Graphene-based gadgets may be just years away
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Researchers at The University of Manchester have produced tiny liquid crystal devices with electrodes made from graphene - an exciting development that could lead to computer and TV displays based on this technology.
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Researchers at The University of Manchester have produced tiny liquid crystal devices with electrodes made from graphene - an exciting development that could lead to computer and TV displays based on this technology.
Writing in the American Chemical Society's journal Nano Letters, Dr Kostya Novoselov and colleagues from The School of Physics and Astronomy and The School of Computer Science, report on the use of graphene as a transparent conductive coating for electro-optical devices - and show that its high transparency and low resistivity make it ideal for electrodes in liquid crystal devices.
Graphene was discovered at The University of Manchester back in 2004, by Professor Andre Geim FRS and Royal Society Research Fellow Dr Kostya Novoselov. This incredible one-atom-thick gauze of carbon atoms, which resembles chicken wire, has quickly become one of the hottest topics in physics and materials science.
"Graphene is only one atom thick, optically transparent, chemically inert, and an excellent conductor," says Dr Novoselov, from the Manchester research team.
"These properties seem to make this material an excellent candidate for applications in various electro-optical devices that require conducting but transparent thin films. We believe graphene should improve the durability and simplify the technology of potential electronic devices that interact with light."
Prof Geim said: "Transparent conducting films are an essential part of many gadgets including common liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for computers, TVs and mobile phones.
"The underlying technology uses thin metal-oxide films based on indium. But indium is becoming an increasingly expensive commodity and, moreover, its supply is expected to be exhausted within just 10 years.
"Forget about oil - our civilisation will first run out of indium. Scientists have an urgent task on their hands to find new types of conductive transparent films."
The Manchester research team has now demonstrated highly transparent and highly conductive ultra-thin films that can be produced cheaply by 'dissolving' chunks of graphite - an abundant natural resource - into graphene and then spraying the suspension onto a glass surface.
The resulting graphene-based films can be used in LCDs and, to prove the concept, the research team have demonstrated the first liquid crystal devices with graphene electrodes.
Dr Novoselov believes that there are only a few small, incremental steps remain for this technology to reach a mass production stage. "Graphene-based LCD products could appear in shops as soon as in a few years", he adds.
A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Germany recently reported in Nano Letters how they had used graphene-based films to create transparent electrodes for solar cells (1).
But the German team used a different technology for obtaining graphene films, which involved several extra steps.
The Manchester team says the films they have developed are much simpler to produce, and they can be used not only in LCDs but also in solar cells.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by The University of Manchester
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www.nanitenews.com
Feds seek help applying nanotech to defense
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Federal agencies and large defense contractors are looking for small businesses with good ideas and the technical expertise to pull them off.
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The goal is to solve homeland security problems and other issues ranging from defense to public health and infrastructure safety, participants learned earlier this month at the Arizona Nanotechnology Cluster Symposium.
The third annual symposium attracted more than 350 businesspeople and academics for a day to the campus of Scottsdale Community College. All had an interest in nanotechnology, the scientific field focusing on materials and devices as small as atoms and molecules.
"We've got all kinds of challenges, and we also have all kinds of opportunities," Brad Buswell, deputy undersecretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told the group. "We don't know where the next good ideas are coming from, but we want to harvest them for the protection of the country."
The Department of Homeland Security has divided its science and technology portfolio into three levels, Buswell said.
About half of its spending goes for "transition" projects, or applied science that closes gaps between existing technologies. Higher-risk, higher-payoff projects fall into the "innovation" area, such as prototypes of devices that try to solve what the transition projects can't. DHS also allocates funds for basic research, such as that done at universities and national laboratories.
Some of the department's investments have come in nanotechnology, Buswell said. The technology is being applied to next-generation X-rays and to ways to neutralize chemicals and detect liquid explosives. Nanoparticles are even being tested in high-performance concrete to make infrastructure such as dams less vulnerable, he said.
The agency solicits new ideas twice a year through its Small Business Innovation Research program. In its most recent round, projects included one that seeks to prove that a person's pupils dilate when he or she intends to deceive others, and another to develop miniature sensors to detect chemical, biological or explosive materials nearby.
The first, Buswell said, might help tell whether the anxious person racing through the airport has nefarious intentions or is merely late for a plane.
The second might result in sensors small enough to fit into Americans' ubiquitous cellphones and give authorities an early warning of chemical or biological attacks.
Millions of dollars in research grants are available to small firms through SBIR and follow-on Small Business Technology Transfer programs at DHS and other federal agencies. The Phase 1 grants run up to $100,000, while Phase 2 grants top out at $750,000.
But there are some tricks to winning them, panelists said.
Raytheon Co., whose Tucson division makes missiles, is helping defense agencies define their needs under the program, said John Waszczak, director of advanced technology and SBIR/STTR. It therefore pays to partner with a big company that is looking for small firms' technology to fill gaps, he advised.
"They're very anxious to see it get into our products," Waszczak said. "And we're looking for technologies to provide discriminators and give us a competitive edge."
John Lombardi, whose Ventana Research Corp. in Tucson develops new materials and compounds, praises the SBIR program as an alternative to seeking venture capital.
"It gets you out of the garage and into a real research endeavor," he said.
But Grant Anderson of Paragon Space Development Corp. in Tucson cautioned that simply getting the funding should not be a small company's goal. Gaps between grant cycles are common, and the topics the government is interested in are rarely exact matches for what a company does, he said. He advised looking at SBIRs as a long-term process of taking something from prototype to commercialization, and getting to know the people within agencies so they ask for your company's technologies.
Ray Friesenhahn of Montana State University's TechLink Center also advocated planning for commercialization. His organization scouts small businesses for new technologies and works with Defense Department labs to evaluate and ultimately license them.
The center has started working with Arizona businesses that may be innovative but lack the experience or connections of working with the Defense Department.
"This involves a lot of partnerships for proving you can get to market," he said.
source...
www.azcentral.com
Reading, writing and nanotechnology
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Albany High students to gain inside track on burgeoning industry. Nanotechnology is a hot topic on college campuses. Now it has arrived at high schools. Up to 400 students at Albany High will get an introduction to the emerging science in a program designed to encourage minorities to acquire skills needed for the Capital Region's burgeoning nanotechnology economy.
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The school district was one of 20 nationwide selected to establish an Academy of Engineering by the National Academy Foundation, a New York City philanthropic organization that funds programs in public high schools.
The foundation will train teachers this summer and send advisers to help the district. They will work for 15 months with a team of 30 school employees and community members to establish its program, which is slated to start in September 2009. Ninth-graders that year will be recruited for the program's first 75 to 100 slots. Another class will be added every year for four years.
Students in the Academy -- a school within a school -- will take a core curriculum of math and science courses along with their regular courses. They will prepare for college and careers by interning at local nanotech businesses.
The initiative will make an underrepresented population of Albany students top candidates for higher paying local jobs, said Jackie Carrese, the district's instructional supervisor for science.
"Science is advancing so fast, we can't keep up with it," she said. "We can't find the workforce to keep up with these jobs."
She added: "Our kids can do it. We have to open the workforce to them."
The district has made an effort to connect its students to the nanotechnology industry, which is cooperating with the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Two introductory nanoscience courses already offered at Albany High independent of the new program may be a national first for a public school, and an advanced course will start next year.
Concepts in nanoscience -- the study and development of technology on the atomic and molecular level -- are currently taught to Albany sixth-graders. The district recently received $200,000 in grants from the state Department of Education and the Society for Manufacturing Engineers to establish nanotechnology programs for seventh- and eighth-graders.
Superintendent Eva Joseph said the city district's focus on nanotechnology is modeled on other districts around the country that directly link students to local industries. She said it is the district's responsibility to open the doors to future local jobs for its graduates.
"We would be remiss if we weren't connecting ourselves to the opportunities here for our children," Joseph said.
Scott Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.
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