Agilent Measurement Journal - Issue 3 - 2007 - (Page 11)

Some products already on the market have been given remarkable characteristics by applying nanotechnology: • Textiles woven with carbon nanotubes can be both waterproof and stain resistant. N • Nanotech-enhanced fabrics are strong enough to be bullet proof. • Paints and coatings enhanced with nanoparticles are highly scratch resistant. • Batteries made with nanoparticles enable industrial power tools to run all day on a single charge, and projects are under way to extend this technology into battery-powered vehicles. Researchers are also investigating nanotubes and nanoparticles as materials that may someday revolutionize medicine. As an example, nanoparticles coated with antigens can pass through the body and attach themselves to diseased cells. When illuminated with light they will glow, making it possible to locate and destroy affected cells without damaging the surrounding tissues or causing harmful side effects in the patient. Nanotechnology is one of today’s best-funded areas of research. All around the world, multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers are looking for ways to create a variety of materials, devices and products by exploiting the unique properties of nanoscale structures. These teams are exploring a truly small world: A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. To put this into perspective, assume that a meter is the distance from New York to Los Angeles. At this scale, the diameter of a human hair would be the equivalent of eight football ﬁelds, a human cell would be the size of a basketball court and nanotechnology would encompass any device or structure smaller than a basketball. One nanometer would be the size of a red ant. In the nanoscale world, atoms, molecules, proteins and nanoscale devices play by the rules of atomic forces, molecular bonds and quantum mechanics. As a result, materials developed with nanotechnology exhibit signiﬁcantly different properties in the macro world. Observing, measuring and characterizing these properties and behaviors at the nanoscale is a challenge for researchers — and for companies such as Agilent that provide measurement tools. Making meaningful measurements To create new products based on nanotechnology, researchers must be able to image, manipulate and measure at the nanoscale. Unfortunately, nanoscale devices cannot be viewed with ordinary optical microscopes because they are smaller than the wavelength of light. Instead, observation requires advanced instruments that scan the surface. When nanoscale devices are used as sensors, special care is needed to characterize their electrical properties. These sensors can, for example, change their electrical characteristics when a molecule binds to their surface. Highly sensitive multimeters, semiconductor analyzers or impedance analyzers — along with good measurement techniques — are needed to detect changes measured in femtoamps (10-15 A) or nanovolts (10-9 V). The chemistry of nanoscale fabrication faces similar challenges stemming from extremely dilute chemistries and very small amounts of analytes. Measuring and controlling these processes requires highly precise chromatographic and electrophoretic Creating remarkable properties In general, products designed with nanoscale structures and devices will be stronger, lighter, faster and more energy efﬁcient than their conventional counterparts. For example, carbon nanotubes — tubular arrays of carbon atoms — are the strongest structure known to man. These can be inserted into metals or polymers, increasing their strength by 10 to 50 percent. Used alone, they can serve as semiconductors or high-performance sensors. Agilent Measurement Journal 11

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Agilent Measurement Journal - Issue 3 - 2007

Applying Ingenuity to the Measurement of Emerging Technologies Contents Emerging Innovations Department Delivering Bigger Benefits by Optimizing Customer Workflows Measuring Material Properties at the Nanoscale Utilizing In Situ Atomic Force Microscopy in Life Science, Pharmaceutical and other Bio-Related Applications WiMAX™: Plotting a New Path to Global Mobility Addressing the Triple Complexity of Triple-Play Networks What Next for Mobile Telephony? Exploring the Inner Workings of Tire-Pressure Monitoring Systems Developing, Assessing and Applying a High-Resolution Thin-Film Magnetic Probe Making Accurate Settling-Time Measurements Using a Vector Network Analyzer Applying Metabolomics Methods to the Study of Bacterial Leaf Blight in Rice Plants Measuring Stream Dynamics with Fiber Optics survey

Agilent Measurement Journal - Issue 3 - 2007

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