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Nanotechnology: Shaping Our Future. “Biotechnology’s opportunities and problems”, Editors: Ulf Gorman, Carl-Gustaf Andrén and Goran Hermerén
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Bengt Kasemo
History, motivations, trends, opportunities and problems
Introduction
Many scientists believe that within the next 20 years will experience rapid and sensitive community development in three mutually interacting areas: The first, which is based on silicon technology, information technology.
It has already had an impact on our daily lives. Biotechnology and Molecular Biology is the second area, which is just about to have its real impact. Third, as discussed here, is nanoscience and nanotechnology (N & N), sometimes called atomic crafts. These science and technology evolve first separately, but are also linked and mutually reinforcing.
They will continue to change both our daily lives and our working lives and also create a number of ethical challenges and issues regarding the safety and risks.
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is a science of society’s so-called primary “Slogans” right now, the class of stem cell technology, genetic engineering, proteomics, etc. All developed countries have N & nthat high priority areas in their research strategies. President Bill Clinton announced in January 2000, his famous “National Nanotechnology Initiative: Leading to the Next Industrial Revolution”.
Similar efforts have been made, or made in Japan and other major industrialized countries. Even smaller countries the size of Sweden, for example, Holland, has declared the research and development strategies in the field. Norway launched in autumn 2006 its national nanotechnology strategy (the author of this article had the privilege of chairing the Working Group). Sweden lacks an explicit singularly N & N’s strategy. It does not mean that there is no research in N & N in Sweden – it is contrary both comprehensive and excellent, it is integrated in a number of research programs and projects with other titles and axes. If the latter is good or bad is difficult to determine – it will tell. A negative effect of this “integrated approach” is that safety and ethical aspects has received less attention in Sweden than in countries with a national nanotechnology strategy. To understand why the N & N has such a bullish right now we need to look in the mirror and see what the driving forces behind these efforts.
In parallel with the pure science and technology initiatives in N & N, which is made with the hope that they will provide financial and social exchanges, the area has also received considerable attention in the social sciences and humanities. The latter is an interesting and remarkable phenomenon, which mainly initiated by Eric Drexler Book1 Engines of Creation: The coming era of nanotechnology, and Michael Crichtons2 Prey. These science fiction ESCRIPTION, based on the N & N, generated both debate and set the imagination as to what
N & N could give rise to in the future. In the ensuing debate grew eventually field Nano Ethics presented as a separate research area, with a prominent place both in the national N & N policy, the EU’s 5th and 6th Framework Programme and the newly launched 7th Framework Programme.
In this article I give only a background to how the N & N emerged and the driving forces behind, and exemplifies succinctly what the N & N is scientifically and describes some of their applications.
Then I give a brief introduction to some of the ethical aspects and safety and risk aspects of N & N is associated with.
What is nanoscience and nanotechnology?
From radio tubes to transistors into computer chips
After a summer in the late 50′s I bought my first radio set – a so-called transistor radio. It was based on a pioneering, Nobel prize-winning invention more than a decade earlier at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, just outside New York City. The radios I had seen had a number of radio tubes (Fig. 1), who ran on the radio, which was picked up by the antenna, could be strengthened and transformed into sound through the speakers. These radio tubes was ingenious small vacuum chamber in which electrons were used for signal amplification and conversion. They were at least a few inches high, sometimes more than four inches high.
Shape our future nanotechnology
Figure 1. Before the micro-electronics (radio tubes).
Figure 2. The first transistor, about 2 cm high (December 1947).
Figure 3. Intel’s 90 nm technology based
transistors with only 50 nm length. These CMOS transistors is in production since August 2002.
They took a lot of space and utilized a lot of energy.
The transistor radio was replaced radio tubes of small intricately designed pieces of solid matter, in this case silicon. These Nobel Prize-winning transistors did the electrons in a similar profession in vacuum tubes. The great advantage was that the transistors (Fig. 2) both were much smaller and faster than radio tubes, and required much less energy for signal processing
and reinforcement compared with radio tubes, and was enormously expensive to manufacture.
Over the next ten years, they also learned to make many smaller such transistors on the surface of a single silicon wafer. The planar silicon technology and integrated circuit technology (also Nobel prize winning, but much later) was born. Now you could do both transistors
and other electrical components, resistors, diodes, capacitors, etc.. directly on the silicon surface.
You could also deposit on the surface of the extremely thin wires, of a few tenths of a millimeter to a few micro-meters wide, which was needed to interconnect the various components of electrical circuits, for massive and rapid calculations, memory functions and data storage. This is the essence of microelectronics, which today has revolutionized our daily, private and professional, life in the form of computers, cell phones, industrial controllers and
a variety of consumer electronics.
While the first discrete transistors were several millimeters in size, today’s smallest transistors only a few tenths of a micron-sized (Fig. 3). This means that we can add more than a thousand transistors in a row before they fill up a length of 1 mm or 100 millions transistors on a surface of a postage stamp size. It is this incredible tätpackning of microelectronics components and their speed, which makes our small computer chip can cope with huge amounts of processing steps and calculations per second and storing large amounts of data.
Nanoelectronics born in microelectronics seemed to go to the wall
Calculation ability and tätpackningen of components has been increasing steadily in our computer chips over several decades, in a surprisingly steady rate, sometimes referred to as Moore’s law (Fig. 4). Persons with knowledge of and responsibility for development in the area has, however, quite long feared and warned that current technology will “go to the wall”, and that shaping our future
(I got no pictures HERE)
growth rate of performance will thus be reduced. The reason is that the utilized technology has an inherent limitation, as fears make it impossible to produce such transistors, which is substantially less than about one tenth of a micron (I’ll be back with exemplification of how big a micron is). So far, however, development engineers and scientists are continually surprised by pushing performance and sizes beyond what
was thought possible a decade ago. There is still a restriction, which partly has to do with the production technology and with the properties of matter change when it is composed of sufficiently few atoms. The difficult question is whether and when in the future this limitation occurs, and if so, what new technologies that will be used. Just recently (Jan. 2007) reported that Intel made the move from 90 nm technology to 45 nm technology, which is considered a tremendous success, which again means that the development will follow Moore’s Law several years.
The thoughts of researchers and technicians has gone in new directions. Can and do we need to find new ways to make transistors even smaller? Can we invent electronic components, which are based on entirely different principles than today’s microelectronics, which takes up much less space, requires less energy, and are at least as good at performing mathematical processes and stores data that today’s microchip? On the laboratory scale is such today demonstrations of so-called an electron components in which a single electron is a signal or a “memory”, and these components are down to the level of 10 nm or less.
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(I DID NOT WITH THE PICTURE HERE)
Figure 4. Moore’s Law.
Spin-off from microelectronics
Early in microelectronics development was realized that the highly advanced process technology used to manufacture computer chips could be used for completely different purposes. One example is the manufacture of very small micro-mechanical components, such as thin membrane, which acts as a pressure sensor or gears, which can be used in micro-machines, or extremely thin ‘tongues’ which is bent under the action of a few biomolecules and can be used as biosensors.
Another example is extremely small chemical reactors (nanoliter, picoliter, or even smaller volumes) or separation columns which are etched out of silicon using the same technique, used for transistor manufacture. A third example, chemical sensors, which are manufactured under similar as micro-electronic chip, and can detect various chemical substances, even in complex mixtures.
The examples can be multiplied, and we can successfully correct to say that microelectronics has generated a whole host of new micro-technology in its wake, which revolutionized the possibilities for miniaturization and increased functional density in all technology areas. We can speak about a new technology area, micro-technology, where microelectronics is that the most important subset.
Gradually there was then a shift to even less known nano-devices, which created yet another new science and technology fields, which, because of the small dimensions, where one nanometer is a suitable length of the unit, known as nanoscience and nanotechnology (nano will
from the Greek word for dwarf).
Nanoscience and nanotechnology are far from the only electronics
The developments I have outlined above in microelectronics – that is, that it was judged to be about to “go to the wall” in terms of further miniaturization – was one of the key drivers that we call today the N & N emerged. However, it was not the only one. The development was driven by parallel developments in other science and technology.
shaping our future (I got no pictures HERE)
One example is the extremely rapid development in molecular biology and biotechnology, as in “marriage” with N & Nledde until nanobioteknologin. A concrete example is medical implants.
In order to implant surface to react optimally to water, proteins and cells in the bioliquids meets the implant when it is surgically inserted, it must have a combination of chemical and topographic ytmönstring, which fits biovätskans components of both nano-and
micro scale.
Another example from the biomedical field are biosensors and biochips. They are based on the principle that a “detector molecule”, eg a strand of DNA or an antibody, placed on a micro-or nanometer-sized stain on a surface, in order to “recognize” Matching molecules in an unknown sample. On a biochip are many such spots into a pattern where each spot has its specific recognition molecule.
(In the future, perhaps even whole cells, or cultured tissue, to be used as input elements.) After the unknown sample is exposed to the diagnostic surface causes all input events, such as with candles, or use electric, magnetic or piezoelectric, etc.. readings. The number of such sensor spots, such as nano technology can produce extremely large. In an area of a postage stamp size will, if necessary, to place 10-100 millions of sensor spots (compare that number with our approximately 30 000 genes).
This huge analytical potential can actually create an ethical problem: how do you handle the enormous amount of information about a patient’s health status and health prognosis, which may be obtained by detailed mapping of both gene expression and protein signature of a person in a single test? Would the doctor know so much? Would the patient? Would health care system? What if the analytical and diagnostic capacity far exceeds the treatment options?
A perhaps less stark but no less important, area is materials science. It has a combination of theoretical calculations, advanced materials synthesis at the atomic level and new methods for material analysis and material synthesis with atomic precision, leading to new
materials and material combinations with new performance, such as much stronger and lighter materials over traditional materials.
So-called carbon nanofibres are expected to provide new materials with superior electrical and mechanical performance. In energy technology, new solutions for the capture of solar energy, photovoltaics, offered. Within industrial production, new catalysts for efficient production of chemical products and food, and sensors for efficient process control,
that can both help lower energy consumption and smaller amounts of harmful emissions.
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Miniatyriseringssprånget
This development means that we now face another miniatyriseringssprång, who will probably be at least as dramatic effects as silicon microelectronics had on the economy, society and personal life. There is no bringing about this entry into the small world, and the related science and technology development, giving rise to the slogan which is repeated today across the world and known as nanoscience and nanotechnology.
It lies behind the massive new research program at the outset, and that President Clinton announced in 2000. The program involves funding of $ 450,000,000 only for the first year and the investment has grown since then, including driven
of the massive investment in methods to detect and deter terrorist threats after the September 11 attacks. The EU has in its Seventh Framework further accentuated the focus on nanotechnology. There is hardly any natural science or technical field which is not involved in the venture, and will thus very likely that in the future affect the industrial and economic development.
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is often mentioned together. They have slightly different content and meaning, but the border is diffuse. Nanoscience is an amalgamation of various disciplines with the common denominator to deal with aggregates of atoms and molecules in size between approximately 100-100 nanometers. These sciences include basic studies of the properties and processes at this length scale, with inorganic, organic and biological materials and components.
The delineation of such Molecular biology is often diffuse, but in most cases, nanoscience any component of the synthetic (nano-fabricated) materials. You can not exactly determine where the boundaries lie between the nano and micro. An important factor is where the
shrinking length scale gives rise to distinctly new phenomenon, which is not observed in macroscopic materials and samples. Some of the major scientific areas in which nanoscience is to use the micro-electronics, materials science, surfaces, inorganic and organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, optics and laser technology and manufacturing of scientific instruments.
Nanotechnology is the technology that uses advances in nanoscience and aimed toward building components, products and systems with new and better performance than their conventional counterparts. Nanotechnology is a so-called “Enabling technology”, which affects
of technology in the long run.
shaping our future (I got no pictures HERE)
How big is nano-components?
When one tries to define a size scale of nanoscience and nanotechnology, you probably find that the N & N is about specific functional structures in the size range of 100-100 or a few hundred nanometers. A nanometer means one billionth of a meter, ie. a millionth of a millimeter. Figure 5 shows how one usually defines the N & N, and shows some examples of structures of different sizes.
For us to get a rough idea of nanotechnology, size range, I use both a millimeter, and the diameter of a hydrogen atom correlation measurements. The hydrogen atom is ten million times smaller than a millimeter. The size of 100 nm, which is often referred to as the approximate upper limit of the N & N (Fig. 5), is the length we get if we slice up an inch of tens of thousands parts. The smallest transistor, which I mentioned earlier, is slightly larger than one disc and is about one hundredth of the thickness of human hair. The lower limit, as
I indicated to 1 nm, is in turn a hundredth so long and so very, very small. This is where we need the hydrogen atom as a yardstick.
1 nm is the length we get if we add ten hydrogen atoms in a row and 100 nm is therefore a thousand hydrogen atoms in a row. So we have now circled our nanotechnology size to approximately movement of structures with dimensions from tens of atoms in length (1 nm) to one-hundredth of a human hair thickness (100 nm).
The proteins in our body, or proteins that we call them in everyday speech, is a perfect example of structures that fall within that range, the smallest proteins is about 1 nm and the maximum around 100 nm.
Another example is the cell membrane, which surrounds every living cell, and that is only 50-10 nm thick. Despite its thin wall of the cell membrane regulates all traffic between the cell interior and exterior, and thus the entire life span. The cell itself is much larger, about 10 microns, or about one hundred times larger than the limit we have defined for the N & Nområdet.
The functions of the cell is controlled by proteins, DNA, cell membrane and so on., Which are all located in the area defined as nanotechnology.
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In nanobiotechnology included, inter alia, the area of nanotechnology, which combines biological substances in nanotechnology size range of non-biological components of the same size area.
These also include nanotechnology components used to influence (eg cell differentiation) or read (eg biosensors) characteristics and processes of biological systems.
When will N & N to significantly affect the whole society?
N & N has already been very extensively as a research field in academia and the scope of microelectronics, and is today one of the key research fields in science and technology. They are completely cross-disciplinary.
It is virtually impossible to identify any scientific, medical or technical field which are not affected. For business and society in general, however, nanotechnology is still in its infancy. It is in the next 10-30 years as we gradually can expect new applications of N & N, in materials technology, environmental technology, energy technology, home and household appliances and many other areas.
shaping our future
Figure 5. Nano Science size scale. (I DID NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOS HERE)
The development follows in all likelihood, a similar trend, as we have seen in many previous technologies (Fig. 6), eg Radio and telecommunications at the beginning of last century, polymer / plastics technology in the middle of last century and micro-electronics and laser technology,
in its second half. In the first phase the focus is on research and development of methods (preparative and analytical), which is necessary to develop a “toolbox” that can handle the new technology in a reproducible and quality assured manner. Thereafter, simple components and processes, which gradually evolve into more sophisticated and complex systems, as technology matures. By all accounts, will nanotechnology be following a similar pattern and is in that sense, more an evolution than a revolution.
Initially, the aim should therefore primarily on the development of instruments and methods to produce single nano-devices for research purposes, to understand and identify the phenomena and properties. Only later will the real products and processes on a broad front, which clearly reflected in the economy and society as a whole.
The only really big exception is in microelectronics where the smallest components of commercial products (computer chips) has already reached over 100 nm-scale. This picture of evolution does not mean that it does not turn up a few new products and niche areas based on nanotechnology in the near future. But the wide use of nanotechnology in society will take longer, probably another 10-20 years.
Ethical aspects and safety
The nano-ethical debate that N & N has initiated, and which led to extensive research efforts on nanotechnology ethics of such EU Framework Programme, based partly on the böcker1, two at the outset, but also a fundamental uncertainty about what nanotechnology is and what it will produce in the future. The very smallness of nano-components is in itself a fuel in the discussion on nanotechnology ethics. If you can not readily see or otherwise detect the components that are created with the technology, how can you protect yourself? How can
to prevent and control unauthorized use of them, although there are laws? And so on. Accountability, or rather the lack of traceability, is a perennial topic of debate on the ethics, risks and safety. Another recurring theme is monitoring – how nanotechnology can be used for monitoring purposes, where the individual or group is unaware of the surveillance and unable to find out if she / they are supervised (e) or not.
Nanotechnology
It will present a continuous stream of reports about possible biological effects of nanoparticles. Selections: The EU’s 5th Framework Programme was a projekt5 called Nano-Pathology with an allocation of 1 M €. As the main goal set at program including to develop diagnostic methods for detection of nanoparticles, to study pathological
mechanisms, and to identify pathological risks of various materials.
In an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung7 2003 mentioned that the insurance companies start to worry about what damage nanoparticles and N & Nprodukter may cause. In a document from the European Commission 5 in 2004 is a long list of examples of ongoing or completed studies.
These deal with such possible pathological effects of particles in sunscreen, effect of nano-fibers in the lungs, nanofibrers and nanoparticles able to cross the blood-brain barrier and Others A popular study object is the carbon nanofibres, which in some reports, been shown to cross the great blood-brain barrier. The reports are mostly about where to find the nanoparticles.
The effects of their presence in different tissues are still scantily known, except for those particles that existed in our environment over time, for instance soot particles from diesel engines and poorly treated silica particles (silicosis).
shaping our future
Fig.6. Nano science and nano technology development phases. (I DID NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOS HERE)
Nano-ethics and nano-safety has been debated in numerous papers (see, eg, references 3-5 and their subsequent discourse). For example, the Drexler’s nanobots, which fires the imagination could be controlled in our bloodstream and may affect our brain activity, so is the most serious scholars agree that this is pure science fiction, and sees no possibility to construct such components by any known technique.
However, if we take electronic shackles that are not visible, you may enter under the skin, and that one unwittingly carries sig6, they can not be excluded.
Risks in work environments where nano-devices will be manufactured is a reality and deserves attention. Another future problem, or rather the challenge, is the waste products, “nano-waste”, which will result in nanotechnology track. How will recycling or destruction occur?
In general, my view is that nanotechnology has not been either stronger or weaker ethical dimension than most of the emerging technology areas, which we exposed for the last two hundred years – internal combustion engines, electrical and power engineering, telecommunications, microelectronics, laser technology, oil refining, automobile metal working, etc..
Just as with these areas, we will discover the downsides of nanotechnology
that must be handled. It is not the same strong ethical charge in such genetic engineering or stem cell technology. Nanotechnology ethical dimension is more “business as usual”: It is important to manage and balance technology’s advantages and disadvantages and vulnerabilities. The main exception is the traceability – the difficulty of finding and identifying nanoparticles and nano-devices.
An interesting and special aspect is that nanotechnology has come to have an ethical dimension, which is reinforced by association. I am referring to nanotechnology inherent potential to contribute to the development of other emerging medical, technical and scientific fields, such as stem cell therapy, novel nano-drug or a massive medical diagnostic capacity based on molecular biology achievements. This has meant that nanotechnology has come to be associated with such genetic engineering and stem cell technology, ethical problem.
In the nano-ethical debate is too often a confusion of ethical and security issues, which consciously or unconsciously used to strengthen the ethical dimension of nanotechnology.
Although the two issues more or less connected, but in areas such as toxicology of nanoparticles, so however, the issues are not substantially the same issues regarding chemical substances such as dioxins, DDT, mercury, chemicals in food, etc..
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The latter, we do not primarily as an ethical problem, but as a security issue, which should be handled by various agencies, such as Chemicals Agency and the Food Administration.
Similarly, is the majority of safety and toxicology issues in nanotechnology is mainly about how hazardous materials can be to health and the environment;
when they are produced in nanoparticle form and could end up in the body by inhalation, through the skin or by mouth. What are such health effects of breathing in ordinary materials, usually seen as harmless, when they occur in the form of nanoparticles, which easily penetrates the skin and then through cell membranes, etc..? It is in this context worth noting that many of the chemical substances that we test today in the food and the environment, made up of molecules, which is less than or equal to the smallest nanoparticles and nano-technology components. Here’s a great challenge for the regulators who are responsible.
In the case of nanoparticle toxicology and safety remains almost invariably do. Although we know that we are daily and long-term exposure to nanoparticles, which occurs naturally in our environment and also in the form of cosmetics, sunscreens, etc. But also new materials, which we have never been exposed to, will gradually be produced in nanoparticle form. There are fears that there might be a similar situation with nanoparticles, as the one that occurred with asbestos particles. We know very little about what nano-particles of various sizes and materials can do in the body.
Asbestos particles are much longer, about 10 microns, than the size we associate with nanotechnology, while their thickness ports on the edge of nano-particle field.
Nanoparticles in the range 100-100 nm is, as mentioned above, largely unexplored in terms of toxicology for most materials. This is about hard methodical protection work and that really the time to initiate this work, so that we learn the possible risks before massive exposure occurs.
The message to the scientific community, and concerned regulators, is related to the anxiety created with nanotechnology, in all seriousness.
We must try to communicate the potential benefits and drawbacks, we can see the N & N products and try to explain the line between that which is deemed possible to do today or in the foreseeable future, and pure science fiction. The communication must be done in real time, ie. even before you are sure the pros and cons of a particular product or process.
shaping our future
A forward-looking
What is N & N achieved in twenty years? It is of course impossible to predict with any precision, even qualitatively predict where nano technology has brought us. One can however see a number of very exciting development directions. Nanoelectronics is probably a reality, at least in some special applications, but perhaps also on a broad front. The risk, or rather the possibility that the conventional silicon technology is still competitive in the IT field is great. It is perhaps more likely that new materials, nano biotechnology, energy and industrial processes will change significantly with nanotechnology. In the even longer term, bioelectronics, which use living cells or biomolecules ability to receive, process and store an exciting opportunity. To realize it takes a lot of advanced nanotechnology and nano-biology.
Another area, which currently contains is hot, is so-called nano-medicine, which means nanoparticles that are “targeting” a carrier of drugs (Fig. 7). The basic idea is to design nano-particles, which contains an active pharmaceutical substance. The particles have both a protective layer, which prevents the particles to break down anywhere in the body, and “homing” molecules in its protective shell, which means that the nanoparticles
releases the drug when they reach those cells, which recognize the homing molecules. There are also variations where you intend to actively open the particles when they reached the target area with the help of external magnetic field (magnetic particles) or laser light. If these applications succeed, they can mean that drug treatment of such tumors with chemotherapy may be both higher efficacy and lower side effects.
The prediction that the medical and biological diagnostics will be revolutionized by a combination of nano-biochips and advanced enmolekylsdiagnostik, as I outlined above, is quite safe.
The speed and accuracy will be immensely superior to current technologies, mainly through a combination of molecular biology advances and nanotechnology. Here is how quickly rather than whether this development will occur. The evolution of sensors and diagnostic systems are also not limited to diagnostic systems for biomedicine. The same principles and techniques are directly applicable to other diagnostic systems, such as environmental monitoring and industrial process control.
Nanotechnology (I DID NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOS HERE)
The development of new and improved medical implants because of both nano-structured surfaces and better control over biology is also a fairly safe prediction, but the implants will eventually face competition from tissue cultured benefits of deterioration or loss of bodily functions (so-called tissue engineering).
Stem cells, which are controlled by nano-structured surfaces to the desired tissues, is certainly still far from realized, but not impossible. Such surfaces can also be used to control cell and tissue growth outside the body, which is then used for medical diagnosis and early testing of drug candidates.
An entirely different field, which I believe and hope has advanced through the development of nanotechnology in 10-20 years time, is sustainable energy systems. The increasingly alarming reports we get on the probable greenhouse effect and climate change, is focusing on energy and emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This, combined with the finite resources of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) makes the development of
sustainable and clean energy systems extremely anxious.
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(I DID NOT INCLUDE THE PHOTOS HERE)
Figure 7. Nanoparticles as potential carriers for pharmaceutical applications. From the EU Proposal NanoBioPharmaceutics (IP 026723-2, Call identifier FP6-2004-NMP-NI-4).
Nanotechnology can contribute to a wide range of areas in the long term. Solar cells and fuel cells will have a major advantage of the nanostructures that can
be produced. In fuel cells, it is about improving the fuel cell electrode
stability and efficiency. In the solar cells it is important to improve the efficiency of conversion of light into electrical power or light energy to chemical energy, such as hydrogen production. There are exciting opportunities – and such research is underway – to build up biological and nano-technology systems that mimic photosynthesis in green plants to mimic their processes and develop methods to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. There may be one of the solutions that contribute to a sustainable energy future. Nanotechnology will also be set as the key technology of hydrogen storage (metal hydrides, etc.), in battery technology and energy efficiency of industrial processes.
Regardless of which areas will be most affected by the N & N, so it’s a fairly safe prediction that they will radically affect our society, daily life, work, enterprise and economy in 10-20 years.
References
1 K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The coming era of nanotechnology. New York: Anchor Books 1986th
2 Michael Crichton, Prey. New York: HarperCollins 2002nd
3 A. Huw Arnall, Future Technologies, Today’s Choice. A reporter for The Greenpeace Environmental
Trust. London: Greenpeace Environmental Trust 2003rd
4 G. Gaskell, T. Ten Eyck, J. Jackson & G. Veltri, “Imagining nanotechnology: cultural support for technological innovation in Europe and the United States”. Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 14, no. 1, 81-90 (2005)
5 European Commission: Towards a European strategy for nanotechnology, COM (2004) 338, Brussels, May 12, 2004
6 G. Hermerén, Lund University (private discussion).
7 Annabelle Hot & Rolf Tanner: Kleine Ding – grosse Wirkungen? Die Nanotechnologie aus der Sicht der Versicherung. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, No. 226 (September 30), 2003, p. 15.
Figure 7.
References
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