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Bottom-Up Production Techniques
- Cientifica |
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The
distinction between bottom-up and top-down production
techniques is often made in writings on
nanotechnology. Top-down techniques take a bulk
material and form and modify it into the desired
product. This often, but not always, involves removing
some material in the form of wastage. An example would
be the machining of a metal engine component or the
nanostructuring of metals through deformation (the
latter not involving wastage). Bottom-up techniques
build something from more basic materials. An example
would be the building of an engine out of the
component parts. In general there is less likely to be
wastage with bottom-up approaches, but this is not
necessarily true (a component in a self-assembling
process but which is not wanted in the resulting
product and would need discarding). |
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Dendrimers
- Cientifica |
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Dendrimers are large and complex molecules with very
well-defined chemical structures. From a polymer
chemistry point of view, dendrimers are nearly perfect
monodisperse (basically meaning of a consistent size
and form) macromolecules with a regular and highly
branched three-dimensional architecture. They consist
of three major architectural components: core,
branches, and end groups. Dendimers are produced in an
iterative sequence of reaction steps, in which each
additional iteration leads to a higher generation
dendriner. The creation of dendriners, using
specifically-designed chemical reactions, in one of
the best examples of controlled hierarchical
synthesis, an approach that allows the "bottom-up"
creation of complex systems. |
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Molecular Electronics
- CMP Cientifica |
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Nanotechnology: The Tiny Revolution
Nanotechnology will change the world, the pundits tell
us, and people are racing to become a part of the new
craze, launching web sites, special reports,
companies, and products with the nano prefix. Over two
billion dollars a year of government money is being
pumped into nanotechnology world wide, matched by a
similar amount from private industry. Yet, despite the
plethora of research reports in recent months, few of
the pundits seem to be have of a grasp of what
nanotechnology encompasses or how it is going to
achieve these supposed dramatic effects. Reporting,
both from the popular press and respected business
sources, all too often mixes up nanotechnologies that
are just around the corner with those that are highly
speculative or very long-term. |
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Tools
- Cientifica |
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This
section is effectively about our ability to view and
manipulate the world on the nanoscale. It revolves
primarily around microscopy techniques that already
ahve some history and a significant and growing
market, i.e. atomic force microscopy (AFM) and
scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). These techniques
and their variants are grouped under the term scanning
probe microscopy (SPM). There are quite a few variants
on these approaches, from magnetic force microscopes
to AFM tips with nanotubes attached that can be
functionalized (modified to perform a specific
function, usually in a chemical sense). SPMs can also
manipulate matter on the atomic scale. They can move
individual atoms or be used to make kinks in a nanotube. |
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Nanotechnology
- U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency |
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The
paper begins with an introduction that describes
what nanotechnology is, why the EPA is interested
in it, and what opportunities and challenges exist
regarding nanotechnology and the environment. It
then moves to a discussion of the potential
environmental benefits of nanotechnology,
describing environmental technologies as well as
other applications that can foster sustainable use
of resources. Following is a brief section on risk
management and the Agency's statutory mandates,
which sets the stage for a discussion of risk
assessment issues specific to nanotechnology. The
paper then provides an extensive review of
research needs for both environmental applications
and implications of nanotechnology. To help EPA
focus on priorities for the near term, the paper
concludes with recommendations on next steps for
addressing science policy issues and research
needs. Supplemental information is provided in a
number of applications. |
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Nanotechnology Risk Governance
- IRGC |
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(The
International Risk Governance Council is a Private
Foundation established under Articles 80 and
thereafter of the Swiss Civil Code.) Begins with a
brief description of nanotechnology and its likely
future development both in terms of research and the
types of product that it does and could support. There
are many of them, reflecting the vast range of
potential applications for this exciting new science.
The document then uses the IRGC's risk governance
framework, which we published in 2005, to analyse and
identify current deficits in nanotechnology's risk
governance today. This analysis has led to the
inclusion ... of a particularly innovative way of
looking at nanotechnology and its risk governance. We
have categorized nanotechnology in two distinct but
overlapping frames, one being for technologies and
applications that are already on, or will shortly be
available, the market and the other being for the
longer term. Each of these frames poses a different
set of risk governance concerns, although some
concerns are common to both frames. |
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