Science and Engineering at the Scale that
Nature Designs
"The Next Industrial Revolution?"
"the potential is too great to ignore."
Mark Ratner & Daniel Ratner
Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea, 2003
"a point that is most important is that it would have an
enormous number of technical applications."
Richard P. Feynman, There's Plenty of Room at
the Bottom, APS meeting (December 19, 1959) www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
Nano-scale materials are the basic building blocks of
nano-technology. As in previous developing technologies, the availability of
high quality materials with properties specific to product design may be the
limiting factor for the rate of progress in nano-technology. The
(1)
Marketing research for this enterprise involves the
study of how nanotechnology may be used to improve current products, or allow
for new areas of commercialization previously inhibited by micro-technology.
From a materials perspective, we may consider how new types of nano-structured
materials may replace micro-structured materials. As a starting point in this
enterprise, we could consider market research and product development in the
areas of electrodeposited ceramics, coated electric discharge machining (EDM)
wire and coated particles. Nano-structured coatings may be produced in
economically feasible processes and we don’t have to worry about the ‘bulk
nano-structured material’ problem. EDM wire is a value added material that
currently consists of a Cu wire core with a thin brass coating. The brass
coating acts to inhibit the erosion of the wire during the electric discharge
cutting process, as a constant wire thickness is necessary to obtain the specs
for the work piece. The brass coating is currently applied by an electrochemical
deposition of Zn followed by a heat treatment. These wires can only be used
once. However, coating the wire using a continuous sputter deposition process
could provide wire coatings with a much greater degree of design flexibility.
For example, one might consider a composite coating formed by the co-sputter of
Cu and Tungsten Carbide. The resulting nano-structured coating may provide
extreme wear resistance, allowing for multiple cutting operations with the same
wire.
Coated particles have uses as catalysts
and electrode materials. I am aware that much of the nano-coating technology is
currently focused on solution chemistry methods. We might explore the
commercialization of vapor phase coating of particles in order to increase the
flexibility of the coating materials design.
(2)
Manufacturing process development will require enabling
the economic feasibility of the products through appropriate engineering of the
production methodology. This will include in depth interaction with the product
development efforts and it is likely that students in the product development
area will also be involved in the manufacturing process development. Extending
the above example, the economically feasible manufacturing of the EDM wire
would probably involve a process and equipment design to allow a continuous
pass-through of wire(s) through a sputter deposition system.
(3)
Materials characterization is a major component of
materials design, quality control and failure analysis. Virtually every
manufacturing industry requires some aspect of materials analysis before,
during and after the production process. Participant in this aspect of the
enterprise will use the Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis
Laboratories (ACMAL) to study the structure/properties of nanoscale materials
produced in this enterprise and in outside industries. ACMAL is MTU’s premiere inorganic analysis
laboratory housing $4.5 M analytical instrumentation available to participants
in this enterprise.
It should be understood that no participant will be limited
to any single aspect of the enterprise. At the same time, it is expected that
students will tend to gravitate to those areas which fit their talents and
interests.
A successful enterprise should be self-supporting. How will
this enterprise make money? I think there are several possibilities.
(a)
Selling goods. Can a manufacturing process be developed
which will provide goods in sufficient quantities to supply an industrial
concern. We could start small, for example selling EDM wire to individual small
businesses with limited requirements. However, this requires the students be
willing to ‘man the pumps’ on a day to day basis to reliably produce a product.
Alternatively, the more senior students in the
(b)
Selling/licensing technology.
(c)
Selling analytical services.
(d)
Writing proposals for undergraduate research in
nanotechnology and/or SBIR’s