By Michael Orshan
Are we really in a globalized market? As I was looking for news items to post on nano and microsystems, I saw a trend. The trend has been very popular for software, call centers, and many services. This is moving key components of ones business to different areas of the world. I question whether nanotech, MEMS and other advanced technology is ready for this.
I understand that the growing trend in semiconductors is fabless chip design houses. The design gets done, the design is sent to a fab and the fab creates a run of chips not knowing exactly what the chip does. This allows high end items with short chip runs to be satisfied. Military, prototype, and high priced applications all fit in this model. So do high volume runs fit this model as functionality becomes more and more customized per order. Areas such as Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and China are doing quite well with this model.
However, I am now seeing this with MEMS. Can you just take a design and move it to a fab? What security do you need with the fab? What quality controls? What insurance that your design will not be stolen? Certainly the fab will need to know more than the knowledge being passed in the semiconductor world.
I’d like to hear your comments on this. I think if we can get to the semiconductor model, we will be able to lower costs and create high global productivity Maybe global rules need to be decided upon.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Discovery cuts cost of next generation optical fibres
1/20/2008 12:39:10 AM
Scientists have discovered a way of speeding up the production of hollow-core optical fibres - a new generation of optical fibres that could lead to faster and more powerful computing and telecommunications technologies.
The procedure, described today in the journal Optics Express, cuts the production time of hollow-core optical fibres from around a week to a single day, reducing the overall cost of fabrication.
Initial tests show that the fibre is also superior in virtually every respect to previous versions of the technology, making it an important step in the development of new technologies that use light instead of electrical circuits to carry information.
These technologies include faster optical telecommunications, more powerful and accurate laser machining, and the cheaper generation of x-ray or ultra-violet light for use in biomedical and surgical optics.
“This is a major improvement in the development of hollow-core fibre technology,” said Professor Jonathan Knight from the Centre for Photonics & Photonic Materials in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath.
“In standard optical fibres, light travels in a small cylindrical core of glass running down the fibre length.
“The fact that light has to travel through glass limits them in many ways. For example, the glass can be damaged if there is too much light.
“Also, the glass causes short pulses of light to spread out in a blurring effect that makes them less well defined. This limits its usefulness in telecommunications and other applications.
“Hence, fibres in which light travels in air down a hollow core hold great promise for a next generation of optical fibres with performance enhanced in many ways.”
The problem in developing hollow-core fibres is that only a special sort of optical fibre can guide light down an air hole. They use a two-dimensional pattern of tiny holes in the glass around the core to trap the light within the core itself.
The highly detailed nature of these fibres means that they have been difficult to fabricate and they can only work for a limited range of wavelengths.
However, the new procedure developed by the Bath photonics group shows how a tiny change to these fibres – narrowing the wall of glass around the large central hole by just a hundred nanometres (a 10 millionth of a metre) – broadens the range of wavelengths which can be transmitted.
They achieved this by omitting some of the most difficult steps in the fabrication procedure, reducing the time required to make the fibres from around a week to a single day.
The improved fibre was developed as part of a European Commission-funded Framework 6 project ‘NextGenPCF’ for applications in gas sensing.
However, the superior performance of the fibre means that it could have a significant impact in a range of fields such as laser design and pulsed beam delivery, spectroscopy, biomedical and surgical optics, laser machining, the automotive industry and space science.
“The consequences of being able to use light rather than electrical circuits to carry information will be fundamental,” said Professor Knight.
“It will make optical fibres many times more powerful and brings the day when information technology will consist of optical devices rather than less efficient electronic circuits much closer.
“For biomedical research, we can use these fibres to deliver light for diagnosis or surgery anywhere – even deep inside the body.
“Almost any device where light is important or can be used, photonic crystal fibres can make more efficient, sensitive and powerful.”
‘Control of surface modes in low loss hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers’, Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 2, pp. 1142-1149.
Scientists have discovered a way of speeding up the production of hollow-core optical fibres - a new generation of optical fibres that could lead to faster and more powerful computing and telecommunications technologies.
The procedure, described today in the journal Optics Express, cuts the production time of hollow-core optical fibres from around a week to a single day, reducing the overall cost of fabrication.
Initial tests show that the fibre is also superior in virtually every respect to previous versions of the technology, making it an important step in the development of new technologies that use light instead of electrical circuits to carry information.
These technologies include faster optical telecommunications, more powerful and accurate laser machining, and the cheaper generation of x-ray or ultra-violet light for use in biomedical and surgical optics.
“This is a major improvement in the development of hollow-core fibre technology,” said Professor Jonathan Knight from the Centre for Photonics & Photonic Materials in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath.
“In standard optical fibres, light travels in a small cylindrical core of glass running down the fibre length.
“The fact that light has to travel through glass limits them in many ways. For example, the glass can be damaged if there is too much light.
“Also, the glass causes short pulses of light to spread out in a blurring effect that makes them less well defined. This limits its usefulness in telecommunications and other applications.
“Hence, fibres in which light travels in air down a hollow core hold great promise for a next generation of optical fibres with performance enhanced in many ways.”
The problem in developing hollow-core fibres is that only a special sort of optical fibre can guide light down an air hole. They use a two-dimensional pattern of tiny holes in the glass around the core to trap the light within the core itself.
The highly detailed nature of these fibres means that they have been difficult to fabricate and they can only work for a limited range of wavelengths.
However, the new procedure developed by the Bath photonics group shows how a tiny change to these fibres – narrowing the wall of glass around the large central hole by just a hundred nanometres (a 10 millionth of a metre) – broadens the range of wavelengths which can be transmitted.
They achieved this by omitting some of the most difficult steps in the fabrication procedure, reducing the time required to make the fibres from around a week to a single day.
The improved fibre was developed as part of a European Commission-funded Framework 6 project ‘NextGenPCF’ for applications in gas sensing.
However, the superior performance of the fibre means that it could have a significant impact in a range of fields such as laser design and pulsed beam delivery, spectroscopy, biomedical and surgical optics, laser machining, the automotive industry and space science.
“The consequences of being able to use light rather than electrical circuits to carry information will be fundamental,” said Professor Knight.
“It will make optical fibres many times more powerful and brings the day when information technology will consist of optical devices rather than less efficient electronic circuits much closer.
“For biomedical research, we can use these fibres to deliver light for diagnosis or surgery anywhere – even deep inside the body.
“Almost any device where light is important or can be used, photonic crystal fibres can make more efficient, sensitive and powerful.”
‘Control of surface modes in low loss hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers’, Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 2, pp. 1142-1149.
Carbon nanosheets promise super-fast chips
18:00 08 January 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite
Atom-thick sheets of a carbon compound called graphene should smash the record for room-temperature conductivity, say UK researchers.
The fact that the near-2D layers lets electrons travel so freely means the sheets could allow a new generation of super-fast microelectronics, they say.
Prototype devices like transistors have already been made from graphene, but its basic properties are still being explored.
Graphene is the name given to a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagon pattern. Stacks of such sheets make the pencil-core ingredient graphite, but until recently it had been extremely difficult to isolate single layers.
The new research was carried out by scientists at the University of Manchester – where graphene was first isolated in 2004 – and colleagues from Russia, the Netherlands, and the US.
The team calculated that pure graphene should allow electrons to travel more easily than in any other material, including gold, silicon, gallium arsenide, and carbon nanotubes.
Electronic qualityThe mobility of charge in a semiconductor is known as its "electronic quality" and governs the speeds the material is able to provide in electronics.
For example, gallium arsenide is used in cellphone transmitters because its higher electronic quality means it can operate at greater frequencies than the silicon used for most other applications.
At room temperature, gallium arsenide has an electronic quality of 8500 cm2/Vs compared with just 1500 cm2/Vs for silicon. But good quality graphene without impurities should reach up to 200,000 cm2/Vs, according to the new research.
In experiments, the team showed that two different factors were slowing down the movement of charge.
The first factor is a "built-in" speed limit that cannot be changed: ripples in the sheets trap vibrations from heat passing through the graphene, which in turn slow down the travelling electrons.
The second source of electron congestion is impurities in the graphene. These could be removed, however, via better manufacturing, meaning the material's electronic quality should reach the proposed record-breaking levels.
Manufacturing problem"Graphene exhibits the highest electronic quality among all known materials," says Andre Geim of the Manchester University team. "Our work singles it out as the best possible material for electronic applications."
Walt de Heer at Georgia Institute of Technology, US, says that the projected figure agrees with what he had expected, based on the behaviour of similar materials like nanotubes.
But he adds the result highlights the main barrier between graphene and the electronics industry – it is hard to isolate pure layers of graphene in sheets large enough for industrial manufacture. "They need a workable material presented in large wafers like silicon," he says.
The experimental devices used in the new research were made by carefully peeling off layers of graphene from chunks of graphite using sticky tape. That technique, while useful in the lab, is of little use to semiconductor companies.
De Heer and colleagues are working to overcome this practical problem. They can already cover areas with a few layers of graphene by heating silicon carbide wafers up to 1300 ºC – the heat breaks down the material, leaving the graphene behind.
"We are able to 'grow' a canvas of material that has similar if not identical electrical properties," says de Heer.
The new research will appear in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite
Atom-thick sheets of a carbon compound called graphene should smash the record for room-temperature conductivity, say UK researchers.
The fact that the near-2D layers lets electrons travel so freely means the sheets could allow a new generation of super-fast microelectronics, they say.
Prototype devices like transistors have already been made from graphene, but its basic properties are still being explored.
Graphene is the name given to a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagon pattern. Stacks of such sheets make the pencil-core ingredient graphite, but until recently it had been extremely difficult to isolate single layers.
The new research was carried out by scientists at the University of Manchester – where graphene was first isolated in 2004 – and colleagues from Russia, the Netherlands, and the US.
The team calculated that pure graphene should allow electrons to travel more easily than in any other material, including gold, silicon, gallium arsenide, and carbon nanotubes.
Electronic qualityThe mobility of charge in a semiconductor is known as its "electronic quality" and governs the speeds the material is able to provide in electronics.
For example, gallium arsenide is used in cellphone transmitters because its higher electronic quality means it can operate at greater frequencies than the silicon used for most other applications.
At room temperature, gallium arsenide has an electronic quality of 8500 cm2/Vs compared with just 1500 cm2/Vs for silicon. But good quality graphene without impurities should reach up to 200,000 cm2/Vs, according to the new research.
In experiments, the team showed that two different factors were slowing down the movement of charge.
The first factor is a "built-in" speed limit that cannot be changed: ripples in the sheets trap vibrations from heat passing through the graphene, which in turn slow down the travelling electrons.
The second source of electron congestion is impurities in the graphene. These could be removed, however, via better manufacturing, meaning the material's electronic quality should reach the proposed record-breaking levels.
Manufacturing problem"Graphene exhibits the highest electronic quality among all known materials," says Andre Geim of the Manchester University team. "Our work singles it out as the best possible material for electronic applications."
Walt de Heer at Georgia Institute of Technology, US, says that the projected figure agrees with what he had expected, based on the behaviour of similar materials like nanotubes.
But he adds the result highlights the main barrier between graphene and the electronics industry – it is hard to isolate pure layers of graphene in sheets large enough for industrial manufacture. "They need a workable material presented in large wafers like silicon," he says.
The experimental devices used in the new research were made by carefully peeling off layers of graphene from chunks of graphite using sticky tape. That technique, while useful in the lab, is of little use to semiconductor companies.
De Heer and colleagues are working to overcome this practical problem. They can already cover areas with a few layers of graphene by heating silicon carbide wafers up to 1300 ºC – the heat breaks down the material, leaving the graphene behind.
"We are able to 'grow' a canvas of material that has similar if not identical electrical properties," says de Heer.
The new research will appear in a forthcoming edition of the journal Physical Review Letters
Boron nanotubes could outperform carbon
15:00 04 January 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Stephen Battersby
Carbon may be losing its monopoly over the nanoworld. According to the latest calculations, tubes built out of the element boron could have many of the same properties as carbon nanotubes, the ubiquitous components of nanoengineering. And for some electronic applications, they should even be better than carbon.
Boron nanotubes will have a more complicated shape than the simple linked hexagons that work for carbon, as the chemistry of boron makes that chicken-wire pattern unstable. The first boron nanotubes to be created, in 2004, are thought to be formed from a buckled triangular latticework.
But according to Xiaobao Yang, Yi Ding and Jun Ni from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, the best configuration for boron is to take the unstable hexagon lattice and add an extra atom to the centre of some of the hexagons (see image, top right). They calculate that this is the most stable known theoretical structure for a boron nanotube.
Their simulation also shows that, with this pattern, boron nanotubes should have variable electrical properties: wider ones would be metallic conductors, but narrower ones should be semiconductors. If so, then boron tubes might be used in nanodevices similar to the diodes and transistors that have already been made from carbon nanotubes, says Ni.
Variable surfacesIt's a surprise to other researchers, who expected all boron nanotubes to be metallic. "If this is true, it's interesting," says Sohrab Ismail-Beigi of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, whose earlier paper showed that this same structure would make stable flat sheets of boron.
Ismail-Beigi suspects that it will be difficult to make semiconducting boron nanotubes, even so. His work shows that there are many different structures almost as stable as this one, so real tubes are likely to have variable surfaces. "I would hypothesize that this would make most tubes metallic," Ismail-Beigi told New Scientist.
Metallic boron nanotubes would still be useful, however, as they should be better conductors than carbon. Ismail-Beigi speculates that they might also be superconducting at higher temperatures. So if a superconducting nanocomputer is ever built, it might have boron wiring.
To actually make the boron tubes, Ni suggests chemical vapour deposition, which is a process already used to grow carbon nanotubes. This technique requires an appropriate catalyst, such as a nanoparticle of nickel, to act as a template for the nanotube. "The key issue for the growth of boron nanotubes is to find effective catalysts," says Ni.
Journal ref: Physical Review B (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.041402)
NewScientist.com news service
Stephen Battersby
Carbon may be losing its monopoly over the nanoworld. According to the latest calculations, tubes built out of the element boron could have many of the same properties as carbon nanotubes, the ubiquitous components of nanoengineering. And for some electronic applications, they should even be better than carbon.
Boron nanotubes will have a more complicated shape than the simple linked hexagons that work for carbon, as the chemistry of boron makes that chicken-wire pattern unstable. The first boron nanotubes to be created, in 2004, are thought to be formed from a buckled triangular latticework.
But according to Xiaobao Yang, Yi Ding and Jun Ni from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, the best configuration for boron is to take the unstable hexagon lattice and add an extra atom to the centre of some of the hexagons (see image, top right). They calculate that this is the most stable known theoretical structure for a boron nanotube.
Their simulation also shows that, with this pattern, boron nanotubes should have variable electrical properties: wider ones would be metallic conductors, but narrower ones should be semiconductors. If so, then boron tubes might be used in nanodevices similar to the diodes and transistors that have already been made from carbon nanotubes, says Ni.
Variable surfacesIt's a surprise to other researchers, who expected all boron nanotubes to be metallic. "If this is true, it's interesting," says Sohrab Ismail-Beigi of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, whose earlier paper showed that this same structure would make stable flat sheets of boron.
Ismail-Beigi suspects that it will be difficult to make semiconducting boron nanotubes, even so. His work shows that there are many different structures almost as stable as this one, so real tubes are likely to have variable surfaces. "I would hypothesize that this would make most tubes metallic," Ismail-Beigi told New Scientist.
Metallic boron nanotubes would still be useful, however, as they should be better conductors than carbon. Ismail-Beigi speculates that they might also be superconducting at higher temperatures. So if a superconducting nanocomputer is ever built, it might have boron wiring.
To actually make the boron tubes, Ni suggests chemical vapour deposition, which is a process already used to grow carbon nanotubes. This technique requires an appropriate catalyst, such as a nanoparticle of nickel, to act as a template for the nanotube. "The key issue for the growth of boron nanotubes is to find effective catalysts," says Ni.
Journal ref: Physical Review B (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.77.041402)
Colorado State scientists dramatically improve soft x-ray lasers with discovery
FORT COLLINS, CO | Posted on January 22nd, 2008
The groundbreaking discovery covers very short wavelengths of light near 13 nanometers that are valuable particularly for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, which aims to develop the next generation of faster computer chips using that type of light by 2010 or 2011, said CSU University Distinguished Professor Jorge Rocca, senior author of the research. Rocca collaborated on the Nature Photonics paper with CSU colleagues Yong Wang, Brad Luther, Francesco Pedacci, Mark Berrill, Eduardo Granados and David Alessi.
"The potential applications are many - ultrahigh resolution microscopy, patterning to make nanodevices, and semiconductor industry measurements," Rocca said. "There are many other possibilities that in the future will also include biology."
The technology involves the generation of short wavelength light in the extreme ultraviolet or soft X-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths about 50 times shorter than visible light. A nanometer is billionths of a meter. A human hair is about 60,000 nanometers. These lasers can be used to "see" tiny features, create extremely small patterns and manipulate materials in ways that visible light can't.
The research reported in the Nature Photonics paper focused on making the light of lasers operating at 18.9 and 13.9 nanometers more "coherent" - a property that distinguishes laser light from light generated by other sources. Rocca's team generated a little seed of coherent X-ray light, converted the frequency of a visible laser beam to soft X-ray light and obtained a very coherent light at a low intensity. That seed was injected through a plasma amplifier and grew to produce a very high intensity beam of soft x-ray light with extraordinarily high coherence.
"Coherent soft x-ray light can be used to measure the properties of materials and directly write patterns with nano-scale dimension," Rocca said. "It can be used to look for extremely small defects in the masks that will be used to print the future generations of semiconductor chips."
The work is part of the research conducted at the National Science Foundation's Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology - a partnership between Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of California Berkeley - that combines the expertise of researchers who are among the world leaders in developing compact extreme ultraviolet coherent light sources, optics and optical systems for nanoscience, nanotechnology and other applications.
The center also has significant industry and national laboratory involvement. The largest computer chip manufacturers - Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, IBM and Samsung - are industrial members of the EUV ERC, joining a set of industries that include small- and medium-sized companies.
####
About Colorado State University
Colorado State University is one of our nation's leading research universities with world-class research in infectious disease, atmospheric science, clean energy technologies, and environmental science. It was founded in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College, six years before the Colorado Territory became a state.
Last year, CSU awarded degrees to more than 5,000 graduates, and this year, it attracted nearly $300 million in research funding. Colorado State is a land-grant institution and a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University-Extensive.
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Emily Narvaes Wilmsen
(970) 491-2336
The groundbreaking discovery covers very short wavelengths of light near 13 nanometers that are valuable particularly for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, which aims to develop the next generation of faster computer chips using that type of light by 2010 or 2011, said CSU University Distinguished Professor Jorge Rocca, senior author of the research. Rocca collaborated on the Nature Photonics paper with CSU colleagues Yong Wang, Brad Luther, Francesco Pedacci, Mark Berrill, Eduardo Granados and David Alessi.
"The potential applications are many - ultrahigh resolution microscopy, patterning to make nanodevices, and semiconductor industry measurements," Rocca said. "There are many other possibilities that in the future will also include biology."
The technology involves the generation of short wavelength light in the extreme ultraviolet or soft X-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths about 50 times shorter than visible light. A nanometer is billionths of a meter. A human hair is about 60,000 nanometers. These lasers can be used to "see" tiny features, create extremely small patterns and manipulate materials in ways that visible light can't.
The research reported in the Nature Photonics paper focused on making the light of lasers operating at 18.9 and 13.9 nanometers more "coherent" - a property that distinguishes laser light from light generated by other sources. Rocca's team generated a little seed of coherent X-ray light, converted the frequency of a visible laser beam to soft X-ray light and obtained a very coherent light at a low intensity. That seed was injected through a plasma amplifier and grew to produce a very high intensity beam of soft x-ray light with extraordinarily high coherence.
"Coherent soft x-ray light can be used to measure the properties of materials and directly write patterns with nano-scale dimension," Rocca said. "It can be used to look for extremely small defects in the masks that will be used to print the future generations of semiconductor chips."
The work is part of the research conducted at the National Science Foundation's Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology - a partnership between Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of California Berkeley - that combines the expertise of researchers who are among the world leaders in developing compact extreme ultraviolet coherent light sources, optics and optical systems for nanoscience, nanotechnology and other applications.
The center also has significant industry and national laboratory involvement. The largest computer chip manufacturers - Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, IBM and Samsung - are industrial members of the EUV ERC, joining a set of industries that include small- and medium-sized companies.
####
About Colorado State University
Colorado State University is one of our nation's leading research universities with world-class research in infectious disease, atmospheric science, clean energy technologies, and environmental science. It was founded in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College, six years before the Colorado Territory became a state.
Last year, CSU awarded degrees to more than 5,000 graduates, and this year, it attracted nearly $300 million in research funding. Colorado State is a land-grant institution and a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University-Extensive.
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Emily Narvaes Wilmsen
(970) 491-2336
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
When can we expect the nano fuel cells?
by Michael Orshan
Energy prices are going through the roof here in the US and elsewhere. Supplies of energy are steady, but the global use is higher and that is the issue. Everyone is rightfully looking into biomass, wind, geothermal and solar as ways to offset the lack of supplies. This is all taking time, as consumers we are waiting for economies of scales to kick in and then maybe this will all work out.
There is another way around this and doing this in parallel with renewable energy options is great. That is to optimize the energy we are already using. For instance hydrogen fuel cells will be great. If we can store the hydrogen in nanocells then we can use the exact amount of hydrogen to propel a car or whatever. We can use the nanocell concept for gas and most fuel supplies. Nanostorage devices will be great. However, when will they show up? Who is doing what about this? Anytime soon?
The concept for fuel cells is for more then vehicles. These are expected to be a super battery. It should really change mobile consumer electronics if you only need to recharge once a week or month. I sometimes wonder how tethered the world is to an electric outlet. Imagine of that was not the case!
Energy prices are going through the roof here in the US and elsewhere. Supplies of energy are steady, but the global use is higher and that is the issue. Everyone is rightfully looking into biomass, wind, geothermal and solar as ways to offset the lack of supplies. This is all taking time, as consumers we are waiting for economies of scales to kick in and then maybe this will all work out.
There is another way around this and doing this in parallel with renewable energy options is great. That is to optimize the energy we are already using. For instance hydrogen fuel cells will be great. If we can store the hydrogen in nanocells then we can use the exact amount of hydrogen to propel a car or whatever. We can use the nanocell concept for gas and most fuel supplies. Nanostorage devices will be great. However, when will they show up? Who is doing what about this? Anytime soon?
The concept for fuel cells is for more then vehicles. These are expected to be a super battery. It should really change mobile consumer electronics if you only need to recharge once a week or month. I sometimes wonder how tethered the world is to an electric outlet. Imagine of that was not the case!
Wall Street will resume nanotechnology financing
“ALL THE miracles of life that nature has created are based on Nanotechnology. It is up to mankind to perfect these miracles in the upcoming decades and centuries.”
Nanotechnology is one of the most active areas of research and development today with an investment of over $10 billion (2006) going into it worldwide. The United States, with its substantial government-funding involving the National Science Foundation (NSF), its Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defence (DOD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leads the world in nanotechnology research and development. In January 2007, the European Union launched its largest-ever funding programme for research and technological development called the Seventh Framework Program (FP7). The programme has allocated about $ 4.5 billion for nanotechnology research and development. Other countries, including Russia, India, Japan and China have earmarked several billion USD for future nanotechnology investment programmes.
During the last five years, Wall Street has not been active in nanotechnology financing. It has allowed the venture capital companies, without competition, to cherry-pick the elite nanotechnology investment opportunities while leaving many promising nanotechnology ventures to starve financially. Today, with 400+ nanotechnology products in the domestic marketplace, the industry appears credible and the Street’s focus may be changing. The planned $100 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) by NanoDynamics, Inc (ND) may change the funding landscape for nanotechnology companies. It’s a very important change. The reasons behind the ND IPO’s expected success will become clear once you dig through the S-1 Prospectus, understand which specific green and nanotechnology markets ND’s new products aim to penetrate and why ND will be profitable in both those markets. "Green Energy and Nanotechnology" is a winning corporate strategy for the next decade. After a successful ND offering, a financing rush will be on and Wall Street should once again become a major player in nanotechnology funding, especially for young and cash-starved nanotechnology companies.
Environmental applications of nanotechnology
Environmental benefits from nanotechnology are derived from a wide range of possible applications, including nanotechnology-enabled, environmentally friendly manufacturing processes that reduce waste products - ultimately leading to atomically precise molecular manufacturing with zero waste; the use of nano- materials as catalysts to minimize or eliminate the use of toxic materials for greater efficiency in the current manufacturing processes; the use of nano-materials and nano-devices to reduce pollution (e.g. water and air filters); and the use of nano-materials for more efficient alternative energy production (e.g. solar and fuel cells).
Fuel additives for increased fuel efficiency
Nano-particle additives have been shown to increase the fuel efficiency of diesel engines by approximately 5% which could result in a maximum saving of 22-23 millions of tons per annum of CO2 in Europe alone. This could be implemented immediately across the diesel-powered fleet. However, since little is known about the health impact of free nano-particles in diesel exhaust gases, a comprehensive toxicological testing and subsidized independent performance tests are required to validate the absence of environmental harm.
Solar Cells
Nanotechnology may deliver significant benefits in vastly decreasing the production costs of solar cells. Conservatively, if a distributed solar generation grid met 1% of the world’s electricity demand, approximately 40 million tons per annum of CO2 could be saved. The major barrier to this technology is the incorporation of nanotechnology into solar cells, not the nanotechnology itself. There is currently a lack of skills to transfer the science base into workable prototypes. What is needed is to develop programmes and facilities for taking fundamental research through to early stage prototypes where established mechanisms can be employed to commercialize new technologies. Centres of excellence in Photovoltaics have to be created to allow cross-fertilization of ideas from different scientific disciplines.
Hydrogen Production through Nanotechnology
Hydrogen-powered vehicles could eliminate all toxic emissions, which would improve public health. If hydrogen were generated via renewable means or using carbon capture and storage, all CO2 emissions from transport could be eliminated (over 1 billion tons per annum). The hydrogen economy, however, is estimated to be 20 years away from potential universal deployment. Nanotechnology is central to developing efficient hydrogen storage, which is likely to be the largest barrier to worldwide use. Nanotechnology is also a lead candidate for improving the efficiency of fuel cells and for developing a method for renewable hydrogen production. To initiate a process in the right direction, public procurement to fund hydrogen-powered urban public transport is recommended which in turn will create a market and infrastructure for hydrogen-powered transport. Funding large international projects and continuing R&D support will also be crucial.
Ethanol Production through Nanotechnology
The recent interest in ethanol has been sparked by its use as a renewable fuel alternative to gasoline. Even though we have been drinking ethanol, an alcohol, for thousands of years (fermented beverages such as beer and wine contain up to 5-15% ethanol by volume), the largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. Ethanol is produced by fermentation of feedstocks when certain species of yeast metabolize sugar. The primary feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. is corn. In Brazil, the world’s leading ethanol producer, it’s mostly derived from sugar cane. While there is a heated controversy over the economic and ecological benefits of using biomass for producing ethanol fuel, it seems that the carbon nano-tubes (CNT) are increasingly recognized as promising materials for catalysis, either as catalysts themselves or as catalyst additives or as catalyst supports. Research has shown that CNTs loaded with rhodium (Rh) nano-particles are able to convert a gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into ethanol. This appears to be the first example where the activity and selectivity of a metal-catalyzed gas-phase reaction benefits significantly from proceeding inside a nano-sized CNT reaction vessel.
Fuel Recycling
Diesel-burning engines are a major contributor to environmental pollution, since they emit a mixture of gases and fine particles that contain over 40 mostly toxic chemicals, including Benzene, Butadiene, Dioxin and mercury compounds. Diesel exhaust is listed as a known or probable human carcinogen by over 40 countries in the world. A Japanese government-supported research has shown that diesel soot can be recycled as a carbon source for the synthesis of single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWCNTs). The diesel soot was predominantly collected by Soxhlet extraction of the particulate matter with ethanol. The collected diesel soot recycled by this method was then subjected to laser vaporization to synthesize SWCNTs, which can be used to produce new diesel fuel.
Batteries and Super-Capacitors
Recent advances in battery technology have made the range and power of electric vehicles more practical. Issues still surround the charge time. Nanotechnology may provide a remedy to this problem by allowing electric vehicles to be recharged much more quickly. Without nanotechnology, electric vehicles are likely to remain a niche market because of the issue of charge time. Significant infrastructural investment will be required to develop recharging stations throughout most industrialized nations. Fiscal incentives to purchasers such as the congestion charge scheme, fast track schemes for commercialization and cultivation of links with automotive multinationals will also be important.
Insulation
Cavity and loft insulation are cheap and effective; however, there are no easy methods for insulating solid walled buildings, which currently account for approximately a third of most buildings in industrialized countries with a cold winter climate. Nanotechnology provides several efficient approaches: Ultra thin nano-films on windows can reduce heat loss much more efficiently than anything currently on the market. In addition, improvement of Aerogels, which themselves are nanostructures, can minimize heat-loss of concrete walls.
Nanotechnology is one of the most active areas of research and development today with an investment of over $10 billion (2006) going into it worldwide. The United States, with its substantial government-funding involving the National Science Foundation (NSF), its Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defence (DOD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leads the world in nanotechnology research and development. In January 2007, the European Union launched its largest-ever funding programme for research and technological development called the Seventh Framework Program (FP7). The programme has allocated about $ 4.5 billion for nanotechnology research and development. Other countries, including Russia, India, Japan and China have earmarked several billion USD for future nanotechnology investment programmes.
During the last five years, Wall Street has not been active in nanotechnology financing. It has allowed the venture capital companies, without competition, to cherry-pick the elite nanotechnology investment opportunities while leaving many promising nanotechnology ventures to starve financially. Today, with 400+ nanotechnology products in the domestic marketplace, the industry appears credible and the Street’s focus may be changing. The planned $100 million Initial Public Offering (IPO) by NanoDynamics, Inc (ND) may change the funding landscape for nanotechnology companies. It’s a very important change. The reasons behind the ND IPO’s expected success will become clear once you dig through the S-1 Prospectus, understand which specific green and nanotechnology markets ND’s new products aim to penetrate and why ND will be profitable in both those markets. "Green Energy and Nanotechnology" is a winning corporate strategy for the next decade. After a successful ND offering, a financing rush will be on and Wall Street should once again become a major player in nanotechnology funding, especially for young and cash-starved nanotechnology companies.
Environmental applications of nanotechnology
Environmental benefits from nanotechnology are derived from a wide range of possible applications, including nanotechnology-enabled, environmentally friendly manufacturing processes that reduce waste products - ultimately leading to atomically precise molecular manufacturing with zero waste; the use of nano- materials as catalysts to minimize or eliminate the use of toxic materials for greater efficiency in the current manufacturing processes; the use of nano-materials and nano-devices to reduce pollution (e.g. water and air filters); and the use of nano-materials for more efficient alternative energy production (e.g. solar and fuel cells).
Fuel additives for increased fuel efficiency
Nano-particle additives have been shown to increase the fuel efficiency of diesel engines by approximately 5% which could result in a maximum saving of 22-23 millions of tons per annum of CO2 in Europe alone. This could be implemented immediately across the diesel-powered fleet. However, since little is known about the health impact of free nano-particles in diesel exhaust gases, a comprehensive toxicological testing and subsidized independent performance tests are required to validate the absence of environmental harm.
Solar Cells
Nanotechnology may deliver significant benefits in vastly decreasing the production costs of solar cells. Conservatively, if a distributed solar generation grid met 1% of the world’s electricity demand, approximately 40 million tons per annum of CO2 could be saved. The major barrier to this technology is the incorporation of nanotechnology into solar cells, not the nanotechnology itself. There is currently a lack of skills to transfer the science base into workable prototypes. What is needed is to develop programmes and facilities for taking fundamental research through to early stage prototypes where established mechanisms can be employed to commercialize new technologies. Centres of excellence in Photovoltaics have to be created to allow cross-fertilization of ideas from different scientific disciplines.
Hydrogen Production through Nanotechnology
Hydrogen-powered vehicles could eliminate all toxic emissions, which would improve public health. If hydrogen were generated via renewable means or using carbon capture and storage, all CO2 emissions from transport could be eliminated (over 1 billion tons per annum). The hydrogen economy, however, is estimated to be 20 years away from potential universal deployment. Nanotechnology is central to developing efficient hydrogen storage, which is likely to be the largest barrier to worldwide use. Nanotechnology is also a lead candidate for improving the efficiency of fuel cells and for developing a method for renewable hydrogen production. To initiate a process in the right direction, public procurement to fund hydrogen-powered urban public transport is recommended which in turn will create a market and infrastructure for hydrogen-powered transport. Funding large international projects and continuing R&D support will also be crucial.
Ethanol Production through Nanotechnology
The recent interest in ethanol has been sparked by its use as a renewable fuel alternative to gasoline. Even though we have been drinking ethanol, an alcohol, for thousands of years (fermented beverages such as beer and wine contain up to 5-15% ethanol by volume), the largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. Ethanol is produced by fermentation of feedstocks when certain species of yeast metabolize sugar. The primary feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. is corn. In Brazil, the world’s leading ethanol producer, it’s mostly derived from sugar cane. While there is a heated controversy over the economic and ecological benefits of using biomass for producing ethanol fuel, it seems that the carbon nano-tubes (CNT) are increasingly recognized as promising materials for catalysis, either as catalysts themselves or as catalyst additives or as catalyst supports. Research has shown that CNTs loaded with rhodium (Rh) nano-particles are able to convert a gas mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into ethanol. This appears to be the first example where the activity and selectivity of a metal-catalyzed gas-phase reaction benefits significantly from proceeding inside a nano-sized CNT reaction vessel.
Fuel Recycling
Diesel-burning engines are a major contributor to environmental pollution, since they emit a mixture of gases and fine particles that contain over 40 mostly toxic chemicals, including Benzene, Butadiene, Dioxin and mercury compounds. Diesel exhaust is listed as a known or probable human carcinogen by over 40 countries in the world. A Japanese government-supported research has shown that diesel soot can be recycled as a carbon source for the synthesis of single-walled carbon nano-tubes (SWCNTs). The diesel soot was predominantly collected by Soxhlet extraction of the particulate matter with ethanol. The collected diesel soot recycled by this method was then subjected to laser vaporization to synthesize SWCNTs, which can be used to produce new diesel fuel.
Batteries and Super-Capacitors
Recent advances in battery technology have made the range and power of electric vehicles more practical. Issues still surround the charge time. Nanotechnology may provide a remedy to this problem by allowing electric vehicles to be recharged much more quickly. Without nanotechnology, electric vehicles are likely to remain a niche market because of the issue of charge time. Significant infrastructural investment will be required to develop recharging stations throughout most industrialized nations. Fiscal incentives to purchasers such as the congestion charge scheme, fast track schemes for commercialization and cultivation of links with automotive multinationals will also be important.
Insulation
Cavity and loft insulation are cheap and effective; however, there are no easy methods for insulating solid walled buildings, which currently account for approximately a third of most buildings in industrialized countries with a cold winter climate. Nanotechnology provides several efficient approaches: Ultra thin nano-films on windows can reduce heat loss much more efficiently than anything currently on the market. In addition, improvement of Aerogels, which themselves are nanostructures, can minimize heat-loss of concrete walls.
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