Advanced materials, Pt. I

Another area that my consulting team helps clients with is advanced materials. So today, I will recap news about nanotechnologies and materials. As this is a major area within “nanotechnology” I will cover it on a monthly basis.

These bits span the period December 30, 2006, through January 12, 2007.

ENTA (the European Nanotechnology Trade Alliance) announced a free and confidential service for UK companies. The service assists companies in reporting data on engineered nanoparticles to the UK government, in an effort to insure that the particles are developed safely.

SDCmaterials announced the appointment of Joseph R. Bronson to its Board of Directors.

Paul Hansma, Patricia Turner and Rodney Ruoff announced their paper “Optimized adhesives for strong, lightweight, damage-resistant, nanocomposite materials: new insights from natural materials.” Nanotechnology 18 (2007) 044026 (3pp).

NanoComp was featured in an article touting their nanotube advances. They have the ability to weave them into fibers and fabric; very attractive technologies for the military. (http://www.nanocomptech.com/)

Researchers at MIT and GKSS Research Center (Germany) announced shape-memory polymers that are able to change shape based on their temperature. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17116879)

University of Minnesota researcher Andreas Stein (and team) reports that they have developed a new technique for creating nanoscopic cubes and spheres of silicon dioxide. They are now able to de-construct larger structures to get the shape they want. (http://www.chem.umn.edu/groups/stein/)

University of Dayton Research Institute announced a $15 million contract with the US military for composite-based armor for vehicles. They expect that if all goes well the new armor will be available next year. Companies involved include TPI Composites and Armor Holdings Inc. The materials they create for the military are expected to show up in civilian applications such as wind turbine blades, automobile bodies, containers, and other areas where light weight and high strength are essential. (http://www.udri.udayton.edu/)

“A team of researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Zhejiang University in PR China have demonstrated nanorobotic spot welding using single-crystalline copper-filled CNTs inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM).” (http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=1192.php)

University of Pennsylvania research physicist A.T. Charlie Johnson reports on nanotube/epoxy mixes that may lead to stronger glues. (http://www.lrsm.upenn.edu/~nanophys/)


Please contact me at rocky at bir-consulting.com for detailed reports on this or any other "nanotech" area, including advanced materials, nanomedicine, energy, cleantech, etc.