Nanotechnology For Dummies E-Book

Earl Boysen

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

The bestselling introductory guide on nanotechnology?now revised and updated

The world of nanotechnology is ever changing and evolving; this fun and friendly guide demystifies the topic for anyone interested in how molecule-sized machines and processes affect our everyday lives. The authors begin with explaining the background of nanotechnology and then examine industries that are affected by this technology. Aiming to educate and simultaneously dispel common myths, the book explores the many nanotechnology-enabled consumer products available on the market today, ranging from socks to face lotion to jet skis to floor cleaners, to name a few.

• Serves as a fun and friendly introduction to the fascinating topic of nanotechnology
• Discusses the various issues involving nanotechnology in the areas of environment, medicine, defense, and others
• Provides real-world examples of everyday nanotechnology use such as floor cleaners, flash memory drives, face lotion, computer processors, and more

Written in the accessible, humorous For Dummies style, Nanotechnology For Dummies, 2nd Edition provides an easy-to-understand overview of nanotechnology and its real-world implementation.

Leseprobe

Nanotechnology For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/nanotechnology to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Nanotechnology Basics

Part II: Nano Applications

Part III: Nanotechnology and People

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Glossary

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Nanotechnology Basics

Chapter 1: Introduction to Nanotechnology Concepts

What Is Nanotechnology, Anyway?

Pinning down a definition

Before nano there was the atom

Approaching Nanotechnology from Above and Below

Understanding How Nano Changes Things

Reacting with other elements

Changing color

Melting at lower temperatures

Nano Is Everywhere

Applying nano in various settings

Taking a clue from educators

Chapter 2: Who’s Doing What?

Understanding the Evolution of Nanotechnology

Viewing the timeline

Beginning to see things at the nanoscale

Introducing nano to the world: Richard Feynman’s role

Exploring the role of the scanning tunneling microscope

Pursuing buckyballs

Studying a key proponent of the bottom-up approach

Discovering nanotubes

Introducing the National Nanotechnology Initiative

Eying Today’s Nano Playing Field

Government funding for research labs

Fighting disease

Making a buck: The role of companies in nano development

Educating our workforce

Developing nano internationally

Understanding Where Nano Is and Where It’s Going

Getting nano today

Exploring efforts under development

Eying pie in the sky

Chapter 3: Building Blocks: Nanomaterials

Carbon-Based Materials

Buckyballs

Carbon nanotubes

Graphene

Diamondoid

The Runners-Up, Noncarbon Nanoparticles

Iron and iron oxide

Platinum

Gold

Silica

Silver

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles

Silicon

Palladium

Neodymium

Boron

Boron Nitride

Searching for Nanoparticles

Chapter 4: Nano Tools

Viewing Things at the Nano Level

Electron microscopy

Atomic force microscopy (AFM)

Tracking molecular fingerprints with spectroscopy

Manipulating Atoms and Molecules

Moving atoms with the scanning tunneling microscope

Molecular assemblers

Nanorobots

Creating Nano-Sized Features on Computer Chips

Printing patterns with nanolithography

Writing patterns for researchers: Dip-pen nanolithography

E-beam nanolithography

Nanoparticle growth systems

Chapter 5: Putting Nanotechnology to Work

Changing the Size of Things

Maximizing surface area

Reducing pore size in materials

Modifying Material Properties

The fundamentals of functionalization

Making nanocomposites

Customizing the Structure of Coatings and Films

Self-Assembly: Getting Nanoparticles to Make Their Own Arrangements

Mechanosynthesis

Using NEMs to Work with Nanoscale Gadgets

Integrating Nanoparticles into Materials

Spinning Nanotubes into Wires and Cables

Adding nanoparticles to fibers

Part II: Nano Applications

Chapter 6: Nanoscale Electronics

Working with Computer Chips

Seeking smaller chips

Switching things with FETs

Packing transistors in

Improving Your Memory

Getting flash-y

Making memory with memristors

If I had a nickel . . .

Using silicon dioxide sandwiches

Getting magnetic

Connecting with Light

Improving Displays

Using nanowires in OLEDs

Making displays flexible

Reducing power consumption in quality display screens

Using carbon nanotube emissions

Taking advantage of quantum dots

Detecting All Kinds of Things with Nanosensors

Scoping out the potential of nanosensors

How nanosensors do what they do

NEMS

Chapter 7: Nanotechnology in Your House and Car

Building Tougher Building Materials

Insulating windows

Creating thinner walls that hold in heat

Powering your house with inexpensive solar cells

Protecting siding with nano coatings

Keeping walls sterile

Tiling floors using a nanoleveling compound

Making concrete more durable with carbon nanotubes

Bright Ideas: Nanotechnology and Electronics

Cleaning Up with Nano

Applying Nanotechnology to Cars

Charging up your car with the sun

Powering electric and hybrid cars

Grasping the potential of hydrogen fuel cells

Keeping that paint job shiny

Treating car windows

Checking the tires

Making cars lighter weight

Chapter 8: When Nano Gets Personal

Seeking Sleeker Sporting Goods

Making tennis balls that bounce longer

Producing lightweight and powerful racquets

Going golfing

. . . and more

Helping Fabrics Do More

Making fabric water and stain resistant

Making fabric that produces or stores electricity

Clothing that keeps you warmer

Clothing that makes you smell better

Creating fabrics with a unique fit

Just Desserts: Optimizing Food

How is the food industry dealing with nanotechnology?

Nanomaterials in food packaging

Sensing food impurities

Changing food characteristics with nanomaterials

Using nanotechnology to grow food

Skin Care That Keeps You Young

Providing vitamins and nutrients for that youthful glow

The Fountain of Youth: Anti-aging products

Making sunscreens without that icky white stuff

Chapter 9: Changing the Way We Do Medicine

No Lab Test Required: Diagnosing Diseases in the Doctor’s Office

Nanowire-based sensors

Calling on functionalized quantum dots to find diseases

Using functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles to spot the culprit

Enhancing Imaging

Making MRI images crisper with iron oxide nanoparticles

Providing fluorescence with silicon quantum dots

Delivering Drugs More Efficiently

Breaking through cell membranes

Targeting the right spot

Multitasking nanoparticles

Making the daily dose obsolete

Stopping flu in its tracks

Going skin deep

Treatments

Zapping diseased cells with heat

Combating infection with antimicrobial treatments

Taking action when our immune systems turn against us

Sequencing DNA

Using nanorobots

Chapter 10: Saving Energy with Nano

Exploring the Big Three of Energy: Generation, Distribution, and Storage

Generating Energy More Cheaply

Souping up solar cells

Firing up fuel cells with nano

Improving Energy Distribution

Making wires sing

Nanotechnology applications under development for distribution

Storing Energy More Efficiently

Understanding how batteries work

Storing electrons with ultracapacitors

Other Energy Options

Chapter 11: Improving the Environment

Clearing the Air

Cleaning the Air with Nanomaterials

Capturing carbon dioxide with nano

Converting carbon dioxide into something useful

Using nanoparticles to fix global warming

Making cars cleaner

Cleaning the air in your house

Cleaning Water

Understanding the problem

Cleaning contaminated groundwater with nano

Cleaning oil spills

Making saltwater drinkable

Removing bacteria from drinking water

Chapter 12: Star Wars: Nano in Space and Defense

Space: The Final Frontier

Boosting space travel with lightweight spacecraft

Taking off with the space elevator

Letting spacesuits fix themselves

Keeping astronauts healthy with nanosensors

Finding water (and more) on other planets

Walking sensors

Sailing through space with lightweight solar sails

Giving spacecraft smaller rockets

Drafting Nano for Defense

Decking out troops in lightweight body armor

Morphing for higher efficiency

Storing more energy with nanoenergetics

Detecting hazardous agents

Helping sailors keep their propellers whirring

Creating lightweight portable power

Making bulletproof material flexible

Part III: Nanotechnology and People

Chapter 13: Nano Ethics, Safety, and Regulations

Addressing Ethical Dilemmas

Living forever

Producing goods from thin air

Making the right choices

Exploring organizations working on nanoethics

Getting a Handle on Safety Issues

Looking at examples of safety concerns

An overview of nanotechnology safety programs

Scanning the Regulatory Landscape

Understanding the need for regulation

Involving governments in regulation

Pulling in the private sector

Chapter 14: Making Nano Work for You: Education and Careers

Getting a Nano Education

Which major is right for you?

What degree will get you where you want to go?

Looking for schools with corporate alliances

Exploring government funded educational opportunities

Mapping Out a Career in Nano

Where’s the need?

Scoping out career opportunities

How much could you make?

Understanding what employers want

Desperately Seeking Nano Workers: Advice for Employers

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Top Ten Nano Web Sites

UnderstandingNano

Nanowerk

NanoZone

National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer

Foresight Institute

Nanoforum

National Nanotechnology Initiative

NanoTechnology Group

Safenano

Nanotech-now

Chapter 16: Ten Nano Universities

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at the University of Albany

Rice University

Northwestern University

Northeastern University

Dakota County Technical College

University of Waterloo

Universities of Leeds and Sheffield

University of Washington

Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanonengineering

Stanford University

Chapter 17: Ten Interesting Nano Research Labs

NanoTumor Center

The Molecular Foundry

The Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines

London Centre for Nanotechnology

Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility

HP Labs

Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology

ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials

Center for Atomic Level Catalyst Design

California NanoSystems Institute

Glossary

Cheat Sheet

Nanotechnology For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

by Earl Boysen and Nancy Boysen

Foreword by Desiree Dudley and Christine Peterson

Foresight Institute

Nanotechnology For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932269

ISBN: 978-0-470-89191-9 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-118-13686-7 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-13687-4 (ebk); ISBN: 978-1-118-13688-1 (ebk)

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About the Authors

Earl Boysen spent 20 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry and runs two web sites, UnderstandingNano.com and BuildingGadgets.com. Earl holds a Masters in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia. He was coauthor of the first edition of Nanotechnology For Dummies and Electronics For Dummies. He also coauthored The All New Electronics Self-Study Guide from Wiley Publishing.

Nancy Boysen is the author of more than 60 books on technology topics (under the name Nancy Muir), including Microsoft Project For Dummies and iPad All-In-One For Dummies, and contributed to the college textbook Our Digital World from Paradigm Publishing. She is the senior editor for UnderstandingNano.com and runs two other web sites, TechSmartSenior.com and iPadMadeClear.com.

Dedication

To Nettie Boysen, Earl’s mom, for providing the love and support that helped him to follow his dreams.

Authors’ Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Katie Feltman for hiring them to write this edition of Nanotechnology For Dummies. Also thanks to Susan Pink for leading the way as project editor, and Lisa Reece for her excellent technical edit. We also want to express our gratitude to colleagues in the world of nanotechnology who have allowed us to use their artwork in the book, and who have shared their expertise generously during our research. Finally, sincere thanks to Desiree Dudley and Christine Peterson of Foresight Institute for contributing the book’s foreword.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Susan Pink

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Feltman

Copy Editor: Susan Pink

Technical Editor: Lisa Reece

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Media Development Project Manager: Laura Moss-Hollister

Media Development Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher

Media Development Associate Producers: Josh Frank, Marilyn Hummel, Douglas Kuhn, and Shawn Patrick

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery

Layout and Graphics: Lavonne Roberts, Kim Tabor

Proofreader: Laura Bowman

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

Special Help: Karl Brandt, Melissa Smith, and Shawn Frazier

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathy Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Foreword

Realizing the Potential of Nanotechnology

What is nanotechnology? It’s a big word: tiny in scale but infinitely immense in possibility. In the Silicon Valley era of tech bubbles and busts, you may have heard nanotechnology bandied about as the new thing, along with biotech, artificial intelligence, private space travel, and more.

But what does nanotechnology mean? Perhaps the most influential early reference to the field we now call nanotechnology was on December 29, 1959. That evening, one of the most famous and beloved physicists of all time, Richard Feynman, gave a dinner lecture at the California Institute of Technology entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” where he discussed the potential in our increasing knowledge and ability to manipulate matter:

The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom . . . Put atoms down where the chemist says, and so you make the substance.

Feynman’s visionary forecast was before its time; however, excitement about the field truly began to manifest with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM in 1981, and the field’s first book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, written in 1986 by K. Eric Drexler. That year, Drexler and Christine Peterson formed the Foresight Institute, a nonprofit think-tank whose purpose is to advance the ethical development of beneficial nanotechnology.

Twenty-five years later, the field has blossomed. Billions of dollars go into nanotechnology research and development every year. More than a hundred major academic institutions, governmental organizations, research facilities, and advocacy groups in the world are dedicated to nanotechnology. We can see cells, atoms, and DNA at the sub-nanometer level with scanning electron and tunneling microscopes, measure and move molecules with atomic force and probe microscopes, “paint” with molecules using dip-pen lithography, and even snip and modify DNA using manmade DNA “walkers.” We have begun putting the first labs on chips, identifying and even killing cancer cells with nanoscale techniques.

We have come so far. But have we reached a truly nanoscale control of matter? As so often happens, humanity has found that the devil is in the details: realizing the dream of molecular- and atomic-level precision is more difficult than its conception. Quantum physics and its mechanical effects become much more important on the nanoscale, and our understanding of the laws of nature at this scale is advancing but by no means fully comprehensive. Even with all our advances to date, processes for building truly precise three-dimensional structures through molecular manufacturing are still in-progress.

Lacking truly accurate understanding and precise application, media and industry have capitalized on the hopes and fears of a naive society fascinated by the potential in health, life extension, space travel, and green energy. Nanotechnology has become a much-hyped magical buzzword that glamorizes — or demonizes — today’s production of imprecise nanoscale blobs.

However, despite real limitations, microscale and nanoscale progress to date is still impressive. The Information Age completely transformed our world by controlling those “blobs” of matter on a micronscale; the average cellular phone in your pocket today has more processing power than machines that filled entire basements in the 1980s. Articles and books that could take months to find can now be downloaded in moments; family members can call their loved ones from remote areas around the world; 911 emergency services can be at your car accident far faster than ever thought possible. Information sharing, communication, and real knowledge propagation that took weeks or months — or even years — can now be achieved faster than ever before because human beings had the courage to understand, develop, and implement new knowledge and technologies.

But this world-changing progress is merely the microscale; time has already started to show that we can do better. And even more is possible. Imagine a world in which a family of four can take a trip to the moon for the price of a Sunday drive — because the materials and fuel are so light, strong, and inexpensively made. Imagine a world in which nanoscale devices can go in and help rebuild your grandmother’s heart, or your own arteries. A world in which chemical pollution no longer exists.

You may think “that sounds like science fiction.” Well, that it is. In 1995, best-selling author Neal Stephenson wrote about this kind of world in a Hugo Award-winning book called The Diamond Age. And that world is truly a different world than the one we live in now. But this kind of grand, forward-thinking vision has always inspired human progress. Ideas are first whispered or hastily scrawled by those starry-eyed dreamers who dare to imagine something more, something better. In the history of human civilization, the curious inventors, the doers, the makers, and the courageous leaders are the ones who dare to try, to understand, to be inspired, to create, to build: to take those far-off dreams and make them real. The road to truly great dreams is often a long one, and humanity almost always takes more time, energy, work, and earnest collaboration than imagined to fully build and travel this road, — especially to travel it well.

Nanotechnology For Dummies, 2nd Edition, guides the reader through a bright path of progress and possibility, on a road that will eventually lead to all that nanotechnology promises. This book also serves as an entrée into the basic concepts, achievements, problems, and prospects in this exciting field. We hope the knowledge will inspire you to help us create a better world.

— Desiree Dudley and Christine Peterson— Foresight Institute

Introduction

If you are one of the many who has read headlines about nanotechnology and the incredible things it is making possible in our world, you’ve probably bought this book to find out what the fuss is all about. Nanotechnology has been touted as both a Holy Grail of science that can cure all ills and a dangerous manipulation of matter that could cause the end of our world. So just what is nanotechnology and what could it make possible?

Nanotechnology For Dummies, 2nd Edition, helps you get a good grounding in nanotechnology history, concepts, and applications while clearing up some of the hype. As you work your way through its chapters, you will discover some fascinating facts about nanotechnology past, present, and future.

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