Nanotechnology

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Buckminsterfullerene C60, also known as the buckyball, is the simplest of the carbon
structures known as fullerenes (A form of carbon having a large molecule consisting of
an empty cage of sixty or more carbon atoms). Members of the fullerene family are a
major subject of research falling under the nanotechnology umbrella.
Nanotechnology is a field of applied science and technology covering a broad range of
topics. The main unifying theme is the control of matter on a scale smaller than 1
micrometre, normally approximately 1 to 100 nanometers, as well as the fabrication of
devices of this size. It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as
applied physics, materials science, colloidal science, device physics, supramolecular
chemistry, and even mechanical and electrical engineering. Much speculation exists as to
what new science and technology may result from these lines of research.
Nanotechnology can be seen as an extension of existing sciences into the nanoscale, or as
a recasting of existing sciences using a newer, more modern term.
Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology. In the "bottom-up" approach,
materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves
chemically by principles of molecular recognition. In the "top-down" approach, nano-
objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control. The impetus for
nanotechnology comes from a renewed interest in colloidal science, coupled with a new
generation of analytical tools such as the atomic force microscope (AFM), and the
scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Combined with refined processes such as electron
beam lithography and molecular beam epitaxy, these instruments allow the deliberate
manipulation of nanostructures, and led to the observation of novel phenomena.
Examples of nanotechnology in modern use are the manufacture of polymers based on
molecular structure, and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science.
Despite the great promise of numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots and
nanotubes, real commercial applications have mainly used the advantages of colloidal
nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings, and
stain resistant clothing.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Origins
• 2 Fundamental concepts
○ 2.1 Larger to smaller: a materials perspective
○ 2.2 Simple to complex: a molecular perspective
○ 2.3 Molecular nanotechnology: a long-term view
• 3 Current research
○ 3.1 Nanomaterials
 ○ 3.2 Bottom-up approaches
○ 3.3 Top-down approaches
○ 3.4 Functional approaches
○ 3.5 Speculative
• 4 Tools and techniques
• 5 Applications
• 6 Implications
○ 6.1 Health and environmental issues
○ 6.2 Broader societal implications and challenges
• 7 References
• 8 See also
• 9 Further reading
• 10 External links

[edit] Origins
Main article: History of nanotechnology
The first use of the distinguishing concepts in 'nanotechnology' (but predating use of that
name) was in "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," a talk given by physicist Richard
Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959.
Feynman described a process by which the ability to manipulate individual atoms and
molecules might be developed, using one set of precise tools to build and operate another
proportionally smaller set, so on down to the needed scale. In the course of this, he noted,
scaling issues would arise from the changing magnitude of various physical phenomena:
gravity would become less important, surface tension and Van der Waals attraction
would become more important, etc. This basic idea appears feasible, and exponential
assembly enhances it with parallelism (Similarity by virtue of corresponding) to produce
a useful quantity of end products.
The term "nanotechnology" was defined by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio
Taniguchi in a 1974 paper (N. Taniguchi, "On the Basic Concept of 'Nano-Technology',"
Proc. Intl. Conf. Prod. Eng. Tokyo, Part II, Japan Society of Precision Engineering,
1974.) as follows: "'Nano-technology' mainly consists of the processing of, separation,
consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule." In the
1980s the basic idea of this definition was explored in much more depth by Dr. K. Eric
Drexler, who promoted the technological significance of nano-scale phenomena and
devices through speeches and the books Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of
Nanotechnology (1986) and Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and
Computation, (1998, ISBN 0-471-57518-6), and so the term acquired its current sense.
Nanotechnology and nanoscience got started in the early 1980s with two major
developments; the birth of cluster science and the invention of the scanning tunneling
microscope (STM). This development led to the discovery of fullerenes in 1986 and
carbon nanotubes a few years later. In another development, the synthesis and properties
of semiconductor nanocrystals was studied. This led to a fast increasing number of metal
oxide nanoparticles of quantum dots. The atomic force microscope was invented five
years after the STM was invented. The AFM uses atomic force to see the atoms.
[edit] Fundamental concepts
Wikibooks has more about this subject:
The Opensource Handbook of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10-9 of a meter. For comparison, typical carbon-
carbon bond lengths, or the spacing between these atoms in a molecule, are in the range .
12-.15 nm, and a DNA double-helix has a diameter around 2 nm. On the other hand, the
smallest cellular life forms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in
length. To put that scale in to context the comparative size of a nanometer to a meter is
the same as that of a marble to the size of the earth [1]. Or another way of putting it: a
nanometer is the amount a man's beard grows in the time it takes him to raise the razor to
his face [2] .
[edit] Larger to smaller: a materials perspective
Main article: Nanomaterials
A unique aspect of nanotechnology is the vastly increased ratio of surface area to volume
present in many nanoscale materials which opens new possibilities in surface-based
science, such as catalysis. A number of physical phenomena become noticeably
pronounced as the size of the system decreases. These include statistical mechanical
effects, as well as quantum mechanical effects, for example the “quantum size effect”
where the electronic properties of solids are altered with great reductions in particle size.
This effect does not come into play by going from macro to micro dimensions. However,
it becomes dominant when the nanometer size range is reached. Additionally, a number
of physical properties change when compared to macroscopic systems. One example is
the increase in surface area to volume of materials. This catalytic activity also opens
potential risks in their interaction with biomaterials.
Materials reduced to the nanoscale can suddenly show very different properties compared
to what they exhibit on a macroscale, enabling unique applications. For instance, opaque
substances become transparent (copper); inert materials become catalysts (platinum);
stable materials turn combustible (aluminum); solids turn into liquids at room
temperature (gold); insulators become conductors (silicon). A material such as gold,
which is chemically inert at normal scales, can serve as a potent chemical catalyst at
nanoscales. Much of the fascination with nanotechnology stems from these unique
quantum and surface phenomena that matter exhibits at the nanoscale.
[edit] Simple to complex: a molecular perspective
Main article: Molecular self-assembly
Modern synthetic chemistry has reached the point where it is possible to prepare small
molecules to almost any structure. These methods are used today to produce a wide
variety of useful chemicals such as pharmaceuticals or commercial polymers. This ability
raises the question of extending this kind of control to the next-larger level, seeking
methods to assemble these single molecules into supramolecular assemblies consisting of
many molecules arranged in a well defined manner.
These approaches utilize the concepts of molecular self-assembly and/or supramolecular
chemistry to automatically arrange themselves into some useful conformation through a
bottom-up approach. The concept of molecular recognition is especially important:
molecules can be designed so that a specific conformation or arrangement is favored due
to non-covalent intermolecular forces. The Watson-Crick basepairing rules are a direct
result of this, as is the specificity of an enzyme being targeted to a single substrate, or the
specific folding of the protein itself. Thus, two or more components can be designed to be
complementary and mutually attractive so that they make a more complex and useful
whole.
Such bottom-up approaches should, broadly speaking, be able to produce devices in
parallel and much cheaper than top-down methods, but could potentially be overwhelmed
as the size and complexity of the desired assembly increases. Most useful structures
require complex and thermodynamically unlikely arrangements of atoms. Nevertheless,
there are many examples of self-assembly based on molecular recognition in biology,
most notably Watson-Crick base pairing and enzyme-substrate interactions. The
challenge for nanotechnology is whether these principles can be used to engineer novel
constructs in addition to natural ones.
[edit] Molecular nanotechnology: a long-term view
Main article: Molecular nanotechnology
Molecular nanotechnology, sometimes called molecular manufacturing, is a term given to
the concept of engineered nanosystems (nanoscale machines) operating on the molecular
scale. It is especially associated with the concept of a molecular assembler, a machine
that can produce a desired structure or device atom-by-atom using the principles of
mechanosynthesis. Manufacturing in the context of productive nanosystems is not related
to, and should be clearly distinguished from, the conventional technologies used to
manufacture nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.
When the term "nanotechnology" was independently coined and popularized by Eric
Drexler (who at the time was unaware of an earlier usage by Norio Taniguchi) it referred
to a future manufacturing technology based on molecular machine systems. The premise
was that molecular-scale biological analogies of traditional machine components
demonstrated molecular machines were possible: by the countless examples found in
biology, it is known that billions of years of evolutionary feedback can produce
sophisticated, stochastically optimized biological machines. It is hoped that developments
in nanotechnology will make possible their construction by some other means, perhaps
using biomimetic principles. However, Eric Drexler and other researchers,
Nanotechnology have proposed that advanced nanotechnology, although perhaps initially
implemented by biomimetic means, ultimately could be based on mechanical engineering
principles, namely, a manufacturing technology based on the mechanical functionality of
these components (such as gears, bearings, motors, and structural members) that would
enable programmable, positional assembly to atomic specification (PNAS-1981). The
physics and engineering performance of exemplar designs were analyzed in Drexler's
book Nanosystems. But Drexler's analysis is very qualitative and does not address very
pressing issues, such as the "fat fingers" and "Sticky fingers" problems. In general it is
very difficult to assemble devices on the atomic scale, as all one has to position atoms are
other atoms of comparable size and stickiness.
Another view, put forth by Carlo Montemagno, is that future nanosystems will be hybrids
of silicon technology and biological molecular machines. Yet another view, put forward
by the late Richard Smalley, is that mechanosynthesis is impossible due to the difficulties
in mechanically manipulating individual molecules. This led to an exchange of letters in
the ACS publication Chemical & Engineering News in 2003.
Though biology clearly demonstrates that molecular machine systems are possible, non-
biological molecular machines are today only in their infancy. Leaders in research on
non-biological molecular machines are Dr. Alex Zettl and his colleagues at Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratories and UC Berkeley. They have constructed at least three distinct
molecular devices whose motion is controlled from the desktop with changing voltage: a
nanotube nanomotor, a molecular actuator, and a nanoelectromechanical relaxation
oscillator. An experiment indicating that positional molecular assembly is possible was
performed by Ho and Lee at Cornell University in 1999. They used a scanning tunneling
microscope to move an individual carbon monoxide molecule (CO) to an individual iron
atom (Fe) sitting on a flat silver crystal, and chemically bound the CO to the Fe by
applying a voltage.
[edit] Current research
As nanotechnology is a very broad term, there are many disparate but sometimes
overlapping subfields that could fall under its umbrella. The following avenues of
research could be considered subfields of nanotechnology. Note that these categories are
fairly nebulous and a single subfield may overlap many of them, especially as the field of
nanotechnology continues to mature.
[edit] Nanomaterials
This includes subfields which develop or study materials having unique properties arising
from their nanoscale dimensions.
• Colloid science has given rise to many materials which may be useful in
nanotechnology, such as carbon nanotubes and other fullerenes, and various
nanoparticles and nanorods.
• Nanoscale materials can also be used for bulk applications; most present
commercial applications of nanotechnology are of this flavor.
• Progress has been made in using these materials for medical applications; see
Nanomedicine.
[edit] Bottom-up approaches
These seek to arrange smaller components into more complex assemblies.
• DNA Nanotechnology utilises the specificity of Watson-Crick basepairing to
construct well-defined structures out of DNA and other nucleic acids.
• More generally, molecular self-assembly seeks to use concepts of
supramolecular chemistry, and molecular recognition in particular, to cause
single-molecule components to automatically arrange themselves into some useful
conformation.
[edit] Top-down approaches
These seek to create smaller devices by using larger ones to direct their assembly.
• Many technologies descended from conventional solid-state silicon methods for
fabricating microprocessors are now capable of creating features smaller than 100
nm, falling under the definition of nanotechnology. Giant magnetoresistance-
 based hard drives already on the market fit this description, [2] as do atomic layer
deposition (ALD) techniques.
• Solid-state techniques can also be used to create devices known as
nanoelectromechanical systems or NEMS, which are related to
microelectromechanical systems or MEMS.
• Atomic force microscope tips can be used as a nanoscale "write head" to deposit a
chemical on a surface in a desired pattern in a process called dip pen
nanolithography. This fits into the larger subfield of nanolithography.
[edit] Functional approaches
These seek to develop components of a desired functionality without regard to how they
might be assembled.
• Molecular electronics seeks to develop molecules with useful electronic
properties. These could then be used as single-molecule components in a
nanoelectronic device. For an example see rotaxane.
• Synthetic chemical methods can also be used to create synthetic molecular
motors, such as in a so-called nanocar.
[edit] Speculative
These subfields seek to anticipate what inventions nanotechnology might yield, or
attempt to propose an agenda along which inquiry might progress. These often take a big-
picture view of nanotechnology, with more emphasis on its societal implications than the
details of how such inventions could actually be created.
• Molecular nanotechnology is a proposed approach which involves manipulating
single molecules in finely controlled, deterministic ways. This is more theoretical
than the other subfields and is beyond current capabilities.
• Nanorobotics centers on self-sufficient machines of some functionality operating
at the nanoscale. There are hopes for applying nanorobots in medicine [3][4][5],
while it might not be easy to do such a thing because of several drawbacks of such
devices [6][7]. Nevertheless, progress on innovative materials and methodologies
has been demonstrated with some patents granted about new nanomanufacturing
devices for future commercial applications, which also progressively helps in the
development towards nanorobots with the use of embedded nanobioelectronics
concept[8].
• Programmable matter based on artificial atoms seeks to design materials whose
properties can be easily and reversibly externally controlled.
• Due to the popularity and media exposure of the term nanotechnology, the words
picotechnology and femtotechnology have been coined in analogy to it, although
these are only used rarely and informally.
[edit] Tools and techniques
A microfabricated cantilever with a sharp tip is deflected by features on a sample surface,
much like in a phonograph but on a much smaller scale. A laser beam reflects off the
backside of the cantilever into a set of photodetectors, allowing the deflection to be
measured and assembled into an image of the surface.
Another technique uses SPT™s (surface patterning tool) as the molecular “ink cartridge”.
Each SPT is a microcantilever-based micro-fluidic handling device. SPTs contain either a
single microcantilever print head or multiple microcantilevers for simultaneous printing
of multiple molecular species. The integrated microfluidic network transports fluid
samples from reservoirs located on the SPT through microchannels to the distal end of
the cantilever. Thus SPTs can be used to print materials that include biological samples
such as proteins, DNA, RNA, and whole viruses, as well as non-biological samples such
as chemical solutions, colloids and particle suspensions. SPTs are most commonly used
with molecular printers.
Nanotechnological techniques include those used for fabrication of nanowires, those used
in semiconductor fabrication such as deep ultraviolet lithography, electron beam
lithography, focused ion beam machining, nanoimprint lithography, atomic layer
deposition, and molecular vapor deposition, and further including molecular self-
assembly techniques such as those employing di-block copolymers. However, all of these
techniques preceded the nanotech era, and are extensions in the development of scientific
advancements rather than techniques which were devised with the sole purpose of
creating nanotechnology and which were results of nanotechnology research.
Nanoscience and nanotechnology only became possible in the 1910s with the
development of the first tools to measure and make nanostructures. But the actual
development started with the discovery of electrons and neutrons which showed scientists
that matter can really exist on a much smaller scale than what we normally think of as
small, and/or what they thought was possible at the time. It was at this time when
curiosity for nanostructures had originated.
The atomic force microscope (AFM) and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) are
two early versions of scanning probes that launched nanotechnology. There are other
types of scanning probe microscopy, all flowing from the ideas of the scanning confocal
microscope developed by Marvin Minsky in 1961 and the scanning acoustic microscope
(SAM) developed by Calvin Quate and coworkers in the 1970s, that made it possible to
see structures at the nanoscale. The tip of a scanning probe can also be used to
manipulate nanostructures (a process called positional assembly). Feature-oriented
scanning-positioning methodology suggested by Rostislav Lapshin appears to be a
promising way to implement these nanomanipulations in automatic mode. However, this
is still a slow process because of low scanning velocity of the microscope. Various
techniques of nanolithography such as dip pen nanolithography, electron beam
lithography or nanoimprint lithography were also developed. Lithography is a top-down
fabrication technique where a bulk material is reduced in size to nanoscale pattern.
The top-down approach anticipates nanodevices that must be built piece by piece in
stages, much as manufactured items are currently made. Scanning probe microscopy is an
important technique both for characterization and synthesis of nanomaterials. Atomic
force microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes can be used to look at surfaces
and to move atoms around. By designing different tips for these microscopes, they can be
used for carving out structures on surfaces and to help guide self-assembling structures.
By using, for example, feature-oriented scanning-positioning approach, atoms can be
moved around on a surface with scanning probe microscopy techniques. At present, it is
expensive and time-consuming for mass production but very suitable for laboratory
experimentation.
In contrast, bottom-up techniques build or grow larger structures atom by atom or
molecule by molecule. These techniques include chemical synthesis, self-assembly and
positional assembly. Another variation of the bottom-up approach is molecular beam
epitaxy or MBE. Researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories like John R. Arthur. Alfred
Y. Cho, and Art C. Gossard developed and implemented MBE as a research tool in the
late 1960s and 1970s. Samples made by MBE were key to the discovery of the fractional
quantum Hall effect for which the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded. MBE
allows scientists to lay down atomically-precise layers of atoms and, in the process, build
up complex structures. Important for research on semiconductors, MBE is also widely
used to make samples and devices for the newly emerging field of spintronics.
Newer techniques such as Dual Polarisation Interferometry are enabling scientists to
measure quantitatively the molecular interactions that take place at the nano-scale.
[edit] Applications
Main article: List of nanotechnology applications
Although there has been much hype about the potential applications of nanotechnology,
most current commercialized applications are limited to the use of "first generation"
passive nanomaterials. These include titanium dioxide nanoparticles in sunscreen,
cosmetics and some food products; silver nanoparticles in food packaging, clothing,
disinfectants and household appliances; zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens and
cosmetics, surface coatings, paints and outdoor furniture varnishes; and cerium oxide
nanoparticles as a fuel catalyst. The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars'
Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies hosts an inventory of consumer products which
now contain nanomaterials.
However further applications which require actual manipulation or arrangement of
nanoscale components await further research. Though technologies currently branded
with the term 'nano' are sometimes little related to and fall far short of the most ambitious
and transformative technological goals of the sort in molecular manufacturing proposals,
the term still connotes such ideas. Thus there may be a danger that a "nano bubble" will
form, or is forming already, from the use of the term by scientists and entrepreneurs to
garner funding, regardless of interest in the transformative possibilities of more ambitious
and far-sighted work.
The National Science Foundation (a major source of funding for nanotechnology in the
United States) funded researcher David Berube to study the field of nanotechnology. His
findings are published in the monograph “Nano-Hype: The Truth Behind the
Nanotechnology Buzz". This published study (with a foreword by Mihail Roco, head of
the NNI) concludes that much of what is sold as “nanotechnology” is in fact a recasting
of straightforward materials science, which is leading to a “nanotech industry built solely
on selling nanotubes, nanowires, and the like” which will “end up with a few suppliers
selling low margin products in huge volumes."
[edit] Implications
Main article: Implications of nanotechnology
Due to the far-ranging claims that have been made about potential applications of
nanotechnology, a number of concerns have been raised about what effects these will
have on our society if realized, and what action if any is appropriate to mitigate these
risks. Short-term issues include the effects that widespread use of nanomaterials would
have on human health and the environment. Longer-term concerns center on the
implications that new technologies will have for society at large, and whether these could
possibly lead to either a post scarcity economy, or alternatively exacerbate the wealth gap
between developed and developing nations.
[edit] Health and environmental issues
There is a growing body of scientific evidence which demonstrates the potential for some
nanomaterials to be toxic to humans or the environment [3], [4], [5]. The smaller a
particle, the greater its surface area to volume ratio and the higher its chemical reactivity
and biological activity. The greater chemical reactivity of nanomaterials results in
increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals [6]. ROS
production has been found in a diverse range of nanomaterials including carbon
fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and nanoparticle metal oxides. ROS and free radical
production is one of the primary mechanisms of nanoparticle toxicity; it may result in
oxidative stress, inflammation, and consequent damage to proteins, membranes and DNA
[7].
The extremely small size of nanomaterials also means that they are much more readily
taken up by the human body than larger sized particles. Nanomaterials are able to cross
biological membranes and access cells, tissues and organs that larger-sized particles
normally cannot [8]. Nanomaterials can gain access to the blood stream following
inhalation [9] or ingestion [10]. At least some nanomaterials can penetrate the skin [11];
even larger microparticles may penetrate skin when it is flexed [12]. Broken skin is an
ineffective particle barrier [13], suggesting that acne, eczema, shaving wounds or severe
sunburn may enable skin uptake of nanomaterials more readily. Once in the blood stream,
nanomaterials can be transported around the body and are taken up by organs and tissues
including the brain, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, bone marrow and nervous system [14].
Nanomaterials have proved toxic to human tissue and cell cultures, resulting in increased
oxidative stress, inflammatory cytokine production and cell death [15]. Unlike larger
particles, nanomaterials may be taken up by cell mitochondria [16] and the cell nucleus
[17], [18]. Studies demonstrate the potential for nanomaterials to cause DNA mutation
[19] and induce major structural damage to mitochondria, even resulting in cell death
[20], [21].
Size is therefore a key factor in determining the potential toxicity of a particle. However
it is not the only important factor. Other properties of nanomaterials that influence
toxicity include: chemical composition, shape, surface structure, surface charge,
aggregation and solubility [22], and the presence or absence of functional groups of other
chemicals [23]. The large number of variables influencing toxicity means that it is
difficult to generalise about health risks associated with exposure to nanomaterials – each
new nanomaterial must be assessed individually and all material properties must be taken
into account.
In its seminal 2004 report Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and
Uncertainties, the United Kingdom's Royal Society recommended that nanomaterials be
regulated as new chemicals, that research laboratories and factories treat nanomaterials
"as if they were hazardous", that release of nanomaterials into the environment be
avoided as far as possible, and that products containing nanomaterials be subject to new
safety testing requirements prior to their commercial release. Yet regulations world-wide
still fail to distinguish between materials in their nanoscale and bulk form. This means
that nanomaterials remain effectively unregulated; there is no regulatory requirement for
nanomaterials to face new health and safety testing or environmental impact assessment
prior to their use in commercial products, if these materials have already been approved
in bulk form.
The health risks of nanomaterials are of particular concern for workers who may face
occupational exposure to nanomaterials at higher levels, and on a more routine basis, than
the general public.
[edit] Broader societal implications and challenges
Beyond the toxicity risks to human health and the environment which are associated with
first-generation nanomaterials, nanotechnology has broader societal implications and
poses broader social challenges. Social scientists have suggested that nanotechnology's
social issues should be understood and assessed not simply as "downstream" risks or
impacts. Rather, the challenges should be factored into "upstream" research and decision
making in order to ensure technology development that meets social objectives [24].
Many social scientists and organizations in civil society suggest that technology
assessment and governance should also involve public participation [25], [26], [27], [28].
Some observers suggest that nanotechnology will build incrementally, as did the 18-19th
century industrial revolution, until it gathers pace to drive a nanotechnological revolution
that will radically reshape our economies, our labour markets, international trade,
international relations, social structures, civil liberties, our relationship with the natural
world and even what we understand to be human. Others suggest that it may be more
accurate to describe change driven by nanotechnology as a “technological tsunami”. Just
like a tsunami, analysts warn that rapid nanotechnology-driven change will necessarily
have profound disruptive impacts. As the APEC Center for Technology Foresight
observes:
If nanotechnology is going to revolutionise manufacturing, health care, energy supply,
communications and probably defence, then it will transform labour and the workplace,
the medical system, the transportation and power infrastructures and the military. None of
these latter will be changed without significant social disruption. [29]
The implications of the analysis of such a powerful new technology remain sharply
divided. Nano optimists, including many governments, see nanotechnology delivering:
• environmentally benign material abundance for all by providing universal clean
water supplies
• atomically engineered food and crops resulting in greater agricultural productivity
with less labour requirements
• nutritionally enhanced interactive ‘smart’ foods; cheap and powerful energy
generation
• clean and highly efficient manufacturing; radically improved formulation of
drugs, diagnostics and organ replacement
• much greater information storage and communication capacities
• interactive ‘smart’ appliances; and increased human performance through
convergent technologies [30], [31].
Nano skeptics suggest that nanotechnology will simply exacerbate problems stemming
from:
• existing socio-economic inequity and the unequal distribution of power
• thus creating greater inequities between rich and poor through
• an inevitable nano-divide (the gap between those who control the new
nanotechnologies and those whose products, services or labour are
displaced by them)
• destabilising international relations through a growing nano arms race and
increased potential for bioweaponry; providing the tools for ubiquitous
surveillance, with significant implications for civil liberty
• breaking down the barriers between life and non-life through nanobiotechnology,
and redefining even what it means to be human [32], [33].

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The next few paragraphs provide a brief introduction to the core concepts of molecular
nanotechnology, followed by links to further reading.
Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those products depend on
how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal we can make diamond. If
we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace elements) we can make
computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes.
Today’s manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level. Casting, grinding,
milling and even lithography move atoms in great thundering statistical herds. It's like
trying to make things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands. Yes, you
can push the LEGO blocks into great heaps and pile them up, but you can't really snap
them together the way you'd like.
In the future, nanotechnology will let us take off the boxing gloves. We'll be able to snap
together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of
the ways permitted by the laws of physics. This will be essential if we are to continue the
revolution in computer hardware beyond about the next decade, and will also let us
fabricate an entire new generation of products that are cleaner, stronger, lighter, and more
precise.
It's worth pointing out that the word "nanotechnology" has become very popular and is
used to describe many types of research where the characteristic dimensions are less than
about 1,000 nanometers. For example, continued improvements in lithography have
resulted in line widths that are less than one micron: this work is often called
"nanotechnology." Sub-micron lithography is clearly very valuable (ask anyone who uses
a computer!) but it is equally clear that conventional lithography will not let us build
semiconductor devices in which individual dopant atoms are located at specific lattice
sites. Many of the exponentially improving trends in computer hardware capability have
remained steady for the last 50 years. There is fairly widespread belief that these trends
are likely to continue for at least another several years, but then conventional lithography
starts to reach its limits.
If we are to continue these trends we will have to develop a new manufacturing
technology which will let us inexpensively build computer systems with mole quantities
of logic elements that are molecular in both size and precision and are interconnected in
complex and highly idiosyncratic patterns. Nanotechnology will let us do this.
When it's unclear from the context whether we're using the specific definition of
"nanotechnology" (given here) or the broader and more inclusive definition (often used in
the literature), we'll use the terms "molecular nanotechnology" or "molecular
manufacturing."
Whatever we call it, it should let us
• Get essentially every atom in the right place.
• Make almost any structure consistent with the laws of physics that we can specify
in molecular detail.
• Have manufacturing costs not greatly exceeding the cost of the required raw
materials and energy.

There are two more concepts commonly associated with nanotechnology:

• Positional assembly.
• Massive parallelism.

Clearly, we would be happy with any method that simultaneously achieved the first three
objectives. However, this seems difficult without using some form of positional assembly
(to get the right molecular parts in the right places) and some form of massive parallelism
(to keep the costs down).
The need for positional assembly implies an interest in molecular robotics, e.g., robotic
devices that are molecular both in their size and precision. These molecular scale
positional devices are likely to resemble very small versions of their everyday
macroscopic counterparts. Positional assembly is frequently used in normal macroscopic
manufacturing today, and provides tremendous advantages. Imagine trying to build a
bicycle with both hands tied behind your back! The idea of manipulating and positioning
individual atoms and molecules is still new and takes some getting used to. However, as
Feynman said in a classic talk in 1959: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do
not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom." We need to apply
at the molecular scale the concept that has demonstrated its effectiveness at the
macroscopic scale: making parts go where we want by putting them where we want!
One robotic arm assembling molecular parts is going to take a long time to assemble
anything large — so we need lots of robotic arms: this is what we mean by massive
parallelism. While earlier proposals achieved massive parallelism through self
replication, today's "best guess" is that future molecular manufacturing systems will use
some form of convergent assembly. In this process vast numbers of small parts are
assembled by vast numbers of small robotic arms into larger parts, those larger parts are
assembled by larger robotic arms into still larger parts, and so forth. If the size of the
parts doubles at each iteration, we can go from one nanometer parts (a few atoms in size)
to one meter parts (almost as big as a person) in only 30 steps.
What is Nanotechnology?
A basic definition: Nanotechnology is
the engineering of functional systems
at the molecular scale. This covers
both current work and concepts that
are more advanced.
In its original sense, 'nanotechnology'
refers to the projected ability to
construct items from the bottom up,
using techniques and tools being
developed today to make complete,
high performance products.

The Meaning of Nanotechnology

When K. Eric Drexler (right) popularized the word 'nanotechnology' in the
1980's, he was talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few
nanometers wide—motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller
than a cell. Drexler spent the next ten years describing and analyzing these
incredible devices, and responding to accusations of science
fiction. Meanwhile, mundane technology was developing the ability to build
simple structures on a molecular scale. As nanotechnology became an accepted
concept, the meaning of the word shifted to encompass the simpler kinds of
nanometer-scale technology. The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative was
created to fund this kind of nanotech: their definition includes anything smaller
than 100 nanometers with novel properties.
Much of the work being done today that carries the name 'nanotechnology' is not
nanotechnology in the original meaning of the word. Nanotechnology, in its traditional
sense, means building things from the bottom up, with atomic precision. This theoretical
capability was envisioned as early as 1959 by the renowned physicist Richard Feynman.
I want to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing
simultaneously. . . The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the
possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws;
it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done
because we are too big. — Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner in physics
Based on Feynman's vision of miniature factories using nanomachines to build complex
products, advanced nanotechnology (sometimes referred to as molecular
manufacturing) will make use of positionally-controlled mechanochemistry
guided by molecular machine systems. Formulating a roadmap for development
of this kind of nanotechnology is now an objective of a broadly based
technology roadmap project led by Battelle (the manager of several U.S.
National Laboratories) and the Foresight Nanotech Institute.
Shortly after this envisioned molecular machinery is created, it will result in a
manufacturing revolution, probably causing severe disruption. It also has serious
economic, social, environmental, and military implications.
Four Generations
Mihail (Mike) Roco of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative has described
four generations of nanotechnology development (see chart below). The
current era, as Roco depicts it, is that of passive nanostructures, materials
designed to perform one task. The second phase, which we are just entering,
introduces active nanostructures for multitasking; for example, actuators, drug
delivery devices, and sensors. The third generation is expected to begin
emerging around 2010 and will feature nanosystems with thousands of
interacting components. A few years after that, the first integrated
nanosystems, functioning (according to Roco) much like a mammalian cell with
hierarchical systems within systems, are expected to be developed.

Some experts may still insist that nanotechnology can refer to measurement or
visualization at the scale of 1-100 nanometers, but a consensus seems to be
forming around the idea (put forward by the NNI's Mike Roco) that control and
restructuring of matter at the nanoscale is a necessary element. CRN's
definition is a bit more precise than that, but as work progresses through the
four generations of nanotechnology leading up to molecular nanosystems,
which will include molecular manufacturing, we think it will become
increasingly obvious that "engineering of functional systems at the molecular
scale" is what nanotech is really all about.
Conflicting Definitions
Unfortunately, conflicting definitions of nanotechnology and blurry distinctions
between significantly different fields have complicated the effort to
understand the differences and develop sensible, effective policy.
The risks of today's nanoscale technologies (nanoparticle toxicity, etc.) cannot
be treated the same as the risks of longer-term molecular manufacturing
(economic disruption, unstable arms race, etc.). It is a mistake to put them
together in one basket for policy consideration—each is important to address,
but they offer different problems and will require different solutions. As used
today, the term nanotechnology usually refers to a broad collection of mostly
disconnected fields. Essentially, anything sufficiently small and interesting can
be called nanotechnology. Much of it is harmless. For the rest, much of the
harm is of familiar and limited quality. But as we will see, molecular
manufacturing will bring unfamiliar risks and new classes of problems.
General-Purpose Technology
Nanotechnology is sometimes referred to as a general-purpose technology.
That's because in its advanced form it will have significant impact on almost all
industries and all areas of society. It will offer better built, longer lasting,
cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for
medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general.
Imagine a medical device that travels through the human body to seek out and destroy
small clusters of cancerous cells before they can spread. Or a box no larger than a sugar
cube that contains the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Or materials much
lighter than steel that possess ten times as much strength. — U.S. National Science
Foundation
Dual-Use Technology
Like electricity or computers before it, nanotech will offer greatly improved
efficiency in almost every facet of life. But as a general-purpose technology, it
will be dual-use, meaning it will have many commercial uses and it also will
have many military uses—making far more powerful weapons and tools of
surveillance. Thus it represents not only wonderful benefits for humanity, but
also grave risks.

A key understanding of nanotechnology is that it offers not just better

products, but a vastly improved manufacturing process. A computer can make
copies of data files—essentially as many copies as you want at little or no cost.
It may be only a matter of time until the building of products becomes as
cheap as the copying of files. That's the real meaning of nanotechnology, and
why it is sometimes seen as "the next industrial revolution."
My own judgment is that the nanotechnology revolution has the potential to change
America on a scale equal to, if not greater than, the computer revolution. — U.S. Senator
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
The power of nanotechnology can be encapsulated in an apparently simple
device called a personal nanofactory that may sit on your countertop or
desktop. Packed with miniature chemical processors, computing, and robotics,
it will produce a wide-range of items quickly, cleanly, and inexpensively,
building products directly from blueprints.

Courtesy of John Burch, Lizard Fire Studios (3D Animation, Game Development)
Exponential Proliferation
Nanotechnology not only will allow making many high-quality products at very
low cost, but it will allow making new nanofactories at the same low cost and
at the same rapid speed. This unique (outside of biology, that is) ability to
reproduce its own means of production is why nanotech is said to be an
exponential technology. It represents a manufacturing system that will be able
to make more manufacturing systems—factories that can build factories—
rapidly, cheaply, and cleanly. The means of production will be able to
reproduce exponentially, so in just a few weeks a few nanofactories
conceivably could become billions. It is a revolutionary, transformative,
powerful, and potentially very dangerous—or beneficial—technology.

How soon will all this come about? Conservative estimates usually say 20 to 30
years from now, or even much later than that. However, CRN is concerned that
it may occur sooner, quite possibly within the next decade. This is because of
the rapid progress being made in enabling technologies, such as optics,
nanolithography, mechanochemistry and 3D prototyping. If it does arrive that
soon, we may not be adequately prepared, and the consequences could be
severe.

We believe it's not too early to begin asking some tough questions and facing
the issues:
Who will own the technology?
Will it be heavily restricted, or widely available?
What will it do to the gap between rich and poor?
How can dangerous weapons be controlled, and perilous arms races be
prevented?
Many of these questions were first raised over a decade ago, and have not yet
been answered. If the questions are not answered with deliberation, answers
will evolve independently and will take us by surprise; the surprise is likely to
be unpleasant.

It is difficult to say for sure how soon this technology will mature, partly
because it's possible (especially in countries that do not have open societies)
that clandestine military or industrial development programs have been going
on for years without our knowledge.

We cannot say with certainty that full-scale nanotechnology will not be

developed with the next ten years, or even five years. It may take longer than
that, but prudence—and possibly our survival—demands that we prepare now
for the earliest plausible development scenario.
Inside This Article
1.
Introduction to How Nanotechnology Will Work
 2.
Building with Atoms

3.
A New Industrial Revolution

4.
Lots More Information

5.
See all Engineering articles

In the early 20th century, Henry Ford built a car manufacturing plant on a 2,000-
acre tract of land along the Rouge River in Michigan. Built to mass-produce
automobiles more efficiently, the Rouge housed the equipment for developing
each phase of a car, including blast furnaces, a steel mill and a glass plant. More
than 90 miles of railroad track and conveyor belts kept Ford's car assembly line
running. The Rouge model was lauded as the most efficient method of
production at a time when bigger meant better.

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disabled.
Nanogears like these may replace current manufacturing processes.
The size of Ford's assembly plant would look strange to those born and raised in
the 21st century. In the next 50 years, machines will get increasingly smaller -- so
small that thousands of these tiny machines would fit into the period at the end of
this sentence. Within a few decades, we will use these nanomachines to
manufacture consumer goods at the molecular level, piecing together one atom
or molecule at a time to make baseballs, telephones and cars. This is the goal of
nanotechnology. As televisions, airplanes and computers revolutionized the
world in the last century, scientists claim that nanotechnology will have an even
more profound effect on the next century.
Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that covers many areas of research dealing
with objects that are measured in nanometers. A nanometer (nm) is a billionth of
a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter. In this edition of How Stuff Will Work, you
will learn how nanomachines will manufacture products, and what impact
nanotechnology will have on various industries in the coming decades.

Building with Atoms

Atoms are the building blocks for all matter in our universe. You and everything
around you are made of atoms. Nature has perfected the science of
manufacturing matter molecularly. For instance, our bodies are assembled in a
specific manner from millions of living cells. Cells are nature's nanomachines.
Humans still have a lot to learn about the idea of constructing materials on such
a small scale. Consumer goods that we buy are made by pushing piles of atoms
together in a bulky, imprecise manner. Imagine if we could manipulate each
individual atom of an object. That's the basic idea of nanotechnology, and many
scientists believe that we are only a few decades away from achieving it.

Nanotechnology is a hybrid science combining engineering and chemistry. Atoms

and molecules stick together because they have complementary shapes that lock
together, or charges that attract. Just like with magnets, a positively charged
atom will stick to a negatively charged atom. As millions of these atoms are
pieced together by nanomachines, a specific product will begin to take shape.
The goal of nanotechnology is to manipulate atoms individually and place them in
a pattern to produce a desired structure. There are three steps to achieving
nanotechnology-produced goods:
• Scientists must be able to manipulate individual atoms. This means
that they will have to develop a technique to grab single atoms and move
them to desired positions. In 1990, IBM researchers showed that it is
possible to manipulate single atoms. They positioned 35 xenon atoms on
the surface of a nickel crystal, using an atomic force microscopy
instrument. These positioned atoms spelled out the letters "IBM." You can
view this nano-logo on this page.
• The next step will be to develop nanoscopic machines, called
assemblers, that can be programmed to manipulate atoms and
molecules at will. It would take thousands of years for a single assembler
to produce any kind of material one atom at a time. Trillions of
assemblers will be needed to develop products in a viable time frame.
• In order to create enough assemblers to build consumer goods, some
nanomachines, called replicators, will be programmed to build more
assemblers.
Trillions of assemblers and replicators will fill an area smaller than a cubic
millimeter, and will still be too small for us to see with the naked eye. Assemblers
and replicators will work together like hands to automatically construct products,
and will eventually replace all traditional labor methods. This will vastly decrease
manufacturing costs, thereby making consumer goods plentiful, cheaper and
stronger. In the next section, you'll find out how nanotechnology will impact every
facet of society, from medicine to computers.

A New Industrial Revolution

In January 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton requested a $227-million increase in
the government's investment in nanotechnology research and development,
which included a major initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative
(NNI). This initiative nearly doubled America's 2000 budget investment in
nanotechnology, bringing the total invested in nanotechnology to $497 million for
the 2001 national budget. In a written statement, White House officials said that
"nanotechnology is the new frontier and its potential impact is compelling."
About 70 percent of the new nanotechnology funding will go to university
research efforts, which will help meet the demand for workers with nanoscale
science and engineering skills. The initiative will also fund the projects of several
governmental agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the
Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of
Health, NASA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Much
of the research will take more than 20 years to complete, but the process itself
could touch off a new industrial revolution. Nanotechnology is likely to change the
way almost everything, including medicine, computers and cars, are designed
and constructed. Nanotechnology is anywhere from five to 15 years in the future,
and we won't see dramatic changes in our world right away. But let's take a look
at the potential effects of nanotechnology:
• The first products made from nanomachines will be stronger fibers.
Eventually, we will be able to replicate anything, including diamonds,
water and food. Famine could be eradicated by machines that fabricate
foods to feed the hungry.
• In the computer industry, the ability to shrink the size of transistors on
silicon microprocessors will soon reach its limits. Nanotechnology will be
needed to create a new generation of computer components. Molecular
computers could contain storage devices capable of storing trillions of
bytes of information in a structure the size of a sugar cube.
• Nanotechnology may have its biggest impact on the medical industry.
Patients will drink fluids containing nanorobots programmed to attack and
reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses to make
them harmless. There's even speculation that nanorobots could slow or
reverse the aging process, and life expectancy could increase
significantly. Nanorobots could also be programmed to perform delicate
surgeries -- such nanosurgeons could work at a level a thousand times
more precise than the sharpest scalpel. By working on such a small
scale, a nanorobot could operate without leaving the scars that
conventional surgery does. Additionally, nanorobots could change your
physical appearance. They could be programmed to perform cosmetic
 surgery, rearranging your atoms to change your ears, nose, eye color or
any other physical feature you wish to alter.
• Nanotechnology has the potential to have a positive effect on the
environment. For instance, airborne nanorobots could be programmed to
rebuild the thinning ozone layer. Contaminants could be automatically
removed from water sources, and oil spills could be cleaned up instantly.
Manufacturing materials using the bottom-up method of nanotechnology
also creates less pollution than conventional manufacturing processes.
Our dependence on non-renewable resources would diminish with
nanotechnology. Many resources could be constructed by nanomachines.
Cutting down trees, mining coal or drilling for oil may no longer be
necessary. Resources could simply be constructed by nanomachines.
The promises of nanotechnology sound great, don't they? Maybe even
unbelievable? But researchers say that we will achieve these capabilities within
the next century. And if nanotechnology is, in fact, realized, it might be the
human race's greatest scientific achievement yet, completely changing every
aspect of the way we live.
For more information on nanotechnology and its uses, check out the links on the
next page.

Technology will marry business interests at the first World Nano-Economic

Congress India.
The dwarf (Greek for 'nano') decides to become Goliath. Despite 'nano' being
only one billionth of a metre in length, nanotechnology is finding its way into a
myriad of industrial applications -- most of which, however, are struggling to get
past the laboratory stage.
India now understands the potential of nanotechnology, and sensing a business
opportunity, domestic player YashNanotech, a part of the listed company Yash
Management, and the UK-based Cientifica, a leading nanotech research and
advisory firm, have joined hands to bring the World Nano-Economic Congress to
India.
"Nanotechnology is a global phenomenon, but the methods of making money
from it vary widely," says a Cientifica spokesperson.
The WNEC series of events, which also explores how to commercialise
nanotechnology developments, has been held in every major region of the world
since 2003 -- starting in Washington with successive events in London, Munich,
Singapore, and Dublin (Ireland).
The WNEC India will represent the seventh event in this international series of
conferences.
The next in the series will be held in Singapore in 2006.
Cientifica estimates that governments and companies across these regions will
ramp up their annual investments in nanotechnology to over $4 billion a year by
2010.
"YashNanotech has a technical, consulting and marketing collaboration with
Cientifica. Nanotechnology is a hot topic today. With the rest of the subcontinent
reaping the benefits of globalisation, this is a unique opportunity to take stock of
Indian technologies, make contact with India's largest companies, and access the
world's fastest-growing consumer market," says Paramjyothi Chowti, chief
operating officer, YashNanotech.
Companies like Samsung have already entered the Indian market with a range of
products using nanotechnology such as refrigerator, washing machine and air-
cooler. Samsung uses nano-silver in various compositions in its product range.
Further, companies like Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Mahindra & Mahindra,
Nicholas Piramal and Intel are also looking very closely at nanotechnology and
have invested around $250 million in the domestic market towards this end.
"Nanotechnology is going to creep into every industry very soon and take over
the whole market. The WNEC India will showcase nanotechnology developments
in India and will also try to enhance growth of nanotechnology commercialisation
through this Congress," she adds.
At the Indian edition of the WNEC, speakers from around the globe will explain
and illustrate how stronger and larger a role nanotechnology is playing in
business strategy and, consequently, in profitability the world over.
Speakers at the past WNEC events include the likes of Shimon Peres, former
Israeli prime minister and a Nobel laureate for peace; Richard E Smalley, Nobel
laureate for co-discovery of the Buckyball; and Rodney Slater, former secretary
of transportation in the erstwhile Clinton administration.
Over the next six months, YashNanotech is also planning to set up a 'contact
research centre', which can be likened to a nanotechnology BPO, at
an estimated cost around Rs 3-4 crore.
"We will work on research ideas from all over the world in India. Towards this
end, we will be recruiting researchers from India and elsewhere (since the labour
is comparatively cheaper)," says Chowti.
YashNanotech has inked agreements with IIT Mumbai, NCL Pune and the
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre of Advanced Research, Bangalore, to undertake global
contract research and set up nanotech manufacturing facilities.
One may recall the statement of one of the country's most eminent scientists, C
N R Rao: "India cannot afford to miss the revolution in nanotechnology. We
should not be at the receiving end when the world is driven by nanotechnology."

NANOTECHNOLOGY is a fundamental, enabling technology, allowing

us to do new things in almost every conceivable technological
discipline. Nano means small (10^-9 m) but of high potency, and
emerging with large applications piercing through all the discipline of
knowledge, leading to industrial and technological growth.
It is conceived that this emerging developmental research will allow us
to arrange atoms and molecules in most of the ways permitted by
physical laws.

The potential of this technology to change our world is indeed truly

staggering. It will affect every aspect of our lives, from medicine, to
the power of our computers, the energy we require, the cars we drive,
the building we live in, and even the clothes we wear. It will
continuously generate new capabilities, new products, new markets.
Its impact in society will be broad.

What is so special about controlling matter at a smaller scale? Well! At

the nanoscale different laws of physics come into play, properties of
traditional materials change; the behaviour of the surface starts to
dominate over the behaviour of the bulk phase.

Areas of applications with immediate impact - drug delivery to treat

tumour, cancer (without using radiotherapy & chemotherapy), solar
energy, batteries, display technologies, opto-electronic devices,
semiconductor devices in nanoelectronics, biosensors, CNT's etc.,
nanocomposites such as Al2O3 oxides, catalysis, luminous paints.

Considering the importance of research and development of this new

frontier area, the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of
India, has been encouraging tremendous thrust on Nanomaterials. The
Indo-US joint forum on Science and Technology has identified this area
of research for intense cooperation. Government of India's
Nanomaterials Science and Technology Initiative (NSTI) potentially
offered a venue for greater cooperation. NSTI is a scheme in which the
Government of India has invested 100 crores for the next 5 years on
nanotechnology research & development.

Indian industries have started understanding the commercial viability

of nanotechnology based products and their impact on national
economy.It will be targeted towards the main streams like electronics,
healthcare markets, and other industrial products.