Blog @ NanoVic - Nanotechnology Blog

After experiencing my first proper snowfall in London, which oddly occurred just last week when we’re already halfway through spring and into daylight savings time, I spotted an article on New Scientist that may help in these types of icy conditions.

A French company called Eurovia has developed a thermochromic paint that changes colour when conditions are icy on roads. At temperatures below one degree centigrade the paint changes from transparent to a dark pink colour. The developers hope that this will help improve road safety and make gritting roads more efficient during icy weather.

The paint uses the property of thermochromism- the ability to change colour dependent on temperature. I’m sure a lot of people (myself included) are most familiar with thermochromism in gimmicky products like the hypercolour t-shirt fad of the 90s, or mood rings. The pigments that cause the colour shift are sensitive to UV radiation, so there will probably be more work needed to make the ice-detector paint more durable for road use.

Explay, an Israeli company, has created the world’s smallest projector.  The revolutionary nano-projector engine is small enough to fit inside your pocket or be embedded in your mobile device, allowing you to truly enjoy the big picture wherever you are.

The revolutionary laser based projection technology enables high-resolution images 20 times larger than the mobile device itself. Its unique battery-operated, nano-projector ensures an eye-safe, always focused superior quality, powerful projected image, elements essential for frequent usage by mobile product consumers.

The main benefits of the device are matchbox size; large screen projection from a small device; compact and light weight; low power consumption; high reliability and safe.  What a great idea especially as most people possess a mobile which goes wherever they do.  Would certainly cut down on the excess baggage of a large projector or forgetting to take it with you when you leave to give your presentation!

I have been reading with interest about a wiperless windshield.  Designed by Italian car designer, Leonardo Fioravanti of Pininfarina the ”Hidra” is a working prototype concept car.  The Hidra has an aerodynamic design and uses four layers to achieve this effect.

The top layer repels water and protects from the sun.  The second layer features “nano-dust” which pushes the dirt to the outer edges of the windshield.  This layer is activated by the third layer which senses the dust in the first place.  The last layer conducts electricity which keeps it all up and running.

Sounds like a great idea - although it mentions it will take around five years before it finds its way to the family car.  Would be good if they could create a completely self cleaning car, especially as here in Melbourne at the moment, we have plenty of dust gathering on our cars due to lack of rain and restrictions on washing them! 

Last week I wrote about how wearable nanotechnology may be able to help you charge your mobile phone.  This week I’ve found an example of how Nokia see nanoscience helping them make better communication technology.  A screen that folds up into a phone, which you can then strap around your wrist as a bracelet or watch.  It doesn’t exist yet, but this clip from the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre and the Nokia Research Centre does show a rather funky do-it-all gadget that I would definitely want to get a hold of if it was real.

Not wanting to just link to some blatant Nokia ad, the clip is worth it for showing how properties of nanostructures (for example superhydophobicity and their ability to stretch) could be applied to communication technology.

Eric Isaacs (Argonne National Laboratories, USA) got our brains ticking over at ICONN2008 with his presentation on the role of nanotechnology in energy creation. While we all know that solar energy is greatly underutilised, the problem is that currently its mode of collection is very inefficient - the best on record is 32% efficiency (at least 50% efficiency would be viable). In addition, solar energy is difficult to store. Using solar energy is therefore very expensive compared to more traditional sources of energy, such as petroleum. The Argonne National Laboratory is currently focussing on 3 main areas to improve the use of solar as an energy source:

1. photovoltaics (such as the use of nanobiohybrids for solar electric conversion);
2. solar fuel (exemplified by artificial photosynthesis);
3. solar thermal (by way of self-assembled nanoparticles).

Interestingly, Isaacs commented that unlike in the past, when companies like Bell Labs (where Isaacs was a past employee) were the primary drivers of socially-beneficial invention, these days the engine for fundamental innovation needs to come from a multi-tiered approach involving academia (ie government labs using tax-payers money), small business and medium-large scale industry. The challenge as I see it is to get all these groups aware of each other, and to work together to allow such collaborations to happen. Networking at conferences such as ICONN can only promote such opportunities. Entities such as Nanovic are also critical.

Researchers at Victoria’s Monash University have found a way to coat fibres with titanium dioxide nanocrystals, which break down food and dirt in sunlight, making natural fibres such as wool, silk, and hemp that will automatically remove food, grime, and even red-wine stains when exposed to sunlight.

Fibres are coated with a thin, invisible layer of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, four to five nanometers in size. Titanium dioxide, which is used in sunscreens, toothpaste, and paint, is a strong photocatalyst: in the presence of ultraviolet light and water vapour, it forms hydroxyl radicals, which oxidize, or decompose, organic matter. These nanocrystals however, cannot decompose wool and are harmless to skin, and moreover, the coating does not change the look and feel of the fabric.

Titanium dioxide can also destroy pathogens such as bacteria in the presence of sunlight by breaking down the cell walls of the microorganisms, which could make self-cleaning fabrics especially useful in hospitals and other medical settings.

I always like seeing what products are around using nanotechnology. This one caught my eye - laser safety goggles with an anti-fog insert which avoids fogging even “under extreme conditions”. It even claims you could take them jogging although I think one might look a bit silly running around in safety goggles!

The anti-fog insert is a plastic sheet coated with nanoparticles that absorbs humidity and avoids saturation of the air with water vapour. Consequently, a sequestration of water and therewith a fogging of the goggle is impossible.

I wonder if these inserts would work on normal glasses? I always have trouble when opening the hot oven as my glasses fog up and I can’t see. This makes life a little dangerous especially when carrying a hot roast! Perhaps it might be easier to make glass lenses incorporating this feature - may be there are some already out there? Another great feature would be lenses that repelled water as it is a little difficult to see in the rain - guess I don’t ask for much!

Of course much of nano is organic in the chemical sense, but now it’s deemed not to be in the way that most people associate the word.  The British Soil Association certifies things as being ‘organic’ in the UK.  It is an increasingly valuable label for products as consumers are increasingly concerned about the ethical and environmental consequences of their purchases, are prepared to pay a premium for organic.   

The soil association are the first regulating body to ban nanoparticles, in line with their ethos of ‘protecting human health’.  The ban will apply to health and beauty products and also food and technology.

Whilst they admit that nanotechnology may have enormous benefits they maintain that currently there is not enough known about their safety, drawing the comparison to GM foods.  Policy manager Gundula Azeez said, ‘As we saw with GM, the government is ignoring the initial indications of risk and giving the benefit of the doubt to commercial interest rather than the protection of human health.’  This is a worry given the enormous backlash that GM faced.  I hope that nanotechnology will benefit from a scientific community that has learned from the mistakes of the past and know that firstly thorough research into health and safety, but also public engagement, honesty and transparency, and a healthy debate about the implications is the best way to avoid the marketing nightmare that occurred with GM food. 

It’s a question that got a lot of attention at a Royal Institution event at Science Oxford on Thursday night. It was interesting to hear some of the responses to a talk by Alexis Vlandis, a nanotechnology researcher and member of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility.

A number of people expressed their concerns over potential safety and toxicity issues raised by nanotechnology. As Alexis pointed out, at this stage we don’t even know if nanotechnologies pose a toxicity risk, as risk implies that properties of the material are understood, after all toxicity doesn’t stop industry safely using thousands of toxic chemical compounds. At this stage the largest worry is in the uncertainty, and the lack of research going into this area.

So how do we deal with this? A few people said that they would like products to be labelled to contain nanomaterials. This was contentious though, some people agreeing that labelling informs the consumer, allowing them to make a choice, whereas others debated that labelling would only lead to confusion and does not address safety issues. I would tend to agree with Alexis, who pointed out that you would like to assume that any product for sale is safe, it shouldn’t be up to the consumer to have to make a decision about that by looking at a label.

What do you think? How meaningful would a label such as ‘contains nanoparticles’ be to consumers? Does labelling imply risk? Why should we care if they are labelled or not if they are safe? For more on labelling check out here on the NanoVic site.

Just as we’ve all (hopefully) finally made the switch to energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs, researchers at the University of Glasgow have announced a way of utilising LEDs for household lighting.

LEDs are currently used in computers and mobile phones and are significantly more energy efficient, but because of the way they are designed they trap a lot of light, and have not been bright enough for household lighting uses. However, by creating microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs, more light can escape resulting in a brighter light for no more energy consumption. But the process is costly and inefficient.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have used nanoimprint lithography to create the holes, which can be done on billions of LEDs for much lower cost. LEDs also last far longer than even current energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.