Nanotechnology Products

Many common products on the market today already make use of nanotechnology:

• Sun screen -- By using nanoparticles of zinc oxide instead of bulk particles, the cream becomes more transparent.
• Self-cleaning glass -- A product called Pilkington Activ glass incorporates nanoparticles to keep the glass clear of debris. Upon contact with the sun's rays, the nanoparticles break down unwanted organic particles that have accumulated on the glass. Rain then washes the remains away.
• Clothing -- By coating fabrics with nanoparticles of zinc oxide, clothing can offer protection from UV radiation or stains.
• Scratch-resistant coating -- By adding aluminum silicate nanoparticles to the coating, scratch-resistant surfaces become even more effective.
• Antimicrobial bandages -- By using nanoparticles of silver in bandages, harmful cells are destroyed.
• Swimming pool disinfectants -- By using nano-sized drops of oil along with bactericide to disinfect pools, the cleaning is more effective.

Fabric Coating Takes the Ouch Out of Speeding Bullets

When a heavy bullet slams into soft body armor, it can cause a lot of damage even without penetrating the fabric. If that armor is coated with Nanorepel, the force will spread out over a much wider area, in effect cushioning the blow. At the moment of impact, a thin layer of organic molecules on the surface of each fiber freezes up, locking the sturdy strands in place. A company called First Choice Armor is using that technology in its N-Force line of vests, which hit the market in the summer of '08.

Nanoparticles Give Power Tools More Juice

As an everyday rechargeable battery releases energy, lithium ions wiggle out from a cobalt oxide cathode and race through a membrane to a carbon anode. Those devices are low in power, wear out quickly, and run the risk of catching fire or exploding.

MIT researcher Yet-Ming Chiang solved all of those problems by replacing the positive electrode with nanoparticles of a new material, lithium iron phosphate, which allows the ions to swiftly slip out and return just as quickly during a recharge cycle. Black and Decker and DeWalt have started using the batteries in high-end power tools, and appear in the Chevy Volt electric car.

Bits of Palm-Tree Wax Hide the Streaks on Your Ride

If you coat your car in an ordinary polish, it will be covered with swirl marks and possibly an unsightly gloss or haze. By formulating their product with bits of carnauba (palm-tree wax) that are only nanometers wide, automotive cosmetics maker Eagle One says it's able to make a coating that always goes on clear.

Since the carnauba wax particles are tremendously small, they appear transparent. Their minuscule size also lets them fill the tiniest flaws and adhere strongly to paint. Sunblock manufacturers accomplish the same trick using zinc oxide.

Semiconductor Nanoparticles Make Printing Solar Cells Affordable

Solar cells are expensive in part because they are hard to make. Most of them are produced in vacuum chambers that use tons of energy to deposit thin layers of semiconductor materials onto a flawless wafer. Nanosolar churns them out at a fraction of the cost by printing nanoparticles on spools of cheap metal foil. The start-up company is currently building larger factories to ramp up production.

Gold Nanoparticles Make Pregnancy Tests Easy to Read

Gold nanoparticles can make the pink "get ready to be a parent" mark on home pregnancy tests much easier to read. When a woman gets pregnant, her body immediately starts making the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). As the potential mother urinates into a sample-collection area and the pee migrates to a test strip, some of the antibody-coated gold nanoparticles on the strip latch onto the hCG, migrate up the paper, and collect at an indicator line. If the chemical is not present in her urine, all of the pink nanoparticles will drift up the strip, past the pregnancy-indicator line to a second marker.

Clay Coating Keeps the Air in Tennis Balls

For several years, Wilson Sporting Goods lined its high-end Double Core tennis balls with a composite made from butyl rubber and vermiculite and developed by nanotech company InMat. The clay nanoparticles would spread out like sheets of paper scattered across a floor and keep air molecules from escaping, which kept the balls firm for an unusually long time. But American tennis players didn't want to pay more for a ball that lasted longer, so Wilson discontinued it

.

Aluminosilicate Nanoparticles Stop Bleeding in a Hurry

Nosebleeds can last for hours, but a bandage that has been infused with aluminosilicate nanoparticles--just roll it up and jam it in your nose--can stop them almost immediately. The inorganic specks, which are derived from kaolin clay, trigger the body's natural clotting process. For years doctors have used the same substance to test their patients' blood-clotting ability.

Two chemists at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Sarah Baker and April Sawvel, realized that the material could be used to halt severe bleeding. Their mentor, Galen Stucky, filed a patent and worked with Z-Medica to develop a product that can save wounded soldiers. The technology just hit the civilian market.

source : Discover Megazine