Yesterday there was a very encouraging posting (by guest blogger Tihamer Toth-Fejel) on the Responsible Nanotechnology blog, regarding recent goings-on with mechanosynthesis. What the heck is mechanosynthesis? It is the idea that we will build molecules by putting atoms specifically where we want, rather than leaving them adrift in a sea of Brownian motion and random diffusion. Maybe not atoms per se, maybe instead small molecules or bits of molecules (a CH₃ group here, an OH group there) with the result that we will build the molecules we really want, with little or no waste. The precise details about how we will do this are up for a certain amount of debate. We used to talk about assemblers, now we talk about nanofactories, but the idea of intentional design and manufacture of specific molecules remains.

The two items of real interest in the CRN blog posting are these.

First, Philip Moriarty, a scientist in the UK, has secured a healthy chunk of funding to do experimental work to validate the theoretical work done by Ralph Merkle and Rob Freitas in designing tooltips and processes for carbon-hydrogen mechanosynthesis, with the goal of being able to fabricate bits of diamondoid that have been specified at an atomic level. If all goes well, writes Toth-Fejel:

Four years from now, the Zyvex-led DARPA Tip-Based Nanofabrication project expects to be able to put down about ten million atoms per hour in atomically perfect nanostructures, though only in silicon (additional elements will undoubtedly follow; probably taking six months each).

Second is that people are now starting to use small machines to build other small machines, and to do so at interesting throughputs. An article at Small Times reports:

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) uses atomic force microscope (AFM) tips as pens and dips them into inks containing anything from DNA to semiconductors. The new array from Chad Mirkin’s group at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., has 55,000 pens – far more than the previous largest array, which had 250 pens.

So there are two take-home messages here. First, researchers are getting ready to work with the large numbers of atoms needed to build anything of reasonable size in a reasonable amount of time. Second, this stuff is actually happening rather than remaining a point of academic discussion.

Toth-Fejel writes:

What happens when we use probe-based nanofabrication to build more probes? …What happens when productive nanosystems get built, and are used to build better productive nanosystems? The exponential increase in atomically precise manufacturing capability will make Moore’s law look like it’s standing still.

Interesting stuff.

Bruce Sterling gave an interesting talk at a SIGGRAPH conference in 2004. He described two kinds of human artifacts, blobjects and spimes. Blobjects are simply artifacts that have been designed with modern CAD systems, so their shapes are more curvy and sexy than the same-functioned artifacts of past generations. Examples are the iMac and the new VW beetle.

The spime is a different beast. It is jam-packed full of information technology. It has RFID or Bluetooth to talk to nearby computers (or maybe other spimes). It has GPS so it knows where on Earth it is. It knows how to connect to the Internet. It willingly participates in data mining efforts by Google and other search engines and advertisers. In addition to being designed with a CAD system, it might be manufactured with rapid prototyping techniques such as 3D printers.

Sterling’s predictions about the spimes’ use of information are cynical. They are programmed by the corporations that built them. They collect consumer demographics information about the people who buy and use them. Their first allegiance is to their manufacturer. They are smart enough that the distinction has teeth – the hand drill I bought at Sears does not change its behavior to act in Sears’ best interests rather than mine.

If spimes aren’t nanotechnology, why am I writing about them in a nanotech blog? Because they shake loose my thinking about what products could be. I hadn’t thought about ANY of this stuff before I read the transcript of Sterling’s talk. My cell phone today has way more computing power than the Apollo guidance computer had. When a ballpoint pen has way more computing power than my cell phone has today, of course somebody will program it to do things like this.

nanotechnology, abbreviated as “nanotech” is the study of control of matter at the atomic and molecular scale. Nanotechnology deals generally with the structures of the size of 100 nanometers or less and involves developing materials or devices of this size.

Summary 5

What you need to know about nanotechnology 6

6 History 6 Introduction nanotechnology basics 10

What are nanomaterials? 10
What is the molecular self-assembly? 11

11 molecular nanotechnology techniques used in nanotechnology 13


15 15 medical chemistry and the environment 16

Power IT and communications 17 17
consumer goods 18

Aerospace Structures 18 19 Implications of Nanotechnology

19 Health and safety in terms of 19
nanoparticles environmental issues 20

What you should know about PV

22 Introduction 22-day general industry
23 23 Global Market Applications
/ br> 25
PV in buildings 26

27 concept of PV />
27 rural electrification storage
Utilities with a photovoltaic system connected to the hybrid network 28

distributed generation systems 30 PV energy PV 30 and economy 31

financial incentives for PV Environmental Impacts 32

34 Advantages and disadvantages of photovoltaics 34

Nanotechnology

PV 37
use of nanotechnology in the energy industry 37
nanotechnology and solar energy in the nanolayers 40

cell stack 43 points for Quantum Solar Cells 43
new materials for photovoltaic 44

nanotechnology research in the use of PV 46

50 players from Major Nanosolar

50 52
NanoGram Corporation Heliovolt 53
Konarka Technologies, Inc.
SunFlake 54 of 56

Appendix 58

Glossary 65

List figures and

figures

Figure 1: Hybrid Power Systems 30
Figure 2: Diagram of a solar cell 41
Nano Figure 3 : The feasibility of nanomaterials (high productivity possible with the printing process / br> <) 44
Figure 4: Activity and diversity of the countries Top 10 Nanotechnology Publications thin film solar cells

49 Figure 5:
Through Satellite 58 Figure 6: Center for Solar Tower reception or
58 Figure 7: Parabolic Dish 59
Figure 8:
photovoltaic roof 59 Figure 9: Cost of photovoltaic energy for consumers and manufacturing shipments
60 Figure 10: Diagram of a photovoltaic cell 60
Figure 11: Parabolic Trough solar system combined with / br 61 Figure 12: Installation of a receiver solar thermal energy system 61
Figure 13: A solar pond Agreement
61 Figure 14: Integrated Solar / Combined Cycle System (ISCC) 63

tables

Table 1: Some examples cleantech
38 Table 2: first solar thermal
plants 62 Table 3: Comparison of solar thermal technologies
63 Table 4: Cost reduction in the Trough solar thermal power plants 63

For more information on this report and purchase a copy please visit:
http://www.visionshopsters.com/product/1076/Nanotechnology- Photovoltaic Market and Trends, Potential. html

Contact:

Visionshopsters
Tel: 91-22-40583000 EMAILID

marketing @ visionshopsters.com Site: www.visionshopsters.com