Chapter 2.

2
The Nano World

A revolution is occurring in science and technology, based on the

recently developed ability to measure, manipulate and organize matter on the
nanoscale — 1 to 100 billionths of a meter. At the nanoscale, physics,
chemistry, biology, materials science, and engineering converge toward the same
principles and tools. As a result, progress in nanoscience will have very far-
reaching impact.

Learning Outcomes:
 Trace the historical background of nanotechnology.
 Recognize the emerging practice of nanotechnology in the Philippines.
 Construct a critical approach in examining the relationship between
scientific development, technological development, and society.

NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

The prefix “nano” denotes sizes of the order of one billionth of a meter.
“Nanostructure science and technology is a broad and interdisciplinary area of research
and development activity that has been growing explosively worldwide in the past few years.
It has the potential for revolutionizing the way in which materials and products are created
and the range and nature of functionalities that can be accessed” (Siegel, 1999, p. xvii).

Nano materials denote “divided matter.” As Rao (1999) said, “if you take a piece of
solid matter (say a metal) containing an Avogadro number of atoms and go on dividing it to
smaller bits, you will ultimately end up with an atom of the substance. Before that, you will
reach a stage of very tiny particles containing 100 to 10,000 atoms. Such particles with
diameters of 1-50nm (10-500 Ao) are referred to as nanoparticles.

Nanoscience refers to the scientific study of materials of nanometer size, i.e., one
billionth of a meter (The Royal Society, 1994). It is a combination of developments in solid
state chemistry, synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, solid state physics and
engineering, and scanning tunneling microscopy.

Nanotechnology refers to various technologies to produce materials of extra high

precision and dimensions on the scale of one-billionth of a meter. (Norio Taniguchi of
Tokyo Science University is credited with coining the term “nanotechnology” in 1974.).
Nanotechnology “implies the ability to generate and utilize structures, components, and
devices with a size range from about 0.1nm (atomic and molecular scale) to about 100nm
(or larger in some situations) by control at atomic, molecular, and macromolecular levels”.

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Ancient Egyptians
• Fermentation process on nanoscale (making bread,
wine, beer, cheese and other foods)
• Nanoparticles of galenite (lead sulfide) were formed in
hair dyeing process
Ancient Rome
• The Lycurgus Cup (Rome) is an example of dichroic Lycurgus cup, illuminated from
glass; colloidal gold and silver in the glass allow it to (right) inside and (left) outside.
look opaque green when lit from outside but Source: The british museum
translucent red when light shines through the inside.
Middle Ages
• Vibrant stained-glass windows in European cathedrals
owed their rich colors to nanoparticles of gold chloride
and other metal oxides and chlorides; gold
nanoparticles also acted as photocatalytic air purifiers.

Stained- glass windows commonly

found in churches.
Source:The Metropolitan
Museum of Art

Consumer products that use nanotechnology.

• 1947: John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs discovered the
semiconductor transistor and greatly expanded scientific knowledge of semiconductor
interfaces, laying the foundation for electronic devices and the Information Age.
• 1956: Arthur von Hippel at MIT introduced many concepts of—and coined the term—
“molecular engineering” as applied to dielectrics, ferroelectrics, and piezoelectrics.
• 1958: Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments originated the concept of, designed, and built the
first integrated circuit, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2000.
• 1974: Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term
nanotechnology to describe precision machining of materials to within atomic-scale
dimensional tolerances.
• 1981: Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM’s Zurich lab invented the scanning
tunneling microscope, allowing scientists to "see" (create direct spatial images of)
individual atoms for the first time.
• 1991: Sumio Iijima of NEC is credited with discovering the carbon nanotube (CNT).
• 2006: James Tour and colleagues at Rice University built a nanoscale car made of oligo
(phenylene ethynylene) with alkynyl axles and four spherical C60 fullerene (buckyball)
wheels. At temperatures above 300°C it moved around too fast for the chemists to keep
track of it! (Image at left.)
• 2007: Angela Belcher and colleagues at MIT built a lithium-ion battery with a common
type of virus that is nonharmful to humans, using a low-cost and environmentally benign
process. The batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-
the-art rechargeable batteries being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars, and they
could also be used to power personal electronic devices.

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Nanotechnology Examples:

• Cell Pharmacology: Use of nanomachines for site-specific delivery of drugs, and useful in
chemotherapy of targeted cancer cells.
• Cell Surgery: Use of medical nanomachines to manipulate cellular structures in genetic
engineering.
• Molecular Electronics: Use of atomically precise molecular parts for molecular switches,
circuits and nanocells for creating miniaturized nano computers.
• Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (Carraher, Jr., 1995): Useful for imaging conducting
surfaces.
• Nanocrystals: Formed by combining two or more molecules of inorganic substances, i.e.,
silica and aluminum to form commercial grade heat and rust resistant coatings.
• Nanotubes: Carbon atom aggregates in various forms at nanoscale, for example in the shape
of cylinders which are electrical conductors, can be mixed with special polymers to make
nanofibers and painted on rooftops as part of solar cells.
• Quantum Dots: Size and arrangement of nanocrystals impact physical properties such as
color (Carraher, Jr., 1994c). For example, nanogold appears orange (<1nm) or red (3- 30nm)
depending on the size and arrangement of gold aggregates.

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

What is the Philippines doing to welcome this new technology? The Philippines, through
the effort of Department of Science and Technology- Industrial Technology Development
institute (DOST-ITDI) provides opportunities and technical services to local industries by Nano
Lab.

Nanotechnology facilities and Equipment in the Philippines

Source: DOST-ITD
The following are the lists of nanotechnology projects that are being worked out in the
Philippines under the supervision of DOST- ITDI, encouraging local community to rely on what
are abundant, unexploited, and natural organic or inorganic materials:
1. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and semiconductors
eg., use of nanowires to ultrafast ICT with small power consumption
2. Solae cells
eg., dye sensitized- based solar cells (DSSC) is low-cost solar cell belonging to
the group of thin solar cells.
3. Agriculture
eg., facilitate gene transformation and expression of animal and plant cells.
4. Food
eg., biodegradable food packaging
5. Environment
eg., water purification by nanofilters for treating heavy metal contaminated water.

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MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATION

Nanotechnology Application Examples

1. Water treatment and purification • Nanomembranes for water

purification, desalination and
detoxification
• Nanosensors for the detection of
contaminants and pathogens
• Nanoporous zeolites, nanoporous,
polymers and attapulgite clays for
water purification
• TiO2 nanoparticles for the
catalytic degradation of pollutants
(Source: Salamanca- Buentello et.al
2005)
2. Environmental remediation • Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles for
The removal of contaminants and Abatement of Environmental
pollutants from the environment (e.g. Pollutants (Li, Elliott, and Zhang,
contaminated soil and ground water or 2006)
surface water) • Nanoscale iron particles (Zhang,
2003)
3. Green Nano Composites • Starch based-nano composites
Materials having ecofriendly • Cellulose based-nano composites
attributes that are technically and • Protein based nano- composites
economically feasible while minimizing
the generation of pollution (Khalil,
Bhat and Yusra 2011)

Activity 1
Instructions: Make a 3-5 minutes short video that shows you discussing the major
impacts (both potential and realized) of nanotechnology on society.

You will be graded using this criteria:

Relevance to the theme 50%

Creativity, style, and originality 30%
Coherence of form and structure 10%
Clarity of message 10%
________
100%

Recommended learning materials and resources for supplementary reading

Allhoff, E. et.al (2007). Nanoethics: The ethical and social implications of nanotechnology
Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Grumezescu, A, and Oprea., A.E. (2017).Nanotechnology applications in food: Flavor
stability, nutrition and safety. United Kingdom, UK: Academic Press.
Street, A, Sustich, R., Duncan,J., Savage, N. (2014). Nanotechnology applications for clean
water: Solutions for improving water quality. (2nd Ed.) USA: William Andrew
Publication
Yvonne, Stapp (2016) Breakthroughs in nanotechnology. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2pAr5LFFVs

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