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---------------- 2621 - NANOTECHNOLOGY - in quantum mechanics.?
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- Nanotechnology will dramatically change your life in the coming years. Nanotechnology is engineering using the science of quantum mechanics. Quantum Mechanics got started in 1905, 115 years ago , with Einstein and Heisenberg.
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- Nano refers to the nanometer which is 10^-9 meters. How small is a nanometer?
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------------------------- Six foot man = 1,000,000,000 nanometers
------------------------- Pentium computer chip = 1,000,000
------------------------- Blood cell = 30,000
------------------------- Quantum dot = 100
------------------------- Carbon nanotubes = 10
------------------------- Single molecule = 1
------------------------- Between atoms = 0.2
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- An integrated circuit works on dimensions of 50 nanometers. A single transistor on that IC could be three materials, barium, yttrium, copper containing 150, 100, and 45 atoms respectively. Less than 300 atoms in the IC’s transistor digital switch.
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- The statistical behavior of that switch is no longer classical electronics. Statistical behavior shows the switch to be no longer 100% predictable. Quantum Mechanics must be taken this into account. There is a randomness inherent in the IC transistor that results in 10% noise on the signal. Electrical engineering must now deal with these uncertainties in their designs.
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- Quantum Mechanics is also needed in mechanical engineering at the nano level. It is an important part of solid state physics. Rigid crystal lattice at the nanotechnology level encounters quantized vibrations called phonons.
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- There is a natural resonance in all solid things. Each part of the lattice oscillates at the same resonant frequency, like a tuned coil, or tuning fork. Phonons are the collective oscillations that appear, caused by the spring like forces that hold atoms together.
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- Classical mechanics would analyze this as a normal wave like mode. But, at smaller and smaller dimensions quantum mechanics encounters a wave- particle duality. The particle phenomena is called the phonon. At the smallest level phonons are bosons possessing a zero spin.
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- The phonon vibrations are a form of energy. If we could capture this energy we could power a whole building with its own vibrations. Here is some of the energy that is around us every day waiting to be used:
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------------------------- The sunlight outside 15,000 milliwatts / centimeter^3
------------------------- Building vibrations 200
------------------------- Temperature variations 40
------------------------- Pressure variations 17
------------------------- The sunlight inside 10
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- Every building will have a low resonance frequency of vibration due to wind, pressure, and temperature variations. It should be possible to design nanotechnology piezoelectric devices into the structure that would use these vibrations to generate electricity.
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- Piezoelectric devices have the ability to generate a voltage when mechanical force is applied. Today they are used in crystal oscillators and microphones.
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- In 1975 when I first helped move Hewlett Packard into the Fountaingrove buildings we had the IC facility on the top floor. The buildings natural vibrations at 60 hertz drove technicians crazy who had to work under a 600 power microscope all day.
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- We ended up moving the whole production line down to the bottom floor. Then taking a cement saw cutting a line around the entire perimeter separating the cement slab from the building columns. The basement slab was then floating on sand and the vibrations disappeared. Wouldn’t that have been nice to use the power in those vibrations to power the entire building and cut the line to PG&E instead?
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- Nanotechnology will show up in buckyballs, carbon nanotubes, nano- crystalline diamonds, DNA, cell membranes, nano-frictionless bearings, thermo-electricity, silicon wire, magnetic switches, and more. Memory storage using nanotechnology will provide memory storage of 400 gigabytes/inch^2. That is compared to a compact disk at 8000 rpm storing 4 gigabytes today.
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- Buckyballs are fullerenes, microscopic spheres of 60 atoms of pure carbon in a sphere like structure that resembles a geodesic dome. The other forms of pure carbon fullerenes we are more familiar with are graphite and diamonds. The carbon spherical molecule is hollow inside and can actually cage another element or molecule. Spherical fullerenes are called buckyballs.
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- Cylindrical fullerenes are called nanotubes. Binding specific antibiotics inside these structures could deliver medicine to a specific bacteria or even a certain cancer cell such as melanoma. Look to see these fullerenes in medicines, in lubricants for miniature motors, in rechargeable batteries and in high-strength materials.
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- Nanotubes can be a few nanometers in diameter and several centimeters in length. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties and efficiency in conducting heat.
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- The quantum dot is a semiconductor nano-crystal a few nanometers across. These dots confine electrons into discrete quantized energy levels and electric charge. It has been suggested that these dots could be made into qubits for quantum information processing. This would allow terabytes/inch^2 or computer memory.
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- You could carry around an Iphone holding all the movies, in all the languages that have every been made, for all of time. Nanotechnology uses the science of Quantum Mechanics and it is destined to significantly change our future.
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- Nano means 10^-9 meters, or 1 billionth of a meter. It is the technology that works with the very small, as small as the atomic level.
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- Working with nanomaterials engineers are already putting nanotechnology into consumer products such as:
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------------ Adhesives
------------ Lubricants
------------ Abrasives
------------ Manufactured Devices
------------ Surface treatments
------------ Architectural Surfaces
------------ Adhesives
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- Engineers can produce a semiconductor device by painting a liquid carrier onto a piece of glass. This device outperforms a similar crystal-based device. The whole process is very low cost manufacturing.
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- Engineers are using nanotechnology to improve groundwater. Nanomaterials pumped into the ground water is used to convert hazardous chemicals into benign products like ethane and butane.
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- Nanotechnology inherently has an advantage due to its vastly increased ratio of surface area to volume.
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- Nanotechnology will be in faster computers and advanced data storage, improved skin care and pharmaceuticals, nerve and tissue repair, catalysts, sensors and magnetic materials
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- Solar today cost $.20 per kilowatt. It only cost $.05 to $.10 per kilowatt to buy it from the electric utilities. Advances in plastic solar cells using nanotechnology will bring solar costs down to less than utilities by 2020. Hydrogen fuel cells will be contenders as alternative electrical sources as well.
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- Japan expects that half of all its homes will be solar powered by 2030. Japan already has 20% of the worldwide solar cell market. Germany currently has the greatest number of solar cells in use, 57% of the world market. The United States has 10%.
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- Some US firms are still in the forefront of solar nanotechnology: Nanosolar Inc, Palo Alto, California, claims to have the world’s most cost efficient solar cell. Nanosys Inc, also in Palo Alto, have developed thin-film solar cells from nano-structures using lightweight flexible plastic substrates.
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- HelioVolt Corporation, Austin, Texas uses a heated template to “print” the crystalline lattice structures into the thin film. Konarka Technologies, Lowell, Massachusetts, are printing organic chemical solar cells onto flexible polymer substrates similar to processing photographic film. These flexible solar cells could eventually get woven into our clothing providing heat or air conditioning from solar energy.
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- Konarka is developing a portable electric generating tent for the military. A flexible polymer coating on the outside turns the tent into an electricity generator for the equipment housed within it. The material can also be screen printed for camouflage.
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- With sticker shock at the gas pumps and solar being a clean renewable energy source economics is all that is left to be overcome. When prices drop solar will take off as the commercial energy alternative of choice. Politics is probably the only hurdle left. Politicians do not believe in economics unless it greases their hand.
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--------------------------------- See other Reviews available:
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- 1987 - nanotechnology from chemistry to biology. - Nanotechnology from Chemistry to Biology. The computer technology is advancing into smaller and smaller architectures. Where is the limit? What are new alternatives that can extend past the limit?
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- 1230 - Nanotube weirdness of the very small.
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- 851 - The nanotube radio.
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- 627 - about nanowire solar cells.
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- February 15, 2020 664 574 2621
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