LEPTING, RUTH P.

EAA SCITES(T/Th 11:00-12:30)

NANOTECHNOLOGY ("NANOTECH")

It is manipulation of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale. The earliest, widespread
description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and
molecules for fabrication of macroscale products, also now referred to as molecular nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology Applications in:

Medicine

Researchers are developing customized nanoparticles the size of molecules that can deliver drugs
directly to diseased cells in your body. When it's perfected, this method should greatly reduce the damage
treatment such as chemotherapy does to a patient's healthy cells. Check out our Nanotechnology Applications in
Medicine page to see how nanotechnology is being used in medicine.

a) Drug Delivery

One application of nanotechnology in medicine currently being developed involves employing

nanoparticles to deliver drugs, heat, light or other substances to specific types of cells (such as cancer cells).
Particles are engineered so that they are attracted to diseased cells, which allows direct treatment of those cells.
This technique reduces damage to healthy cells in the body and allows for earlier detection of disease.

For example researchers at North Carolina State University are developing a method to deliver cardiac stem
cells to damaged heart tissue. They attach nanovesicles that are attracted to an injury to the stem cells to
increase the amount of stem cells delivered to an injured tissue.

b) Diagnostic Techniques

 Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are using antibodies attached to carbon nanotubes in
chips to detect cancer cells in the blood stream. The researchers believe this method could be used in
simple lab tests that could provide early detection of cancer cells in the bloodstream.

 A test for early detection of kidney damage is being developed. The method uses gold nanorods
functionalized to attach to the type of protein generated by damaged kidneys. When protein accumulates
on the nanorod the color of the nanorod shifts. The test is designed to be done quickly and inexpensively
for early detection of a problem.

c) Antibacterial Treatments

 Researchers at the University of Houston are developing a technique to kill bacteria using gold
nanoparticles and infrared light. This method may lead to improved cleaning of instruments in hospital
settings.

 Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are investigating the use of quantum dots to treat
antibiotic resistant infections.
d) Wound Treatment

 Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have demonstrated a bandage that applies electrical pulses to
a wound using electricity produced by nanogenerators worn by the patient.

 For trauma patients with internal bleeding another way to reduce the blood loss is needed. Researchers
at Chase Western Reserve University are developing polymer nanoparticles that act as synthetic
platelets. Lab tests have shown that injection of these synthetic platelets significantly reduces blood loss.

e) Cell Repair

Nanorobots could actually be programmed to repair specific diseased cells, functioning in a similar way
to antibodies in our natural healing processes.

Electronics

Nanotechnology holds some answers for how we might increase the capabilities of electronics devices
while we reduce their weight and power consumption. Check out our Nanotechnology Applications in
Electronics page to see how nanotechnology is being used in electronics.

 Cadmium selenide nanocrystals deposited on plastic sheets have been shown to form flexible electronic
circuits. Researchers are aiming for a combination of flexibility, a simple fabrication process and low
power requirements.
 Integrating silicon nanophotonics components into CMOS integrated circuits. This optical technique is
intended to provide higher speed data transmission between integrated circuits than is possible with
electrical signals.
 Researchers at UC Berkeley have demonstrated a low power method to use nanomagnets as switches,
like transistors, in electrical circuits. Their method might lead to electrical circuits with much lower
power consumption than transistor based circuits.
 Researchers at Georgia Tech, the University of Tokyo and Microsoft Research have developed a method
to print prototype circuit boards using standard inkjet printers. Silver nanoparticle ink was used to form
the conductive lines needed in circuit boards.
 Researchers at Caltech have demonstrated a laser that uses a nanopatterned silicon surface that helps
produce the light with much tighter frequency control than previously achieved. This may allow much
higher data rates for information transmission over fiber optics.
 Building transistors from carbon nanotubes to enable minimum transistor dimensions of a few
nanometers and developing techniques to manufacture integrated circuits built with nanotube transistors.
 Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated a method to make functioning integrated circuits
using carbon nanotubes. In order to make the circuit work they developed methods to remove metallic
nanotubes, leaving only semiconducting nanotubes, as well as an algorithm to deal with misaligned
nanotubes. The demonstration circuit they fabricated in the university labs contains 178 functioning
transistors.

 Developing a lead free solder reliable enough for space missions and other high stress environments
using copper nanoparticles.
  Using electrodes made from nanowires that would enable flat panel displays to be flexible as well as
thinner than current flat panel displays.
 Using semiconductor nanowires to build transistors and integrated circuits.

Food

Nanotechnology is having an impact on several aspects of food science, from how food is grown to how
it is packaged. Companies are developing nanomaterials that will make a difference not only in the taste of
food, but also in food safety, and the health benefits that food delivers

Researchers at the Technische Universität München have demonstrated a method of spraying carbon
nanotubes onto flexible plastic surfaces to produce sensors. The researchers believe that this method could
produce low cost sensors on surfaces such as the plastic film wrapping food, so that the sensor could detect
spoiled food.

 Researchers are using silicate nanoparticles to provide a barrier to gasses (for example oxygen), or
moisture in a plastic film used for packaging. This could reduce the possibly of food spoiling or drying
out.
 Zinc oxide nanoparticles can be incorporated into plastic packaging to block UV rays and provide anti-
bacterial protection, while improving the strength and stability of the plastic film.

Fuel Cells

Nanotechnology is being used to reduce the cost of catalysts used in fuel cells to produce hydrogen ions
from fuel such as methanol and to improve the efficiency of membranes used in fuel cells to separate hydrogen
ions from other gases such as oxygen.

 Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have developed a way to use less platinum
for the cathode in a fuel cell, which could significantly reduce the cost of fuel cells. They alloyed
platinum with copper and then removed the copper from the surface of the film, which caused the
platinum atoms to move closer to each other (reducing the lattice space). It turns out that platinum with
reduced lattice spacing is more a more effective catalyst for breaking up oxygen molecules into oxygen
ion. The difference is that the reduced spacing changes the electronic structure of the platinum atoms so
that the separated oxygen ions more easily released, and allowed to react with the hydrogen ions passing
through the proton exchange membrane.

 Another way to reduce the use of platinum for catalyst in fuel cell cathodes is being developed by
researchers at Brown University. They deposited a one nanometer thick layer of platinum and iron on
spherical nanoparticles of palladium. In laboratory scale testing they found that an catalyst made with
these nanoparticles generated 12 times more current than a catalyst using pure platinum, and lasted ten
times longer. The researchers believe that the improvement is due to a more efficient transfer of
electrons than in standard catalysts.

 Increasing catalyst surface area and efficiency by depositing platinum on porous alumina

 Allowing the use of lower purity, and therefore less expensive, hydrogen with an anode made made of
platinum nanoparticles deposited on titanium oxide.
  Replacing platinum catalysts with less expensive nanomaterials

 Using hydrogen fuel cells to power cars

Batteries

Companies are currently developing batteries using nanomaterials. One such battery will be a good as
new after sitting on the shelf for decades. Another battery can be recharged significantly faster than
conventional batteries.

 Researchers at Purdue University have demonstrated an electrode made with antimony in a shape they
call a nanochain. They have shown that lithium-ion batteries with these electrodes charge faster than
lithium-ion batteries with graphite electrodes.

 Researchers at Chalmers University have demonstrated the use of graphene oxide aerogel used as a
electrode in lithium sulphur batteries. Their data shows that this method may increase the lifetime of
lithium sulphur batteries.

 Researchers at Rice University are using carbon nanotube films to stop the growth of dendrites on
lithium metal anodes. This step may help develop lithium metal batteries, which could have much higher
capacity and faster charging than lithium ion batteries.

 Researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated the use of silicon coated carbon
nanotubes for in anodes for Li-ion batteries. They are predicting that the use of silicon can increase the
capacity of Li-ion batteries by up to 10 times. However silicon expands during a batteries discharge
cycle, which can damage silicon based anodes. By depositing silicon on nanotubes aligned parallel to
each other the researchers hope to prevent damage to the anode when the silicon expands.

Space

Nanotechnology may hold the key to making space-flight more practical. Advancements in
nanomaterials make lightweight spacecraft and a cable for the space elevator possible. By significantly reducing
the amount of rocket fuel required, these advances could lower the cost of reaching orbit and traveling in space.

 Employing materials made from carbon nanotubes to reduce the weight of spaceships like the one
shown below while retaining or even increasing the structural strength

 Using carbon nanotubes to make the cable needed for the space elevator, a system which could
significantly reduce the cost of sending material into orbit. Nova has a nice video explaining the
concepts.

 Including layers of bio-nano robots in spacesuits. The outer layer of bio-nano robots would respond to
damages to the spacesuit, for example to seal up punctures. An inner layer of bio-nano robots could
respond if the astronaut was in trouble, for example by providing drugs in a medical emergency. For
more about this see page 30 of this report on Bio-Nano-Machines for Space Applications.
Fuels

Nanotechnology can address the shortage of fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline by making the
production of fuels from low grade raw materials economical, increasing the mileage of engines, and making
the production of fuels from normal raw materials more efficient

 Reducing the cost of converting crude from oil sands to fuel

 Increasing mileage of diesel engines
 Nanosphere based catalyst that reduces the cost of producing biodiesel
 Modifying crops to allow cellulous material, such as corn stalks to produce enzymes that are triggered at
elevated temperatures to convert the cellulous to sugar, simplify the production of ethanol.
 Modifying bacteria to cause the production of enzymes that will convert cellulous material to ethanol in
one step, rather than converting cellulous to sugar which is than fermented into ethanol.
 Tungsten oxide nanoparticles on a material called zirconia used as a nanocatalyst to make

Better Air Quality

Nanotechnology can improve the performance of catalysts used to transform vapors escaping from cars
or industrial plants into harmless gasses. That's because catalysts made from nanoparticles have a greater
surface area to interact with the reacting chemicals than catalysts made from larger particles. The larger surface
area allows more chemicals to interact with the catalyst simultaneously, which makes the catalyst more
effective.

 Using gold nanoparticles embedded in a porous manganese oxide as a room temperature catalyst to
breakdown volatile organic compounds in air.
 Using crystals containing nano sized pores to trap carbon dioxide.
 Using a nanocatalyst containing cobalt and platinum to remove nitrogen oxide from smokestacks
 Reducing the amount of platinum used in catalytic converters.
 Converting carbon dioxide to methanol; which can be used to power fuel-cells.
 Reducing emissions from power plants by converting carbon dioxide into nanotubes.
 Removal of carbon dioxide from industrial smoke stacks using:
 Carbon nanotube based membranes
 Nanostructured membranes
 Genetically engineered enzymes

Chemical Sensors

Nanotechnology can enable sensors to detect very small amounts of chemical vapors. Various types of
detecting elements, such as carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide nanowires or palladium nanoparticles can be used in
nanotechnology-based sensors. Because of the small size of nanotubes, nanowires, or nanoparticles, a few gas
molecules are sufficient to change the electrical properties of the sensing elements. This allows the detection of
a very low concentration of chemical vapors. Check out our Nanotechnology Applications in Chemical Sensors
page for details.
Better Water Quality

Nanotechnology is being used to develop solutions to three very different problems in water quality. One
challenge is the removal of industrial wastes, such as a cleaning solvent called TCE, from groundwater.
Nanoparticles can be used to convert the contaminating chemical through a chemical reaction to make it
harmless. Studies have shown that this method can be used successfully to reach contaminates dispersed in
underground ponds and at much lower cost than methods which require pumping the water out of the ground for
treatment.

Chemical Sensors

Nanotechnology can enable sensors to detect very small amounts of chemical vapors. Various types of
detecting elements, such as carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide nanowires or palladium nanoparticles can be used in
nanotechnology-based sensors. Because of the small size of nanotubes, nanowires, or nanoparticles, a few gas
molecules are sufficient to change the electrical properties of the sensing elements. This allows the detection of
a very low concentration of chemical vapors

Sporting Goods

If you're a tennis or golf fan, you'll be glad to hear that even sporting goods has wandered into the nano
realm. Current nanotechnology applications in the sports arena include increasing the strength of tennis
racquets, filling any imperfections in club shaft materials and reducing the rate at which air leaks from tennis
balls.

Fabric

Making composite fabric with nano-sized particles or fibers allows improvement of fabric properties
without a significant increase in weight, thickness, or stiffness as might have been the case with previously-used
techniques

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

Sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the

natural intelligence displayed by humans. Leading AI textbooks define the field as the study of "intelligent
agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully
achieving its goals. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is often used to describe machines (or
computers) that mimic "cognitive" functions that humans associate with the human mind, such as "learning"
and "problem solving".

Astronomy: According to a study published in journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the
researchers show that calculations carried out by artificial intelligence can make more accurate predictions than
humans can about the long-term stability of circumbinary planets. The technology could be useful in
understanding our entire universe and how it works. This implementation could give some of the best tips to
mankind to understand their own origin.
Construction: It is not wrong to say that the construction sector is going to get the benefit out of the
implementation of AI or machine learning. AI-based applications have been widely being used in the
construction sectors. AI could suggest the ideal design for buildings and recommend the best safety features to
make our lives more secure. The AI will also be useful in risk mitigation – it understands the complex language
and useful in fixing the issues. The ai-based application will make the engineers more productive and capable of
delivering high-quality work in the stipulated time frame. Moreover, the technology will be useful in analyzing
the work and the process of the construction industry.

Agriculture: Agriculture is one of the core sectors and we have been modifying the cultivation process to yield
more from it. There are incredible opportunities for AI or machine learning in agriculture. But, the
implementation of the technology is the most complex in sectors like agriculture. The technologies like AI &
IoT will be very useful in understanding a timely planting, getting predictions, using fertilizers, harvesting and
the climate. Automation of farming activities is possible with the implementation of technologies like AI & IoT.
Farmers need to adapt to the new technologies to implement and get the maximum output from their fields.

Sports: The implementation of artificial intelligence in the sports industry is a game-changer. It is certainly
going to change the sports world. The advanced technology will make the sports more interesting and help the
athletes to go beyond the capacity to practice and deliver the best out of them. There has been a huge demand
for AI-based applications in the sports industry as it possesses significant capabilities. The implementation of
technology is certainly going to solve many major changes in the sports world and it could bring true
competition among the players and athletes.

Entertainment: AI or machine learning has brought a big change in the entertainment industry. Of late, we can
consume the media when we want, where we want and how we want, thanks to the emerging technologies. AI is
everywhere and it is making a big difference in our lives. When it comes to entertainment, the algorithms being
used by various application make our life much simpler. AI has really changed the entertainment industry and it
will make it livelier in the days to come.

Education: It is the most important and vast sectors that touch every life regardless of age. AI-based solutions
have been helping students and teachers at various levels. AI or machine learning is making our education
system smarter and AI & collaborative virtual networks are used to make a perfect learning environment for
students as well as teachers. AI and emerging technologies have been creating a proper blend of the learning
ecosystem. 21st-century classrooms are equipped with emerging technology solutions to deliver the best
learning environment to students.

Healthcare: AI or machine learning is certainly going to carter greater services in the healthcare sector. The
implementation of the advanced technologies in the healthcare sector is bliss for society as it will help ease all
the challenges. The AI-based applications are useful in understanding medical data and reaching the right
conclusion without direct human input. These applications are applied in diagnosis processes, treatment
protocol development, drug development, personalized medicine, and patient monitoring and care.
Banking: Banks and other financial institutions have been showing interest in the adoption of AI or machine
learning. It has a huge impact on the business and commerce of the banking industry. Many major banks across
the world have implemented these emerging technologies for automation and use these are powerful tools for
their effective operations. The technologies have been successful in the equity capital market and help the
organizations in the enhancement of their organizational structure. The implementation of the AI in the banking
helped in the payment efforts and reduced complex process through simple chatbots conversation to continue
the operations without any hassles. Some leading banks also used AI technology in the field of an intelligent
virtual assistant to improve their customer services. While some financial institutions have been using to
prevent fraud and monitor potential threats to customers in commerce.

E-Commerce: e-commerce business is a bustling segment of the retail industry, of late. Major e-commerce
companies have been using advanced technologies like AI or machine learning. The impact of the
implementation is clearly visible in the e-commerce space. Companies are using the AI as chatbots, AI
assistants, smart logistics, using algorithms to predict and analyze customers’ behaviors. The machine learning-
based applications are being implemented to augment the marketing strategy. Automation emerged as the key to
effective warehouse operations and technology helped many companies in achieving delivery efficiency. The
ultimate aim is to reduce shipping costs. Machine learning helps companies in demand forecasting, product
search ranking, product and deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations
and much more.

Marketing: Sales & Marketing professional always active with their leads and prospects. They will not let go
of any opportunity out of their hand. Of late, SMEs are also adopting some form of AI or machine learning-
based applications in their sales funnel. Two technologies – machine learning and predictive intelligence – are
useful for the sales team to meet the target and deal with the hottest & most qualified leads. The implementation
of AI or machine learning will help companies saving their valuable time and cost. It has been used at the
different stages of the customer lifecycle. The applications could be useful in getting leads from both B2B and
B2C.

REFERENCES:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/artificial_intelligence
https://www.understandingnano.com/nanotech-applications.html