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Newsletter Early December 2006

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RESEARCH NEWS

		Carbon Nanotube Cutlery Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) have designed a carbon nanotube knife that, in theory, would work like a tight-wire cheese slicer. In a paper presented this month at the 2006 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, the research team announced a prototype nanoknife that could, in the future, become a tabletop tool of biology, allowing scientists to cut and study cells more precisely than they can today.

		TU Delft Shines Light on an Atomic Transistor Researchers from TU Delft and the FOM Foundation (Fundamental Matter Research) have successfully measured transport through a single atom in a transistor. This research offers new insights into the behaviour of so-called dopant atoms in silicon. The researchers are able to measure and manipulate a single dopant atom in a realistic semiconducting environment. The individual behaviour of dopant atoms is a stumbling block to the further miniaturisation of electronics.

		'Nanorust' Cleans Arsenic from Drinking Water The discovery of unexpected magnetic interactions between ultrasmall specks of rust is leading scientists at Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) to develop a revolutionary, low-cost technology for cleaning arsenic from drinking water. The technology holds promise for millions of people in India, Bangladesh and other developing countries where thousands of cases of arsenic poisoning each year are linked to poisoned wells.

		New Techniques Pave Way for Carbon Nanotubes in Electronic Devices Many of the vaunted applications of carbon nanotubes require the ability to attach these super-tiny cylinders to electrically conductive surfaces, but to date researchers have only been successful in creating high-resistance interfaces between nanotubes and substrates. Now a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute reports two new techniques, each following a different approach, for placing carbon nanotube patterns on metal surfaces of just about any shape and size.

NANOTECH IN ACTION

Research Helps Industry Make Stronger, Lighter and Cheaper Alloys
Car engines that consume less energy and can keep running on low oil, lead-free plumbing fixtures and tanks that are light enough to be airlifted, but are just as rugged as the much heavier varieties. They sound futuristic, but these products are already realities thanks to materials that stretch the limits of performance. Called cast metal matrix composites (MMCs), they are cheaper, lighter and stronger than their original alloys. In fact, an aluminIum-based MMC developed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) can replace iron-based alloys.

Nanotech Water Desalination Membrane
Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science today announced they have developed a new reverse osmosis (RO) membrane that promises to reduce the cost of seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation. Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination uses extremely high pressure to force saline or polluted waters through the pores of a semi-permeable membrane. Water molecules under pressure pass through these pores, but salt ions and other impurities cannot, resulting in highly purified water.

GENERAL NEWS

Survey: Lay Thinking About Nanotechnologies and What Follows From It
Citizens are critically positive in their attitudes to nanotechnology. This is shown by a survey carried out by TA-SWISS, the Centre for Technology Assessment. The potential benefits for medicine, the environment and life’s amenities are today held in high regard. But most people say they are unwilling to buy nanotech products unquestioningly. Information and declaration are important to them.

Breaking the Nanometer Barrier in X-ray Microscopy
Argonne National Laboratory scientists in collaboration with Xradia have created a new X-ray microscope technique capable of observing molecular-scale features, measuring less than a nanometre in height. Combining X-ray reflection together with high resolution X-ray microscopy, scientists can now study interactions at the nanometre-scale which often can exhibit different properties and lead to new insights. Improving our understanding of interactions at the nanoscale holds promise to help us cure the sick, protect our environment and make us more secure.

ICON Issues Review of Nanotechnology Practices
The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) today issued a comprehensive review of existing efforts to develop “best practices” for handling nanomaterials in the workplace. The work was performed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) as part of a two-phase project to catalogue how industry is managing the potential occupational safety risks posed by nanomaterials.

PRODUCTS

FEI Expands Helios NanoLab Family for Semi Market
The FEI Company will expand its top-of-the-line Helios NanoLab™ family of DualBeams when it introduces the Helios NanoLab 400 and 400S systems next week at SEMICON Japan. Combining advanced focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies in a highly-integrated and easy-to-use platform, the Helios NanoLab family of tools will provide semiconductor manufacturers with a complete range of advanced high-resolution solutions for their analytical labs.

New Automated Atomic Force Microscope: The Nanosurf^® Nanite AFM
Nanoscience Instruments announces the release of the Nanosurf^® Nanite automated Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Innovators and makers of the most compact and easy-to-use AFMs on the market, Swiss-based Nanosurf AG, have applied their inventive designs to the challenge of automated multiple measurements—the result, a new easy to use AFM that provides true walk-away time. The Nanite is designed for use in a variety of nanoscale surface analysis applications ranging from coatings, polymers, fabrics and fibres—to semiconductors, wafers, optical and holographic surfaces, and data storage.

PATENTS

New Patent Expands Nanogen's Core Nanotechnology Position
Nanogen, Inc. developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it has been granted United States Patent No. 7,060,224 from the US Patent and Trademark Office for an application of its core technology in nanofabrication and nanomanufacturing. Potential uses of the technology range from further miniaturisation of the company’s microarray testing platforms to potential applications in integrated electronics and photonics, photovoltaics, fuel cells and batteries.

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