In the past few years nanomaterials have become integral components of products as diverse as sunscreens, electrically conductive coatings, and strong, lightweight plastic composites. Now nanomaterials are vying for new markets in electronics, food packaging, industrial processing and other areas. New innovations in nanotechnology in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and microelectronics industries are hitting news daily.
The most exciting applications in nanotechnology come from the cross-pollination of disciplines in biology, chemistry and electronics. Nanotechnology products include minimally invasive surgical tools to gene chips. Nanotechnology research also emphasis on scanning probe microscopy, nanotribology and nanomechanics, molecularly thick films, industrial applications and microdevice reliability, along with social and ethical implications.
Literally speaking nanoparticles are lumps of matter smaller than 1,000 nanometres across -- typically, about the same size as a virus. Scientists can now make these minuscule grains to order from all kinds of materials, including polymers and metals. They can act as flashing beacons which allow biologists to track molecules moving around a cell. They could be used to package and deliver drugs into cells in a targeted manner: for example, entering tumor cells but staying out of healthy cells. Nanoparticles made from semiconductors could act as electronic components on super-miniaturized chips.
Nanoparticles have already found their way into commercial products. Nano-sized grains of titanium dioxide, for example, are used in sun creams. They absorb ultraviolet light but are transparent -- so skin needn't look as if it is smeared with chalk.
But when titanium dioxide nanoparticles absorb UV light, they become chemically reactive. This property is exploited in another nanotech product just crossing the threshold of commercialization: self-cleaning tiles and glass. Here a thin, transparent film of nanoparticles uses the energy of sunlight to burn up dirt stuck to the surface. Nanoparticle toxicity is perhaps the only sound, scientific concern raised so far.
In the nanoworld, the "classical" physics of our everyday world starts to merge with the quantum physics of the atomic scale. This gives nanoparticles some bizarre properties. For example, the colour of metal and semiconducting nanoparticles depends on their size: crudely speaking, the smaller they get, the bluer they become. This enables scientists to "tune" the colour of nanoparticles used as tiny light bulbs for light-emitting display devices.
Leading the charge in these applications are a multitude of companies that range from small startups to the chemical and plastics giants. Much of the cutting edge work in nanomaterials is being done by small companies, many of which have proprietary processes for making the tiny particles in highly uniform sizes, shapes and purities. Some of these firms have formed marketing and development alliances with large global chemical and plastics suppliers.
Amrita is bridging the gap between nanotechnology research and turning that into products that companies can sell. Companies interested in commercializing nanotechnology innovations can use the design and manufacturing expertise of our scientists to bring out design, prototyping and fabrication process development.
