nanotimes August 2011

Greetings!

Our edition of nanotimes is live now at:

 

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In the latest Aug-11 edition news in the cleantech sector predominate. Here are a few examples: Belgian researchers presented an organic polymer-based single junction solar cell with 6.9% performance in an innovative inverted device stack [page 8]; German Fraunhofer researchers achieved a solar cell efficiency of 21.4% using an industrially feasible galvanic processes and expensive silver has been replaced, mostly by copper [page 10]. 

 

I find it very exciting to see a robot flying like a seagull - presented by the German engineering firm Festo [page 26]. The first applications in military and security areas of the so called SmartBird are amazing and should guarantee good sales. 

 

Please see the news on environment and nano-technology [page 87]: The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) released its report, which makes recommendations for a "responsible and precautionary development" of nanotechnology. 

 

I am ambivalent about critical environmental associations [NGOs]. On the one hand, society and industry need a critical public, especially in the nanotech field. On the other hand, I am wondering what interests many NGOs truly represent. Some environmental activists with their partially anti-industry and anti-job remarks rather seem "completely hijacked by hypocritical big government nanny staters"*. 

 

The activists care more about an ideological agenda than the environment itself. David McElroy** has documented the story of Ronnie Bryant on his website, who operates coal mines in Alabama. In a public hearing, Bryant is so annoyed by commentaries and barriers erected by "environmental concerns" that he comes to the conclusion**: 

 

"(...). And as I stand here today, I just ... you know ... what's the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They'd be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What's the use? I don't know. I mean, I see these guys - I see them with tears in their eyes - looking for work. And if there's so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there's no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I've decided is not to open the mine. I'm just quitting. Thank you." 

 

David's report led to many reactions and commentaries especially from company owners. Their experiences are surely not restricted to the US-market and can therefore be applied to Europe, as well. 

 

People need jobs, new challenges every day - that creates innovation and progress. No government transfer payments can do that. 

 

Thomas Ilfrich

 

 

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*Comment by "JakeTaylor", July 25, 2011, In: David McElroy: "I'm just quitting": A scene right out of "Atlas Shrugged" in Birmingham: http://www.davidmcelroy.org/?p=1586

 

**© David McElroy: "I'm just quitting": A scene right out of "Atlas Shrugged" in Birmingham: http://www.davidmcelroy.org/?p=1586


 

Organic Solar Cell Architecture Sets New Performance Level [8]

The Belgian research centre imec, together with Plextronics and Solvay (SOLB.BE), presented at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (PVSEC) in Hamburg, Germany, an organic polymer-based single junction solar cell with 6.9% performance in an innovative inverted device stack.

Combining imec's scalable inverted device architecture and Plextronics' polymers, new levels of cell efficiency were achieved. The polymer was also integrated into a module resulting in excellent module level efficiencies of 5% for an aperture area of 25cm².

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Long-Term-Stable Copper Metallization and Industrially Feasible Processes Have Enabled 21.4% Efficiency [10]

 

Reductions in the electricity generation costs for photovoltaics can be reached through two mechanisms: improving the efficiency of solar cells and reducing their production costs. With advanced processes for metallization of solar cells, both effects can be reached at the same time. 

 

In the ETAlab(R) at Fraunhofer ISE, Germany, the technology of producing solar cell contacts 100% from low-cost materials has been achieved. In doing so, industrially feasible galvanic processes were used and expensive silver has been replaced, mostly by copper. 

 

The researchers achieved a solar cell efficiency of 21.4% using this approach. Especially remarkable: this result is comparable with values from solar cells using a highly efficient titanium/palladium/ silver contact system, which must be created in comparatively expensive vacuum laboratory processes.

 

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Mercedes-Benz Innovation: NANOSLIDE for Lower Consumption [12]
 
After five years and use exclusively in AMG engines, twin-wire arc spraying technology will now also be used in the series production of Mercedes-Benz diesel engines. 
 
Mercedes-Benz was the developer of what is now known as NANOSLIDE technology, in which twin-wire arc spraying is used to melt iron/carbon wires and spray them onto the cylinder surfaces of the lightweight aluminium crankcase with the help of a gas flow. 
 
Very fine finishing of the resulting nano-crystalline iron coating creates an almost mirror-like, smooth surface with fine pores, which reduces friction and wear between the piston assembly and the cylinder wall. Other advantages include lower engine weight, less fuel consumption and lower emissions. 
 
This innovation from Mercedes-Benz has been successfully used in the 6.3-litre AMG engines since 2006. 

Companies -  [14]


A123 Systems
3M

Accelrys
Advanced Diamond Technologies (ADT)
ALD NanoSolutions
Alexium International Group
ALPS ELECTRIC
Altair Nanotechnologies
AMRI
AMSilk / Fraunhofer Institute
API Technologies Corp.
Arrowhead Research
austriamicrosystems

BioMers / Nanostart
Bruker Corporation

Cabot Corp.

Carl Zeiss
China Medical Technologies
CVD Equipment Corporation

DELO Industrial Adhesives
Diversified Nano Corporation (DNC)
Dyesol Inc.

Exilica, U.K. / Seven Scent

Festo
FibeRio Technology Corp.
Fluidigm Corporation
FRX Polymers

GigOptix
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
Goodfellow

Headwaters
Holmenkol / Nanostart
Hynix Semiconductor / Toshiba

IBM
Illumina
Industrial Nanotech
Infineon Technologies

Konarka Technologies
Leica Microsystems
Liquidmetal Technologies
Luna Innovations

Magnisense
MicroGen Systems
mPhase Technologies

Nanoco Group
Nanocomp Technologies
Nanogate
NanoInk
NanoLogix
NanoMas Technologies
Nanometrics
Nano-Nouvelle
Nanophase Technologies
Nanostart
NanoString Technologies
Nanosurf
Nanosys
National Semiconductor
NEI Corporation
NeoPhotonics
Novaled

OBDUCAT
Oerlikon Solar
Omniprobe

P2i
pSivida Corp.

QED Technologies International

sarastro
Selecta Biosciences
Spire
Starpharma Holdings

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe
Triton Systems / Kaman

Universal Display Corporation

Veeco Instruments
VIRIAL
Vistec Electron Beam Lithography Group

WITec

Xidex
ZAGG

 

 

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Nanoparticle-based Protein Detection / Optoplasmonic Superlenses [60]

 

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University (USA), Boston University (USA), Wyss Institute for Bioinspired Engineering, Harvard, Cambridge (USA), and Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (Germany) demonstrate a biosensing approach which, for the first time, combines the high sensitivity of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) with a metallic nanoparticle-based assay. 

 

They provide a computational model based on generalized Mie theory to explain the higher sensitivity of protein detection. They quantitatively analyze the binding of a model protein (i.e., Bovine Serum Albumin) to gold nanoparticles from high-Q WGM resonance frequency shifts, and fit the results to an adsorption isotherm, which agrees with the theoretical predictions of a two-component adsorption model.

 

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Complementary-Type Graphene Inverters Operating at Room Temperature [61]

Purdue researchers are making progress in creating digital transistors using a material called graphene, potentially sidestepping an obstacle thought to dramatically limit the material's use in computers and consumer electronics.

 

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Water keeps Nanoparticle Size Under 3nm Diameter [62]

 

Scientists at the University of Leicester, UK, have discovered a size-selecting effect of water on nanoparticles that are dissolved in it. First, the team injected silicon nanoparticles with different size distributions into liquid water. 

 

Next, the researchers placed a drop of the suspension on a graphite surface, dried it in vacuum and measured the heights of nanoparticles using atomic force microscopy. 

 

All samples showed small heights of about 1nm on average. The heights never exceeded 3nm regardless of the size distribution of the nanoparticles that were injected in the water.

 

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Broadband Terahertz Invisibility Cloak [65]

 

Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible in the terahertz range. Though this design can't translate into an invisibility cloak for the visible spectrum, it could have implications in diagnostics, security, and communication. 

 

The cloak uses microfabricated gradient-index materials to manipulate the reflection and refraction of light. In order to manipulate light in the terahertz frequency, which lies between infrared and microwaves, the research group developed metamaterials. 

 

The tiny, prism-shaped cloaking structure, less than 10mm long, was created using a technique called electronic transfer microstereolithography, where researchers use a data projector to project an image on a liquid polymer, then use light to transform the liquid layer into a thin solid layer. 

 

Each of the prism's 220 layers has tiny holes that are much smaller than terahertz wavelengths, which means they can vary the refraction index of the light and render invisible anything located beneath a bump on the prism's bottom surface; the light then appears to be reflected by a flat surface.

 

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The Nanoscale Secret to Stronger Alloys [69]

Scientists and their colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have combined atomic-scale observations with the powerful TEAM microscope at Berkeley Lab's National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) with atom-probe tomography and other experimental techniques, and with theoretical calculations, to reveal how nanoparticles consisting of cores rich in scandium and surrounded by lithium-rich shells can disperse in remarkably uniform sizes throughout a pure aluminum matrix.


Researchers Find Way To Align Gold Nanorods On A Large Scale [76]

Researchers from North Carolina State University, USA, have developed a simple, scalable way to align gold nanorods, particles with optical properties that could be used for emerging biomedical imaging technologies. 
Aligning gold nanorods is important because they respond to light differently, depending on the direction in which the nanorods are pointed. To control the optical response of the nanorods, researchers want to ensure that all of the nanorods are aligned.

 

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e-Paper - i2R e-Paper Liquid Crystal [78]

The new-type polarizer protective film HyTAC technology has been applied a unique organic and inorganic nano material mixing technology. 
The highly transparent optical film and low-toxic manufacturing processes not only conforms to the trend of environmental protection but can also replace using TAC film for the current polarizers. 
It is a critical material autonomously researched and developed in Taiwan. It will enhance the competitive edge of local LCD display industry and become extensive upstream materials for display.

 

Flash:

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Nanomaterials in Food [90] 
The NanoLyse project addresses the increasing need for analytical tools for the measurement of engineered nanomaterials in food. 
The first phase of the project focused on the procurement and characterisation of suitable nanoparticles for use in method and reference material development.

 

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nanotimes 2010 - 2012

http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf 

 

 

http://content.yudu.com/A1tef6/Nanotimes07-2011/

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_07.pdf 

 

 

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PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_05.pdf 

 

 

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PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_04.pdf 


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PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_03.pdf 


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PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_01.pdf 


http://content.yudu.com/A1q7iq/Nanotimes11-2010/

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_11.pdf 


http://content.yudu.com/A1pft8/Nanotimes09-2010/

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_09.pdf 


http://content.yudu.com/A1owv0/Nanotimes08-2010/

PDF:  http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_08.pdf


http://content.yudu.com/A1oa1i/Nantimes05-2010/

PDF:  http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_05.pdf





http://content.yudu.com/A1n2ls/Nanotimes03-2010/

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_03.pdf


http://content.yudu.com/A1jcgv/Nanotimes02-2010

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_02.pdf


http://content.yudu.com/A1kl8a/Nanotimes01-2010/ 

PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_10_01.pdf

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IVCON-Team  
  

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Comments

  • Dear IVCON-team, you are doing a great job! Thanks a lot for actual Nanotimes.

    Dear Thomas Ilfrich your comment on the SRU "German Advisory Council on the Environment" and your concern about such environmental organisations is incredably important to be spread out these days as some of them raise apocalyptic scenarios without scientificly relevant knowledge of nano particles.

    One of these clusters is e.g. based in Geneva in Switzerland with a high output of publications but very poor scientic background. All the toxicologic danger scenarios are based on completely non realistic particle exposure conditions. But pointing out dangers is soo popular and gains much more attention than plain science.  

    With respect to SRU just have a look at the members, all excellent scientists in their fields, but no real natural scientist among them. No physicist, no chemist to make known that free moving nanoparticles are nearly non existing in enviroment as, because of their high surface loading, they tend to adsorb to the next availabel particle at once and that is the most difficult task for all nanoparticle producers to set up surroundings in which the nanoparticles stay fixed or ionically separated from eachother.

    As a good but not so well known counterpart to such aberration you should have a look to DaNa, they are publishing www.nanopartikel.info also in english and desperately try to bring a scientific view into this field.

    It needs all our efforts to fight back populist apocalytic scenarios that might end up in too restrictive laws based on just ignorance of natural science background. Please go on like you did and support our efforts.  

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