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NANOTECHNOLOGY: A BRIEF
OVERVIEW WITH AN
EMPHASIS ON
APPLICATIONS

4/12/2005
BNCE Pusad
Brought to you by-Ritesh Bhusari
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NANOTECHNOLOGY: A BRIEF OVERVIEW WITH AN EMPHASIS ON

APPLICATIONS

ABSTRACT:
Nanotechnology is actually a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based
upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and
miniaturization. It is building atom-by-atom, or molecule-by-molecule. The underlying
principle is that by rearranging the atoms, it is possible to alter properties of materials
.Quantum physics laws take over at this scale, enabling novel applications in optics,
electronics, magnetic storage, computing, catalysts, biotechnology, genetics, medicine etc.
Nanotechnology will touch almost every aspect of our lives, making space travel an
everyday reality, having nanorobots travelling through the circulatory system tracking
down and destroying cancer cells and tumors along with cleaning of clogged arteries,
smart, power producing paint and mapping of cells and genes! Tiny nanocomputer
CPU’s, computing at the rate of 10 teraflops per second and airborne nanorobots
programmed to rebuild the thinning ozone layer will all be possible!
Research and experimental work has already resulted in tools of Molecular
Nanotechnology (MNT) like molecular tweezers , molecular manipulators and replicators
that will allow us to create these magical products.
In this paper, I present an effort to give a brief overview of nanotechnology and
highlight it’s enormous potential in building applications that will revolutionize our
universe .What lies beneath and beyond makes the odyssey exciting and the incredible
power it’ll bestow man with will make all the challenges worth overcoming.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION
Nanotechnology, often referred to as ‘God of Small World’, involves the manipulation of
materials at atomic and molecular levels to reduce the size while at the same time packing them
with tremendous power.
A FEW EXAMPLES OF NANOSTRUCTURES:

DNA molecule DUV Photoresist Patterns Generated by

Interferometric Lithography
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Nanotechnology is an umbrella term that covers many areas of research dealing with objects
that are measured in nanometers. It’s a term coined in 1974 by Norio Taniguchi at the
University of Tokyo.
A nanometer (nm) is a billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter. To put that
scale of measurement into perspective, a human red blood cell is about 7,500 nanometers
across, and one nanometer is roughly 10 atoms wide. The letter "I" printed here is about one
million nanometers wide.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: HOW IT WORKS

Manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those products depend on
how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal, we get diamonds. Rearranging
the atoms in sand (and adding a pinch of impurities) we get computer chips. Rearranging atoms
in dirt, water and air we get grass. In special cases we can already arrange atoms and molecules
exactly as we want.
Nanotechnology is a hybrid science combining engineering and chemistry. Atoms and
molecules stick together because they have complementary shapes that lock together, or
charges that attract. As unlike magnetic poles attract, a positively charged atom sticks to a
negatively charged atom. As millions of these atoms are pieced together by nanomachines, a
specific product begins to take shape. The goal of nanotechnology is to manipulate atoms
individually and place them in a pattern to produce a desired structure. There are three steps to
achieving nanotechnology-produced goods:
· Manipulation of individual atoms. IBM researchers positioned 35 xenon atoms on the
surface of a nickel crystal, using an atomic force microscopy instrument.
· Trillions of Assemblers which are nanoscopic machines, that can be programmed to
manipulate atoms and molecules at will need to be developed.
· Replicators,used to build more assemblers for consumer manufacturing will be required.

Trillions of assemblers and replicators will fill an area smaller than a cubic millimeter,
and they’ll be invisible to the naked eye. Assemblers and replicators will work together like
hands to automatically construct products, and will eventually replace all traditional labour
methods. This will vastly decrease manufacturing costs, thereby making consumer goods
abundant, cheaper and stronger.

THE CURRENT SCENARIO:

The methods and equipment of nanoanalysis are major contributors to the advances being
made in nanotechnology. Scientists are working not just on the materials of the future, but also
the tools that will allow us to use these ingredients to create products. Experimental work has
already resulted in the production of molecular tweezers, a carbon nanotube transistor, and
logic gates.
Theoretical work is progressing as well. Molecular computers,Exponential Assembly
Process ,Building of artificial muscles using nanotubes are all results of cutting edge research
that’ll take us forward.
Let’s have a look at a few of these tools:
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Tool 1:
AFM BASED MOLECULAR MANIPULATOR :
It is capable of doing primitive molecular manufacturing. This device would combine a simple
molecular device—a molecular gripper—with an AFM(Atomic Force Microscope) positioning
mechanism. An AFM can move its tip with precision; a molecular manipulator would add a
gripper to the tip to hold a molecular tool. It would guide chemical reactions by positioning
molecules, like a slow, simple, but enormous assembler. It will be a striking advance despite
it’s gigantic size.

Developing a Molecular Manipulator:

A molecular manipulator (AFM tip and tool holder) is a device that binds and positions
reactive molecular tools to build up a workpiece , molecule by molecule.
Several years ago, researchers at the University of Brobdingnag began work on
developing a molecular manipulator. They chose fragments of antibody molecules, the
selectively sticky proteins that the immune system uses to bind and identify germs, to make
grippers to be attached to the AFM tip.
In the U. Brobdingnag team's AFM-based molecular manipulator system,a surface is
placed under the tip in a pool of liquid. The AFM tip is dunked into the liquid, and brought
down to the surface. A suitable tool is loaded into the gripper. Tubes and pumps can flow
different liquids over the surface and past the gripper, carrying different tool molecules.
Each step takes only seconds. Molecular tools pop into the gripper in a fraction of a
second, and used tools pop off at the same rate. Once the tip has positioned a molecule, it reacts
quickly, about a million times faster than unwanted reactions at other sites. In this way, the
molecular manipulator gives good control of where reactions will occur and it can perform a
variety of steps.

MOLECULAR MANIPULATOR
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Tool 2:

REPLICATORS:
The replicators—generally include a computer to control it and a general-purpose
assembler to build things—enable making tons of specialized machines needed to set up a
manufacturing .
Figure shows a design described in Stanford University(course CS 404 , spring (1988)). The
submicroscopic device at the top of the picture is like a huge tank, three stories tall when lying
on its side. The computer-controlled arms at the middle do most of the actual construction.

FIGURE : REPLICATOR
When supplied with fuel and raw materials a replicator can build copies of itself. It
contains about a billion atoms, and each arm can handle about a million atoms per second
trillions of atoms can be made in about ten hours
In the diagram,
(A) contains a nanocomputer,
(B) a library of stored instructions,
(C) contains machinery that takes in fuel and produces electric power,
(D) is a motor, and
(E) contains machinery that prepares raw materials for use
The lower diagrams illustrate steps in a replication cycle, showing how the working space
is kept isolated from the external liquid, which provides the needed fuel and raw-material
molecules. Such Replicators are useful as thought experiments to show how nanomachines can
produce more nanomachines, but specialized manufacturing equipment would be more efficient
in practice.
.
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Tool 3:

NANOGEARS:
Photo courtesy NASA, Ames

Nanogears are usually no more than a nanometer wide and were built first at NASA.They could
be used to construct a matter compiler, which when fed raw material could arrange atoms and
build a macro-scale structure.

Now the most exciting and impact laden part:

APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY:

TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY

At its base, nanotechnology is about molecular manufacturing, and manufacturing is the basis
of much of today's industry.

Industry:
New, Reliable and intelligent Products:
Nanotechnology will bring thorough control of the structure of matter, the ability to build
objects to atom-by-atom specifications. It will make possible manufacturing a huge range of
new products, a range we can't envision today. Flaws can be made very rare and extremely
small. Objects can contain trillions of microscopic motors and computers providing increased
reliability and durability.

Space Technology:
Nanotechnology will dramatically reduce the costs and increase the capabilities of space ships
and space flight. Beyond inexpensively providing remarkably light and strong materials for
space ships, it will also provide extremely powerful computers with which to guide both those
ships and a wide range of other activities in space.
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Atomic Force Microscopy is a

powerful technique for imaging,
nanomanipulation, and serves as a
platform for sensor work &
nanolithography... In this Figure,
simulated Mars dust is shown.

Today, spacecraft can barely reach orbit with both a safety margin and a cargo and shed weight
all the way.With MNT spacecrafts will be rugged ,reliable, strong and light .

SCIENCE

Chemistry:
MNT will help chemists make what they want to study, and it will help them make the tools
they need to study it. Nanoinstruments will be used to produce, measure, and modify molecules
in a host of ways, studying their structures, behaviors, and interactions.

Carbon Nano Tubes(CNT)- The strongest and most flexible molecular material

Materials Sciences:
With molecular manufacturing, materials science can highly systematic and thorough. New
ideas can be tested because new materials can be built according to plan With nanoinstruments
and nanocomputers , scientists could test so many materials not tested as yet.

Biology:
Nanotechnology will greatly advance biology by providing better nanoinstruments (including
molecule-by-molecule disassemblers), enabling biologists to map cells completely and study
their interactions in detail. This will help in understanding diseases and the molecular
requirements for health, enormously advancing medicine.
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CNT based biosensors:

Four-level CNT dentritic neural tree with 14
symmetric Y-junctions can be trained to perform
complex switching and computing functions:

Computation:
MNT can create computer logic gates a few nanometers on a side, and efficient enough to be
stacked in 3D. An entire supercomputer can fit into a cubic millimeter,and cost a small fraction
of a rupee. With actuators smaller than a bacterium, a thin, high-resolution computer display
will be easy and cheap to build. With GHz mechanical frequencies, a mostly-mechanical device
would sense and produce radio waves. Thus computation, communication, and display will be
all feasible with pure diamondoid technology. Computers, PDAs, Distributed networking
hardware and cell phones can be extremely cheap . The whole world could get "wired" within a
year.

Archaeology:
Archaeological sites are unique records of the human past, but today's techniques destroy most
information during the dig, by accident. Future archaeologists will be able to sift soil not speck
by speck but molecule by molecule thus preserving history.

ENVIRONMENT:
Nanotech can help the environment as most structure and function can be built out of carbon
and hydrogen, there will be far less use for minerals, and mining operations can be mostly shut
down. Storable solar energy will reduce ash, soot, hydrocarbon, NOx, and CO2 emissions, as
well as oil spills.

Greenhouses:
Greenhouses, with or without thermal insulation, would be extremely cheap to build with
nanotechnology. Cheap greenhouses can save water, land, and food and greatly reduce water
use, land use, runoff, and topsoil loss. They can recover most of the water used, by
dehumidifying the exhaust air and treating and re-using runoff. They requires less labor and far
less land area.

Solar energy :
Nanotech makes solar energy feasible. Sun-tracking designs can benefit from cheap computers
and compact actuators. Energy can be stored efficiently for several days in relatively large
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flywheels built of thin diamond and weighted with water. Water electrolysis and recombination
provide scalable, storable, transportable energy.

MILITARY AND DEFENCE:

In the future, even weapons as small as a single bullet could pack more computer power than
the largest supercomputer in existence today, allowing them to perform real time image
analysis of their surroundings and communicate with weapons tracking systems to acquire and
navigate to targets with greater precision and control.

Rapid and inexpensive manufacture of great quantities of stronger more precise weapons
guided by massively increased computational power will alter the face of war strategies.

OUR DAILY LIVES…could change!

Living spaces:
Living spaces can be greatly improved. Double-layer, vacuum-insulated wall panels can greatly
decrease noise transmission between adjacent living spaces as well as provide excellent thermal
insulation.

Nanomedicine:
Improved medicine can be widely available. Small, cheap, numerous sensors, computers,
and other implantable devices may allow continuous health monitoring and semi-automated
treatment.A few wonders that might revolutionize our lives are:
Surgical and diagnostic tools will be elegant and cheap.
Research and diagnosis will become more efficient.
Small medical devices can be implanted permanently
More medical problems will be prevented.
New diseases will be stopped quickly.
Diagnosis and treatment may be semi-automated
Health will improve and lifespans increase.
MNT will facilitate genetic therapy.
Some organs will be replaceable
Systems can be individually improved

This is what a pill in the human body might look like

in the future. It would have a small nanrobot inside
and the nanorobot would have a camera taking
pictures of any problems.

Strong, Lightweight Structures:

Products made of nano materials could be startling by our present standards. Objects could be
made that are identical in size and shape to those we make today, but simultaneously 10 times
stronger,100 times more efficient and 90 percent lighter.
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Smart Materials:
Structures made from nanomaterials that can sense internal and environmental conditions and
adapt themselves appropriately can be built! They’ll be very cheap,reliable,smart and flexible.

Smart Paint:
Smartpaint consists of a huge number of nanomachines with little wheels for rolling over one
another and little sticky pads for clinging to surfaces. Each has a simple,computer on board and
can signal its neighbors can slip and slide in a controlled way when signaled.It could even shed
dirt automatically using microscopic brushes and it’ll be extremely safe.

Power Paint:
Molecular manufacturing could make solar cells tiny enough to be incorporated into the mobile
building blocks of a smart paint.On a sunny day, an area just a few paces on a side would
generate a kilowatt of electrical power.

Acoustic Paint:
With molecular manufacturing, we can have ceiling paperpaint that glows and even video
wallpaper. It will be equally easy to make displays that just change color, like a printed page
with mobile ink. Nanomachines and nanoelectronics will be able to make a surface emit high-
quality sound. absorb sound.

Smart Cloth:
With nanotechnology, even the finest textile fibers could have sensors, computers, and motors
in their core at little extra cost. Fabrics could include sensors able to detect light, heat, pressure,
moisture, stress, and wear, networks of simple computers to integrate this data, and motors and
other nanomechanisms to respond to it.

Smart Furniture:
With molecular manufacturing, it will be easy to make furniture from smart materials that can
adapt to an individual human body, and to a person's changing position, to consistently give
comfortable support.

Nanocubes that will store hydrogen &

Wood surface that will repel serve as a source of power
water droplets
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Improved transportation :
Diamond has a strength-to-weight ratio over 50 times that of aerospace aluminum yet it cannot
be used as it is expensive and non-malleable. Nanotechnology will let us inexpensively make
shatterproof diamond in exactly the shapes we want. This would let us make a Boeing 747
whose unloaded weight was 50 times lighter but just as strong. Vehicles could be fuelled by
nanocubes that will store hydrogen & serve as a alternate source of power.

AND SO FORTH . . .
This tour through of the potential of smart matter has shown how we could get walls that
look and sound as we wish, clothing, shoes, and furniture of greater comfort, and clean solar
power. As one might expect, this just scratches the surface.

THE CHALLENGES :
Ø The chief danger may not be a devastating accident, but instead, an abuse of power.
Ø Some technologies are imaginable and clearly feasible, yet dauntingly complex.
Ø The main bottleneck might seem to be a shortage of knowledgeable designers—persons
expert in both chemistry and mechanical design.
Ø Production of things that are safe and environmentally sound.
Ø Military applications of nanotechnology raise a number of concerns
Ø Reproducible mass production at kilogram levels of identical high quality CNT.
Ø Development of self-sustaining, self-replicating hybrids of CNT and silicon to perform
augmentation and repair of DNA.
Ø Solution to cancer, Parkinson’s Disease and AIDS through biosensors, devices and drug
delivery systems.
Ø Development of intelligent wearable systems using nano technology.
Ø Remote sensing through nano Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and satellites
Ø Realisation of molecular sized machines.
Ø Replication errors may arise.
Ø Nanotechnology requires specialized laboratory facilities for research and development,

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
Ø Improving computer simulations will help in building sophisticated molecular-
machinery designs
Ø To prevent accidents and misuse, promotion of a consistent ethical system and a system
of accountability for those who develop and employ new technology will be
quintessential.
Ø Trust will remain a central issue as nanotechnology research comes closer to
deployment in the commercial world.

A SUMMARY:
After molecular manufacturing develops certain basic abilities, a whole set of limits will fall,
and a plethora of developments will become possible. Competition, easy opportunities, and
fast, low-cost experimentation should combine to yield an explosion of new products.
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Nanotechnology:

Precursor science and Theoretical chemistry

technologies Chemical synthesis
Crucial advance Teams combine and improve
technologies
Threshold capability First assembler
Early practical Molecular sensors
applications Molecular computing
Breakthrough Powerful inexpensive
capability molecular manufacturing
Further projected New medical abilities
developments New, inexpensive products
More advanced Environmental cleanup
developments
Yet more advanced Billion times faster computers
developments General tissue repair and organ
replacement

CONCLUSION:

It is beyond doubt that once the nano-age dawns and employment of nanotechnology for the
above mentioned applications becomes possible we shall be entering a golden era of science
and technology which will set the benchmark for astonishing scientific achievements.
Numerous challenges await us, however the far reaching impact nanotechnology can have on
our lives will make every effort put in worth!

REFERENCES:

Ø Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology™

Ø http://TheHarrowGroup.com
Ø http://www.nas.nasa.gov
Ø Center for Responsible Nanotechnology TM
http://www.crnano.org
Ø http://www.zyvex.com/nano
Ø http://www.foresight.org
Ø http://www.nanotechnologyinstitute.org
Ø National Science Foundation
http://www.nsf.gov