Nano-Technology

NANO TECHNOLOGY

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Nano-Technology
The concept on nano-technology originated from a phrase used by Richard Feynman. He said there is
“plenty of space at the bottom” by that he meant if the matter is utilised at the fundamental scale
then the possibility of manipulating the matter will be higher and the properties of matter will be
drastically different.

The concept was explained by experiment like gold nano particles showing change in colour, and in
the reactivity, explosion of aluminium nano-particles as soon as they come in contact with oxygen.

The concept was popularised by German Scientist Eric Drexler through his book “Engines of Creation”.
Finally, the term nanotechnology was used by Norio-Taniguchi from Japan.

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The nano products are those which are having at least one of their dominion in the range of 1 nm to
100 nm.

There are 2 approaches:

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1. Top-down i.e. reduction in the size of objects.
2. Bottom-up

Nanotechnology has been defined as future revolution - because of its inter-disciplinary nature.

It is providing for the convergence of diverse disciplines like Physics, Chemistry, Bio-tech, computer
science, AI etc. that is why it is one of the important pillars of 4th industrial revolution.

Fourth Industrial Revolution

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The term fourth industrial revolution was used by world Economic Forum founder Klavs Schwab.

It is defined as the convergence of Physical, Biological and digital.

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It is also known as Industry 4.0 where internet will be embedded in everything right from the supply
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chain, delivery of materials, management of production etc.

One classical example of 4th industrial revolution is cyber physical system which represents the
convergence of the cyber and physical aspect i.e. the sensors and AI. It can be used in agriculture
where the sensors from the agricultural field will provide real time information about the change in
the characteristics of soil which will then be analysed by an AI system to send an automatic message
to the formers.

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Nano-ethics

It is nothing but the emergence of ethical issues which are social, economic and environmental in
nature because of the increased proliferation of nano technology. As far as environmental and health
are concerned it has been found that the nano particles can kill the bacteria to hamper natural recycle.

In an experiment it was found that the spray of silver nano particles on domestic waste water killed
the bacteria it can be easily disturb in bio-geo-chemical cycles like nitrogen, carbon etc.

In another study it was found that in food chain that nano-particles exhibit bio-accumulation or bio-
magnification. Once their concentration crosses the threshold then they form free radicals. These
chemical entities enters the cell the entire physiological cycles is disturbed causing the health issues.
It has also been found that the inhalation of the nano-particles damage the lungs and causes an

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increase in the indicators of stress.

An M.P. from Vijayawada Mr. Srinivasan presented private in the parliament that certain pesticides
were mixed with silver nano particles.

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Most of the nano products are of general consumption therefore they will easily come into the market
and the chances of damage to the health and environment will further increase.

As observed in Israel where after the introduction of GM-crops a fungus emerged to wipe out the
endemic crops.

As far as social is concerned the use of nano technology will make it very easy for the people to carry
out the monitoring and the surveillance without any authorisation it will grossly undermine the privacy
of the citizens.
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For eg. Nano UAV which is of the size of mosquito can be used easily to carry out surveillance.

Nano-technology along with AI will take us towards autonomous weapons which are prohibited by
the international law but USA has developed ATLAS Robot defined as killer robot by Amnesty
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international and there is a UAV Harope which is also an autonomous weapon. Around 100 CEOs
signed a pledge paper at the international joint conference on AI that they will not develop the AI
system for weapons. According to UN chief such weapons are politically unacceptable and morally
repugnable. As the international conventions, only those weapons which are controlled by the human
beings are permitted then only accountability can be fixed. These autonomous weapons can become
an existential threat. It they are hacked by the enemy of the state.

Graphene and Carbon nano-tube

Graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon where the atoms are arranged like this:
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Multiple layers in this fashion formed Graphite whereas a single layer of C-atoms taken out from
graphite is called Graphene.

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It is one of the lightest, strongest and the most conducting material known to the mankind, for their
work on Graphene K.Novoselov and A. Geim from Manchester university were awarded Nobel prize
in physics. It has got multiple applications like:

1. To develop nano-transistors for nano-electronics, Rice university has developed a nano

transistor of the size of 1 nm by using Graphene (applications in Neuro-electronics)
2. It is used for increasing the efficiency of the solar cells.
3. It has been used in LEDs, OLEDs, touch screens.
4. Graphene has also find applications in ultra-capacitors for the storage of electricity.
5. Graphene is one of the source for carbon nano tubes. The other is bucky balls and fullerenes.
6. Carbon nano tubes are one of the lightest strongest along with that they exhibit electrical and
heat conductivity. They are used for different purposes like

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a. Composite materials: One of the requirements for composite material is there weight to
strength ratio should be low this is where carbon nano tube fits the requirements.
b. Under department of Science & Technology there is TIFAC (Technology Information
Forecasting Assessment Council). It has started 26 mission mode projects to develop 26

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different types of composites for railways, DRDO, ISRO etc.
c. Under nano mission as well one of the goal was to develop the materials which can
contribute in national development like composites for satellites, drug delivery etc.
d. Carbon nano-tubes are wonderful material for nano-sensor as soon as their environment
changes the conductivity also changes.
e. Carbon nano-tubes have also been used in R-O systems for the desalination of ocean
water.
f. If today earth elevator has to be built, then carbon-nano tube composite is the ideal
material.
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Nano Technolgoy in health Care:
1. Neuro plasticity
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It is one of the top 10 researches of medical science in 21st century it implies structural changes in
brain due to learning, activities, and injuries.

Neuro-plasticity because of learning and activities is natural. The area of interest is neuro-plasticity
because of injuries i.e. where to intervene and how to intervene to minimise the impact.

It is closely linked with neuro electronics when a transistor was connected with the neuron to establish
bi-direction at flow of the current.

It will lead to the development of bionics or biomimicry which is defined as an Artificial system trying
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to copy natural one. Eg. Bionic eye, Prosthetics or Orthotics Prosthetics is the science of artificial limbs
and Orthotics is the science of artificial Ex-skeleton.

2. Drug-Delivery System:

Nano-technology has resulted in the origin of two types of drug delivery systems i.e. Nano shells and
TDDS (Targeted Drug Delivery System).

In Nano shell a layer of gold was coated on silica particles with size in the range 1 nm to 100 nm and
injected in a rat having tumour in the neck, after that rat was exposed to infra-red which were
absorbed by Nano-shells, consequently, the temp. increased from 38°C to 45°C, this was enough to
kill the cancer cells.

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In TDDS a carrier molecule was fabricated by using nano-technology and on the surface of that some
chemicals were implanted. Then it was linked with a drug to be injected in the body of the patient.

It can also be used for carrying out gene therapy.

Diagnosis:

For diagnosis E-NOSE (electronic nano of factory sensors) developed by Israel institute of technology.
It works on 2 principles:

1. Whenever there is an onset of disease in human body specific bio-markers are produced
which are not only present in blood but also come out a long with breath.
2. The gold nano particles are also quite sensitive towards the change environment as soon as

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they come in contact with some substance bio marker conductivity changes which is enough
to identify the signature chemical to diagnose a disease.

Generations of Nano-products:

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On the basis of complexity and degree of interaction nano-products are classified in 4 generations:

1. Simple nano particles

2. TDDS
3. Nanobot or nanorobot: They will be used for carrying out surgeries at the cellular level, gene
therapy etc.
4. They will be modelled on living system but there is lack of clarity which particular feature of
living system they will copy, in present time Xenobot comes close to that classification.

3-D printing & 4-D printing

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3-d printing

1. 3d printing is also called additive manufacturing.

2. One of the major contribution of 4th industrial revolution depicting the confluence of
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automation & printing technology.

3. According to the projections by 2030 a significant fraction of the objects will be manufactured
in a decentralised manner through 3d-printing.

In that way it will be a disruptive technology.

There are 3 approaches:

1. Stereo lithography for the 3d printing of polymer based items.

2. Fused deposition modelling is also for polymers.
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3. Selective laser sintering for ceramic & metallic products.

Bio-3d printing is for making organ & organoids (a small replica of an organ) by using stem cells
supported by an Agar gel medium having the nutrients.

Advantages of 3d-printing

1. Will contribute in digital India.

2. It’s a part of internet of things.
3. Will create next generation jobs.
4. Decentralised & low cost manufacturing.
5. Capacity can be scaled up immediately w/o any additional investment.

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For an economy like India, where majority of people work in unorganized sector because they do not
have skill the adoption of such technology will result in massive unemployment.

Therefore the only solution is to upgrade the skills.

4d Printing

It is the basis of soft robotics or bio robotics, when a 3d printed material undergoes predictable and
reversible changes in its shape, texture, softness & hardness in response to temperature, pressure,
voltage that is 4-d printing.

1. These materials will replace the stents in future, they are going to be used for soft robotics.
2. An example of that is octobot of Harvard university, they will be used for performing

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complicated surgeries like valve replacement, open heart surgeries etc.
3. DARPA has started M3 program (maximum, mobility, manipulation) for using soft robotics.
For the American soldiers in the combat field.

SWARM Robotics: Its inspiration lies in swarm intelligence which is exhibited by social insects like

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honeybees, termites where multiple individuals are working independently towards a common goal.

2 features of Swarm intelligence are:

1. Local sensing
2. Local communication

Similarly in Swarm robotics as well multiple units will work independently in a decentralised manner
towards a common goal.
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Quantum Computing
It is based on quantum mechanical mode of the atom where individual atoms, ions, molecules are
being used for the storage and the retrieval of the information.
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In quantum computing the objective is to replace present days super computer with the desktop sized
computers.

They have 3 operating principles:

1. Entanglement
2. Superposition
3. Qubit or Quantum bit.

In entanglement 2 quantum entities are brought close so as to establish a connection/linkage & by

knowing the state of one the state of other can be predicted.
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The influence of one will be reflected in the influence of other.

1. China has used entanglement in their quantum communication satellite questions or MICIUS.

Superposition: The possibility of a particle existing in two states simultaneously, to explain this
phenomenon Schrodinger used "cat in the box paradox" i.e., a cat is placed in the box along with some
poisonous material as long as the box is closed both the possibilities exist, one of the biggest challenge
in the development of quantum computer is that how to sustain the state of superposition.

Qubits: The capacity of a quantum computer is expressed in Qubits, it implies the possibility where all
the combinations can exist simultaneously i.e., 0-0, 1-0, 0-1 & 1-1.

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1. The computing power increases exponentially.

2. Recently google demonstrated quantum supremacy where quantum computer performed

calculation which can be done by a machine of IBM in 10000 years.

3. D-wave of Canada is also one of the front runner to develop quantum computers. These
machines will be used for drug discovery, big data analytics, Analysing the information from
space probes.

4. Building a quantum computer is one of the dimension under digital India as well.

Optical computing

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These computers will use photonics for storing & retrieving the information.

The advantages of using light in place of current are:

1. Light travel faster than current therefore this system will be at least 10 times faster than the
conventional/computer.

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2. Light does not require any medium to travel therefore such machines will be compact.
3. There will be no heating effect which implies they will be more efficient.
4. Optical computers will work on the principle of optical interference, they are binary in nature,
constructive interference will give the state of 1 whereas destructive interference will give
state of 0.

As of now there is no pure optical device there are hybrid system using both light as well as current.

Intel has recently developed an interconnect with the name light peak having a speed of 50GB per
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second.

DNA computing

1. Also known as molecular computing, liquid computing, organic computing.

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2. DNA computing will be known for data storage capacity.

3. 1 gm of DNA will store upto 1014 MB of data.
4. They have in built parallel processing
5. The operating aspect is the principle of complementarity i.e., Adenine combining with
Thymine & Cytosine combining with Guanine.
6. In a test tube multiple half strands of DNA released along with enzyme, DNA polymerase each
of those strands is an input & when they combine that is the output.

DNA computing has been used as a proof of concept:

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1. Solving the Hamiltonian path problem or travelling salesman problem.

2. To calculate the square root of certain figure.
3. Diagnosing the infection & prescribing the treatment.

Evolution of Mobile technology

1. 1G was analog.
2. 2G was digital allowed voice & non-voice data.
3. 2.5 G: It started digital convergence as mobile became a multimedia platform because of
internet which as due to GPRS.

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4. 2.75G: It was based on EDGE (Enbiance data rate for GSM evolution). The internet speed was
faster.
5. 3G: The distinguishing feature was video calling.
6. 4G: Also known as (long term evolution) LTE.
7. It has 2 technologies:
a. Frequency division duplex: The operator has to buy spectrum in 2 bands one for
uplinking & other downlinking.
b. Time division duplex: Operator uses only one band for uplinking & downlinking.
8. 5G: It is a transformative technology projected as a general purpose technology for 4th
industrial revolution like electricity is:
a. 5G is not about internet speed along, with will be foundation for IoT, (Internet of

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Things) smart mobility (driver less car), smart city, industrial manufacturing.

The benchmarks for 5G are:

1. Internet speed will be around 100 times faster than 4G.
2. Latency will be less than 1 milli second.

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3. 99.9% territory will be covered.
4. Fibrisation should be at least 80%

The world radio conference organised by ITU (International Telecom Union) for deciding the
spectrum for such services has identified 2 frequency ranges.
1. Sub-5 giga hertz: This part of spectrum is very crowded. Therefore, the challenge will be to
ensure the certain band width to each of the operators.
2. (FR-a) Frequency range 2.24 GHz to 100 GHz: It is a part of extremely high frequency also
known as millimetre wave technology.
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3. Here the spectrum can be made available easily but the attenuation of frequency will be very
very high. Even leaves & rain drops can absorb them. Therefore, base station have to be at
very close distance to each other.
4. As far as India is concerned department of telecom has initiated a process of 5G trial, which
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includes Huawei as a participant. Whereas, USA, Japan, S-Korea, Australia has banned Huawei
from 5G services.
5. USA decided to go for FR-2 for the reason that Huawei has no competence in that range of
frequency.
6. Huawei is known for its proximity will the Chinese govt. & above that 2014 Counter espionage
Law & 2017 National Intelligence law have left no doubt that the Chinese authority can ask
this company to share data when even they feel like.
7. 5G will be such a deeply embedded technology where all types of data can be collected in a
centralised manner that is the reason presence of Huawei has raised certain questions.
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8. For India, 5G will give long, term dividends if there is indigenisation of technology for e.g.,
Dept. of Telecom funded $34 million large scale 5G technology demonstrator at IIT Madras in
that other IITs along with Indian Institute of science also participated.
9. They developed the equipment’s for both the frequency ranges. Most of them were
indigenous for e.g., IIT Hyderabad developed the chip but for some reason it was not scaled
up.
10. Another issue is w.r.t spectrum pricing & spectrum availability, according to TRAI for 1 MHz
frequency the price is 492 crore. If an operator requires 100 MHz they have to sell around
49000 crores. Given the fact 2 out of 3 operators have reported massive losses (Vodafone 50k
crore, Airtel 23k crore).
Compare to S-Korea, Britain, the price of spectrum is 6 times in India.

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Dept. of Telecom has identified 3.3 to 3.6 GHz for 5G.

1. Out of that 25 MHz & 100 MHz for defence then only 175 MHz is left. Which will not be enough
to have quality 5G services.
2. In the period of 2020-2035 the global 5G industrial change will contribute 3.5 trillion dollars.
To capture $1 trillion we need to create an ecosystem, incentivise investment, then only
targets like India moving in top 50 countries in ICT development Index of ITU & digital
communication sector to contribute 8% of the GDP can be achieved.

Data Localisation

1. Data has been defined as a new oil.

2. It is expected to play the same role in 4 th industrial revolution what electricity played in the

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3rd industrial revolution.
3. Many countries have take initiatives for data localisation like CLOUD Act of USA (clarifying
lawful overseas use of data act), Crime Overseas Prevention Order Act of U.K. GDPR of
European union.

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4. In India many initiatives have been taken recently to ensure data localisation i.e., e-commerce
policy which has incentivised the storage of data in India.
5. Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1945 was amended which has mandated that the portal of the e-
pharmacies should be within the boundaries of the country, RBI circular for keeping one copy
of the data of the financial transactions within the country.
6. Data localisation implies storing the details within the national boundaries.

It has its pros and cons

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The positive aspects are:

1. It will boost the creations of digital infrastructure which is the essential step for having a digital
economy.
It will also create a sector for jobs.
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2. If data is stored locally then law enforcement will be easy.

3. The cost of law enforcement will reduce
4. The chance of foreign surveillance will be less.

The –ve side of the data localisation are:

1. In the era of globalisation speed & cost rather than national boundaries should determine the
flow of information.
2. Data might be stored locally what if the inscription keys are abroad.
3. If it is enforced in a rigid manner then the investor might suffer & they might run away.
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4. Indian companies are also going global if there is tit for tat than they will struggle to survive in
competitive markets.
5. Data localisation was recommended for the 1st time by B.N. Srikrishna Committee in the form
of personal data protection bill but the version which has been presented in parliament
fundamentally differ on the question of data mirroring rather the bill favours the MNCs as
they can transfer & process certain types of data abroad.

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The components of the bill are:

1. There will be data protection agency & data protection officers in the organisation.
2. There is personal data which has been trifurcated:
a. Non-sensitive personal data: Includes Aadhar, mobile no., blood group, e-mail, Etc.
b. Sensitive personal data: It includes financial detail, health, religious belief sexual
orientation etc.
c. Critical personal data: It will be defined by the govt. from time to time under no
circumstance it can moved abroad & processed abroad. Whereas sensitive personal data
can be taken abroad with the consent and can be processed with the permission of data
protection agency.
3. Govt. can ask the companies to share non personal data & govt. agencies have been exempted

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from the requirement of the consent when it comes to processing sensitive personal data.
4. This bill has a provision to authorises social networking sites to carry out user verification. This
has been objected by many civil night groups as it will lead to another Cambridge analytics
type of scandal.

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5. This bill has introduced right to forgotten i.e., individuals can ask media not to reveal certain
type of info. which hurts their image.
It goes against the freedom of media.
Right to forgotten is a concept embedded in EU system but not in USA.
6. This bill has introduced right to data portability i.e., the data fiduciary (the one who is
processing information) have to give the information in machine readable form to the data
principle.
7. It has also introduce right to correction & erase i.e., to get the things rectified & the removal
of the info.
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8. There is also right to consent means before collection & processing permission should be
obtained from data principle.
9. In case of major, violations the penalty is 4% of the global turnover or 15 crores whereas in
case of minor offences it is 2% or 5 crore. There could be imprisonment CEO for at least 3 yrs.
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