Module 5.

Nanotechnology
In the recent years nanotechnology has become one of the most exciting and important forefronts fields in Physics, chemistry, Engineering and Biology. It shows great promise for providing us in the near future with many breakthroughs that will change the direction of the technological advances in a wide range of applications.
The word nanotechnology comes from the Greek prefix nano. In modern scientific parlance, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, about the diameter of ten atoms placed side by side in a nanometer. Nanotechnology is about building things one atom at a time, and in doing so constructing devices with unprecedented capabilities. It is known that in the 4th century A.D. Roman glassmakers were fabricating glasses containing nanosized metals. An artifact from this period called the Lycurgus cup resides ibn the British Museum in London. The cup, which depicts the death of king Lycurgus, is made from soda lime glass containing silver and gold nanoparticles. The color of the cup changes from green to deep red when the light source is placed inside it. The great varieties of beautiful colors of the windows of medieval cathedrals are due to the presence of metal nanoparticles in the glass. Richard Feynman (Father of Nanotechnology) December 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Theres plenty of room at the bottom Feynman explored the possibility of manipulating material at the scale of individual atoms and molecules, imagining the whole of the Encyclopedia Britannica written on the head of a pin and foreseeing the increasing ability to examine and control matter at the nanoscale. Feynman: 1965, Nobel Physics "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deepploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles" Eric Drexler was the one to coin the term nanotechnology and he explored the power of this science in two of his books The engines of creation (1986) and Nanosystems(1988). Drexler was interested in the ability to create small mechanical machines with gears and levers of the size of a nanometer. Drexler also warned about the potential environmental threats of nano products had they been released in the environment.

In 1981 the invention of the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope or STM, by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM's Zurich Research Labs, and the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) five years later, made it possible to not only take photos of individual atoms, but to actual move a single atom around. Nano is a greek word which means dwarf. A nanometre (nm) is extremely small one billionth of a meter to be precise, i.e.0.000000001m. This is 80,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Atoms are below a nanometer in size, many molecules, including some proteins, range from a nanometer upwards. Properties of materials can be very different at this level. For instance they can be more chemically reactive, have greater strength or conduct electricity more effectively.

What is Nanoscience and Nanotechnology?

Nanoscience is the study of atoms, molecules, and objects whose size is on the nanometer scale ( 1 100 nanometers ). It is the discipline of understanding how things work, using commonly accepted experimental and theoretical techniques Nanoscience studies how the arrangement of atoms and molecules (the basic units of everything) affect the properties of materials. This is often with the aim of producing new or enhanced materials or products. Nanotechnologies are the design, characterization, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at nanometer scale. The particles which are smaller than the characteristic lengths associated with them, particular phenomenon often displays new chemistry and physics, leading to a new behavior which depends on the size. For example, the electronic structure, conductivity, reactivity, melting temperature and mechanical properties have all been observed to change when the particle becomes smaller than a critical size. The dependence of the behavior on the particle sizes can allow us one to engineer their properties.

Properties of nanomaterials:
1. Increase

in S/V ratio: An increase in surface area (per unit mass) will result in a

corresponding increase in chemical reactivity, making some nonmaterial useful as catalysts to improve the efficiency of fuel cells and batteries.

As a particle decreases in size, a greater proportion of atoms are found at the surface compared to those inside. Thus, nanoparticles have a much greater surface area per unit mass compared with larger particles

As growth and catalytic chemical reactions occur at surfaces, this means that a given mass of material in nanoparticulate form will be much more reactive than the same mass of material made up of larger particles. For example: Melting point of a substance change. Surface atoms require less energy to move because they are in contact with the fewer atom of the substance.

2. Quantization

effects

: As the size of matter is reduced to tens of nanometers or less,

quantum effects can begin to play a role, and these can significantly change a materials optical, magnetic or electrical properties. Quantum effects can begin to dominate the properties of matter as size is reduced to the nanoscale. These can affect the optical, electrical and magnetic behavior of materials, particularly as the structure or particle size approaches the smaller end of the nanoscale. Materials that exploit these effects include quantum dots, and quantum well lasers for optoelectronics.

Properties affected by Size Reduction: Bulk vs. Nano 1. 2. 3. 4. Melting Points Optical properties Colors Magnetic properties - Conductivity - Specific Heat - Surface Reactivity

For eg: Gold nanoparticle : Consider a lump of gold, yellowy gold in colour. If you were to break that lump into nanosize chunks, the gold changes colour depending on the size of the chunks. In the 10 to 100 nanometre range it can appear reddish. Infact depending on the size they can turn red, yellow , blue or other colors. This is quite amazing when you think we are not changing the chemical composition of the substance.

Applications of Nanotechnology
Nanoscale materials are used in electronic, magnetic and optoelectronic, biomedical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, energy, catalytic and materials applications. Paints Fuel cells Displays Batteries Catalysts Lubricants

 Electronic, magnetic, optical applications Biomedical applications This technology has the enormous potential to contribute to significant advances over a wide and diverse range of technological areas ranging from producing stronger and lighter materials , to shortening the delivery time of nano structured pharmaceuticals to the bodys circulatory system, increasing the storage capacity of magnetic tapes, and providing faster switches for computers.

Application of Nanotechnology in Biomedical

1. The major application of nanotechnology is in the field of medicine because it directly affects the life of humans. Nanotechnology offers more efficient medicines targeted to specific body parts and organs. Nano-particles can enter cellular structure of the body and block the absorption of proteins. 2. Nanotechnologies will enable us to grow body tissue both outside and inside the body. Doctors will also be able to replace or repair damaged body parts with stronger, lighter implants coated with nano-materials that prevent the body rejecting them

Engineering applications
3. Scientists have also created hybrid materials. The latest being metal rubber. Using chemical synthesis they have created a material with both properties of rubber and metal. It retains the flexibility of rubber and on the same hand can conduct electricity. 4. An award-winning British invention - self-cleaning glass - will fill the window frames. It works using a 15 nanometre coating of titanium dioxide that initiates a reaction between the Sun's UV rays and dirt. The grime is washed away by rain. By cutting out detergent, these windows are good for the environment too. 5. Another very important application is that in electronics. Computers are getting better and better in terms of graphic quality and processing speed. Memory sticks or flash drives size of a thumbnail store nearly a gigabyte.

Moore's law: Moore's law is the observation that over the history of computing hardware, the
number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in his 1965. This trend has continued for more than half a century. The law cannot be sustained indefinitely as we're approaching the size of atoms which is a fundamental barrier.

Nanolithography: Nanolithography is the branch of nanotechnology concerned with the study

and application of fabricating nanometer-scale structures, meaning patterns with at least one lateral dimension between the size of an individual atom and approximately 100 nm. Nanolithography is used during the fabrication of leading-edge semiconductor integrated circuits (nanocircuitry) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm), or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material. In mechanical terms, nanocomposites differ from conventional composite materials due to the exceptionally high surface to volume ratio of the reinforcing phase and/or its exceptionally high aspect ratio. This large amount of reinforcement surface area means that a relatively small amount of nanoscale reinforcement can have an observable effect on the macroscale properties of the composite. For example, adding carbon nanotubes improves the electrical and thermal conductivity. Other kinds of nanoparticulates may result in enhanced optical properties, dielectric properties, heat resistance or mechanical properties such as stiffness, strength and resistance to wear and damage.

Nanocomposites: A

Quantum dots, Quantum wires and Quantum well: When any of the dimensions
of a material is in nanoscale, quantum effects are observed. If one dimension of the material
(generally semiconductor) is reduced to nano-scale while the other two dimensions are in macroscale, the nanostructure is called a two dimensional quantum well. In such a quantum well, the charge carriers are confined in two dimensions i.e. they cannot move in z-direction, but can move freely in XY plane.

If two of the three dimensions are reduced to nano-scale while one dimension is in macroscale, the nanostructure is called a nanowire or quantum wire. In a quantum wire, the charge carriers are confined along Z direction i.e. they can move only in z-direction. If all the three dimensions are reduced to nanoscale, the nanostructure is said to be a nanodot or a quantum dot. Such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules.

Figure: Evolution of discrete energy levels from macrodimension to nanoscale.