Applications and manufacturing of nanoparticles

Written by

Insha Rafiq

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Ever wondered how these nanoparticles are formed and what are their real life applications? Let’s find out together, the Applications and manufacturing of nanoparticles.

Let’s go back to ancient times when manufacturing was done by hand. With no computers around and advanced machines to handle and analyse each and every task involved in product manufacturing. Skilled workers could only perform these tasks. Thereby slowing production time. Due to manual intervention manufacturing accuracy wasn’t up to the mark sometimes. The first major revolution that changed whole scenario of manufacturing industry was Industrial Revolution. That occurred during 18th century. Due to this major shift, instead of items being produced by skilled hands, were now manufactured using machines. Thereby decreasing production time and increasing output.

Due to continuous advancement in manufacturing technologies. We now are moving towards “NANOTECHNOLOGY ERA”. If you are a technocrat, you would have definitely heard about the word “NANOTECHNOLOGY”. As it is getting a lot of attention from past few years. Most researchers and scientists claim nanotechnology as next scientific revolution. With promises of faster gadgets, potential solution to energy crisis, cure to many diseases like cancer and the list goes on. But first we need to understand what exactly this word “Nanotechnology” mean. And can it really bring next scientific revolution ?

Norio Taniguchi, a professor of Science by profession was the person who tossed the term Nanotechnology in 1974. Nanotechnology is a field of research and innovation that is mainly concerned with building ‘things’ smartly (here smartly refers to light weighted equipment, low manufacturing cost and more efficient devices) and helps to improve many technological and industrial sectors to a large extent. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) defines nanotechnology as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers (1×10^-9m). Nanotechnology deals with smaller dimensions. When something is on the nanoscale, it measures  1 – 100 nanometers (nm) in at least one of its dimensions. 

PROPERTIES OF NANOPARTICLES

We always have observed people behave according to the situations they are in. Similarly these smart particles behave according to their dimensions .So we can say that at nanoscale dimensions, materials may behave in different and unusual way. At the nanoscale, many common materials exhibit unusual and different properties. Such as remarkable conductivity, high efficiency of solar devices, highly durable materials and list goes on.

Now lets make it more understandable by this example. At macro dimensions, gold (Au) is shiny yellow. However, when its dimensions are reduced to nano i.e 25 nm in size, gold particles appear red. Hence we can say that at nanoscale dimensions particles interact differently with light. Therefore the gold (Au) particles give us a different color shade . So it is clear that depending on the size and shape of the particles, same materials can show different properties.