by side to equal the width of a human hair.

Scientists have been studying and using particles of this size for centuries, but the effectiveness of their work has been limited because they have not been able to see the structure of nanoparticles until recently. The development in the last few decades of microscopes that are capable of displaying particles as small as atoms has allowed scientists to see what they are working with.

This ability to see their materials makes a huge difference... Click here to read the rest of Introduction to Nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Videos

Chris Toepfer of the MedicalNanoTec website interviews Professor Michael Ferenczi of the Imperial College, London about his work in nanomedicine.

An introduction to nanotechnology filmed by KQED Public TV at Lawrence Berkeley Labs.

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