Greetings!
Our edition of nanotimes is live now at:
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/resources/plainText.htm
PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
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
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
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PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
*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
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.
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/resources/plainText.htm PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
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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.
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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
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/resources/plainText.htm PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
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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.
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
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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.
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/resources/plainText.htm PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
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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.
Flash:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/
Plain text version live at:
http://content.yudu.com/A1tyfc/Nanotimes08-2011/resources/plainText.htm PDF: http://www.nano-times.com/files/nanotimes_11_08.pdf
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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.
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Best Regards
IVCON-Team
phone: +49(0)30 48492774
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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.