Table Of ContentChristian Ngô
Marcel Van de Voorde
Nanotechnology
in a Nutshell
From Simple
to Complex Systems
Nanotechnology in a Nutshell
Christian Ngô Marcel Van de Voorde
•
Nanotechnology
in a Nutshell
From Simple to Complex Systems
Christian Ngô MarcelVan deVoorde
Edmonium Faculty ofApplied Sciences
Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse DELFTUniversity ofTechnology
France The Netherlands
ImageCourtesyH.DAWSON,Ch.ABERG,M.MONOPOLI,UniversityCollegeDublin(Ireland).Thepictureon
thecoverpageofthebookrepresent:Nanoparticleproteincoronaengagingwithacellularreceptor.
ISBN 978-94-6239-011-9 ISBN 978-94-6239-012-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.2991/978-94-6239-012-6
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013953213
(cid:2)AtlantisPressandtheauthors2014
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Foreword
Science and technology are engines of progress in society. They are also of
increasinginteresttothegeneralpublic,consumers,andpolicymakers,inaddition
toscientistsandeconomists.NewgroundforsciencepolicywasbrokeninJanuary
2000, when the then President Clinton announced the National Nanotechnology
Initiativedrivenbya20-yearvision.Nanotechnologycurrentlyiswellrecognized
as a science and technology megatrend for the beginning of the twenty-first cen-
tury. This book aims to show where nanotechnology is now––transitioning to
complex systems and fundamentally new products—and communicates the soci-
etal promise of nanotechnology to specialists and the public.
All materials we see around us have a nanostructure that determines their
behavior.Becauseofnanotechnology—controlofmatterattheatomic,molecular,
andmacromolecularlevelswherespecificphenomenaenablenovelapplications—
majorindustriesandmedicinearechanging.Advancesatthenanoscaleareleading
to new understanding of nature and manmade things, and an increased ability to
restructure matter at the atomic and molecular levels. The multidisciplinary field
of nanotechnology has been expanding since 2000 in large public and private
programs around the world, reaching an annual global investment in 2012 of
approximately $20 billion.
Most of what has already made it into the marketplace is in the form of ‘‘First
Generation’’ products (passive nanostructures with steady behavior, such as coat-
ings,nanoparticles,nanowires,andbulknanostructuredmaterials).Manysmalland
large companies have ‘‘Second Generation’’ products (active nanostructures with
changing behavior during use, illustrated by transistors, amplifiers, targeted drugs
and chemicals, sensors, actuators, and adaptive structures) and embryonic ‘‘Third
Generation’’ products (nanosystems, including three-dimensional nanosystems
using various synthesis and assembling techniques such as bio-assembling;
nanoscalerobotics;networkingatthenanoscaleandmultiscalearchitectures;after
2010) in the pipeline. Concepts for ‘‘Fourth Generation’’ products, including het-
erogeneous molecular nanosystems, are only in research. Each generation of new
products is expected to include, at least partially as components, products from
previousgeneration.Thelaborandmarketsareestimatedtodoubleevery3years,
reachinga$3trillionmarketencompassing6millionjobsby2020ifoneassumes
thattheratesofincreaseinthelast12yearswouldcontinue.Nanotechnologyhas
thepromisetocreateabasicunderstandingandageneralpurposetechnologywith
v
vi Foreword
mass and sustainable use by 2020 (‘‘Nanotechnology Research Directions for
SocietalNeeds in2020’’,Springer, 2011, www.wtec.org/nano2/).
While expectations from nanotechnology may have been overestimated in the
short term, the long-term implications on health care, productivity, and the envi-
ronment appear to be underestimated. This volume will stimulate further interest
and bring faster societal recognition to nanotechnology and overall to emerging
technologies.
Mihail C. Roco
Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology
National Science Foundation
Arlington
USA
Reference
M. C. Roco, C. A. Mirkin, and M. C. Hersam, ‘‘Nanotechnology research and directions for
societalneedsin2020’’,Springer,2011
Presentation of the Book
It is rare for a new technology to transform all aspects of human activity. In
history, one can identify agriculture, the industrial revolution, and the advent of
personal computing as truly unprecedented advances.
In the twenty-first century, nanotechnology is predicted to provide the next
revolution. Nanotechnology spans all of our human activity, from agriculture,
medicineandfoodtoclothing,fromtransporttoindustrialprocesses.Itisnotjust
about the ability to understand and manipulate material at the nanoscale, it is the
wayinwhichanewtechnologywillbeusedtochangethewayproductsaremade
and to provide a step change in the functionality that they provide.
Nanotechnology has been a part of many commonplace products for hundreds
of years. Steel, concrete, adhesives, and cosmetics have all used nanoscale
mechanisms to achieve their properties, but developments have historically been
throughcraftskillsandtrial-and-errorratherthanthroughscienceandengineering.
Recent developments in experimental techniques that allow the study and
manipulation of materials at the nanoscale, coupled with novel manufacturing
techniques, mean that we are poised to be able to realize new properties and
functions that previously could not be achieved.
Onenanometer(nm)isonemillionthofamillimeter(mm)or/andabillionthof
ameter.Asamatterofcomparison,antsrangeinsizefrom2to25mmandared
bloodcellhasasizearound6,000–8,000nm.Ultimately,alllivingandinertmatter
is made of atoms, which have a dimension well below the nanometer range,
typically a diameter between 0.1 and 0.65 nm = 100 and 650 pm (1 pm =
picometer).Anatomismadeofelectronssurroundinganucleuswhosediameteris
even smaller: its size is about 1.8–15 millionths of a nanometer depending upon
theelement(1.8–18fm)!Table 1recallsthedifferentsubunitsusedaswegofrom
the visible macroscopic world to the microscopic world.
Ananometerisquiteasmalllengthscale.Inordertoimaginea1nmcompared
to 1 m ( = 109 nanometers) which is a billion larger, let us consider two large
distancesinoursolar system: thedistancefromtheearth tothemoon (*360,000
km) and the distance to the sun (*150 millions of km). If we shrink these
distances by a factor of 109 we get 36 cm for the first distance and 150 m for the
secondone.Theradiusofthesun(*696,000km)becomes69.6cmandthatofthe
earth (6,400 km) becomes equal to 6.4 mm. These comparisons show that a
vii
viii PresentationoftheBook
Table1 Unitsandsubunits
Unit Valueinmeter Valueinmeter
1m(meter) 1m 100m
1centimeter(cm) 0.01m 10-2m
1millimeter(mm) 0.001m 10-3m
1micrometerormicron(lm) 0.000001 10-6m
1nanometer(nm) 0.000000001 10-9m
1picometer(pm) 0.000000000001 10-12m
1femtometer(fm) 0.000000000000001 10-15m
Fig.1 Dividingacubeinto
nanocubesincreasesthetotal
surfaceofthesystemalot
nanometerdistanceisquiteasmalldistancecomparedtothosewearefacedatthe
macroscopic level.
Compared with macroscopic systems, surface effects are very important at the
nanoscale. The reason for this can be illustrated by considering a cube of side 1
cm, as shown in Fig. 1. The total surface area of this cube is six faces each of
dimensions 1 9 1 cm, making a total of 6 cm2. Suppose we divide this cube into
small cubes of side 1 nm (Fig. 1). This gives the incredible number of 1021
nanocubeseachwithatinysurfaceareaof6910-14cm2.However,thetotalarea
of these nanocubes amounts to 6,000 meters squared! This corresponds to the
surface area of 60 houses of 100 m2. This demonstrates the power of surfaces at
the nanoscale.
Strictly speaking, nanotechnology should concern building objects from the
bottom-upusing atoms or molecules. It also makes possiblea top-down approach
ofreducingsizeandorganizationfromthemacroscopicscale.Howeverthisvision
isextendedtoabroaderdomainwhereitispossibletoobserve,see,detect,move,
andmanufacture objectswithdimensionsintherangeof1–100nm.Thisismuch
lessrestrictiveandopensawidefieldofapplications,someofthembeingalready
on the market.
PresentationoftheBook ix
Fig. 2 Illustration with objects of different length scale and instruments that can be used to
observethem
On the other hand, ‘‘nanomaterials’’ is a term used to describe a broad and
disparate range of materials containing characteristic features with dimensions
below 100nm.Itis thepropertiesofthese individual nanoscalefeaturesandtheir
organization both at the nanoscale and up to the macroscale that will define the
properties of nanomaterial. These features can be organized in random or well-
ordered patterns. Confusingly, a ‘‘nanomaterial’’ can be of macroscopic size
containing many nano-objects but it can also be an individual object investigated
asamaterialatthenanoscale.Ananomaterialcanbeathinfilm,athinwire,ora
collectionofnanoparticles,forexample.Ananomaterialisoftencharacterizedby
a dimension linked either to the dimension of the salient nanofeatures making up
thematerialortotheirorganization.Whensomeinterestingpropertyofamaterial
emergesfromthisorganizationorpattern,thecombinedmaterialmay bereferred
to as a ‘‘nanostructure’’ or a ‘‘nanostructured material’’.
The term ‘‘nanomaterials’’ is used to describe objects that have at least one of
their dimensions below 100 nm. Nanomaterials encompass a very broad and
disparate range of natural and artificial materials. In practice, they can have the
formofathinfilm,cylinder,orparticle.Neitherasinglehumanhair,whichlooks
likeacylinderbuthasadiameterofabout80,000nm,noraredcell,canbecalled
nano-objects, even though they look very small.
Figure2showsdifferentlengthscales,eachseparatedbyafactorof1,000,with
different objects and the instruments that can be used to see details of the object.
Forexample,thesizeofmountainsisoftheorderofseveralkilometersand,ifwe
are far away, we use binoculars to observe their details. Most humans have a
heightbelow2mandwecanseethemjustwithoureyesifwearecloseby.Insects
can have a size of a few millimeters or centimeters: they can be observed with a
magnifyingglass.Redblood cells have asizeofafewthousands nanometersand
can be observed with a light microscope. Finally, silicon wires of an integrated
x PresentationoftheBook
Fig. 3 Nanotechnology deals with nanoscale dimensions (1–100 nm). It is a domain at the
crossroadsbetweenthemacroscopicdomaingovernedbyclassicalphysics,andthemicroscopic
domaingovernedbyquantumphysics
circuit (IC) with a transversal size of several nanometers can be seen with a
scanning tunneling microscope. Indeed, to emphasize how the instruments for
observing nanomaterials get large and complicated but are becoming more
available, so it will revolutionize the field.
Objects withasizegreaterthanabout100nmarecurrentlyobservedandhave
been studied for decades. Atoms and molecules with dimensions well below a
single nanometer are investigated, but indirectly by means of their interactions
withotherobjects.Itisonlyrecentlythatscientistshavehadthetoolstomoveand
manufacturenano-objectsintherangeof1–100nm.Theinterestingthingisthatat
this length scale, we are at a crossroads between classical and quantum physics
(Fig. 3). Compared with macroscopic objects that have a behavior governed
mostly by the classical laws of physics, quantum effects can appear at the
nanoscaleandareabletocompletelychangesomeofthepropertiesofobjectsthat
we are used to.
A direct consequence of such a surface increase is that if we paint an object
with a coating containingnanoparticles, the opacity is greatly enhanced; meaning
that less paint is needed for a given area. This is also good for the environment
because it reduces pollution and the quantity of raw materials needed to
manufacture paint. The same is also true when pesticides are applied in
agriculture, for example.
Another feature occurring as the dimension of a system that reaches the
nanoscaledomainistheappearanceofquantumeffectsthatchangesomephysical
effects. The drawback is that it may happen that the function of a device can no
longer be performed as the dimensions of the components are now too small.
However, the good thing is an opening up of other fields of applications and
functionalities such as electron transistors, Coulomb blockade, and quantum
cryptography, with new phenomena.
Working with nanomaterials and nanocomponents demands for high expertise
and complex and expensive equipment. Figure 4 shows the infrastructure of a
nanoelectronics laboratory.
The twenty-first century will see huge developments in the nanotechnology
domainandalargenumberofapplicationswillbeevidentinthemarketplace.This
development is likely to be ongoing, proceeding by steps. Predicted generational
steps in the development of nanotechnology are displayed in Fig. 5.
