nanotechnology

Diamonds for extreme electronics

Keeping electronics cool in high power applications such as telecommunications and building electronics on the nanoscale are two areas where there is an alternative to traditional silicon—electronics using diamond.

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A step towards an everlasting battery

Imagine a future where recharging your tablet could be as easy as typing a tweet—where portable electronic devices power themselves without ever plugging into the grid. Researchers at RMIT University, Melbourne have assessed the capacity of piezoelectric films—thin layers that turn mechanical pressure into electricity—to do this.

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Measuring the nano world

Nanotechnology is the revolution that promises wrinkle-resistant clothing, invisible sunscreens and drug delivery direct to the cellular level.

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Windows—the next solar panels

Nanotube coatings on windows could deliver green energy to homes and offices in a few years.

Silicon, which is used extensively in solar cells, can conduct electricity and, after some processing, can convert light energy directly into electrical energy. However, this processing is very energy intensive and it currently takes solar photovoltaics about ten years of service to produce the energy required to make the device.

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Sunscreens go nano

CSIRO scientist Dr Maxine McCall is testing sunscreens containing nanoparticles to assess the safety of these products.

Sunscreens have long contained bulk particles of zinc and titanium oxides as their active ingredients to absorb or reflect damaging ultraviolet light. In contrast to chemical absorbers, such as octyl methoxycinnamate, the oxides work over most of the ultraviolet band. These oxides appear white on the skin, but at a nanoscale they are clear.

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Tiny particles could assist in breast cancer screening

Blood tests using nanoparticles carrying molecules which can detect breast cancer biomarkers could save millions of lives and open the way to mass screening for many cancers.

Over a million new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year and the number is rising. “Early detection is a life saver,” says Matt. “About 90 per cent of cancer patients will survive beyond five years as long as the cancer is detected and treated early. In the late stages of the disease, that figure can drop to 10 to 20 per cent.

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Detecting aircraft fatigue

The only way to find out whether the internal structures of an aircraft are corroded is to pull the plane apart and look. But new nanotechnology-based techniques being developed by Prof. Tanya Monro, Director of University of Adelaide’s Centre of Expertise in Photonics, in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, could make costly visual inspection in preventive aircraft maintenance a thing of the past.

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Nano-magnets to guide drugs to their target

Microscopic magnets ferrying drugs through the bloodstream directly to diseased tissue are a new ‘green chemistry’ product which will improve health and the environment.

A team led by Prof. Colin Raston, of the University of Western Australia fabricated the nano ‘bullets’ which can be directed by an external magnetic field to specific parts of the body. The new technology will enable doctors to send the drugs directly to the disease site, leaving healthy tissue intact and minimising toxic side-effects.

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Australia’s place in the nanotechnology race

CSIRO researchers are applying nanotechnology to drug delivery, medical body imaging, nerve repair, smart textiles and clothing, medical devices, plastic solar cells (see From plastic money to plastic electricity) and much more.

“Nanotechnology is not an industry—it is an enabling technology,” says Clive Davenport, leader of CSIRO’s Future Manufacturing Flagship.

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Measuring mercury with a Midas touch

RMIT University researchers have used nanotechnology to create a pioneering sensor that can precisely measure one of the world’s most poisonous substances—mercury.

The mercury sensor developed by RMIT’s Industrial Chemistry Group uses tiny flecks of gold that are nano-engineered to make them irresistible to mercury molecules.

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