Nano-Materials technology

Module #1
Introduction

Dr. Ghadeer Al-Malkawi

1
 Chapter 1: The Big World of
Nanomaterials (Introduction)
• A few million years ago, it was found that rocks
could be used to break things that were
impossible to break with bare hands. Stones
were the first tools and even today they are still
in use in kitchens and laboratories to pound and
grind
• Around 5000–6000 years ago, it was
accidentally discovered that when a rock
containing copper was placed on a fire, molten
copper could be collected. This discovery led to
the extraction of metal ores to produce metals
for the fabrication of items from kitchenware to
swords.
• New materials with greater hardness and longer
use than stone became available for making
tools.
• Our growth and progress have paralleled the
development of metals and metallurgy.

2
 Into the Nano-age
• Traditionally, civilizations were named after
the metals or materials used. Thus, we have
the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age,
current age is driven by the applications of
silicon and other advanced materials. The
coming decades could well be dominated by
nanotechnology (‘Nano Age’).

• The mechanism by which ultrafine

microstructures affect the properties of
solids could be better understood after the
availability of advanced high-resolution
microscopy techniques such as electron,
atomic force and field ion microscopy.

• These developments have helped in

understanding the correlation between the
structure and properties of solids.

3
 History and scope
• The word ‘nano’ is to a Greek prefix meaning dwarf or
something very small and depicts one billionth (10-9)
of a unit (refer Table 1.1).
• Nanomaterials, therefore, refer to the class of
materials with at least one of the dimensions in the
nanometric range.
• In the case of polycrystalline materials, the grain size
is typically of the order of 1–100 microns (1 micron =
10−6 m).
• Nanocrystalline materials have a grain size of the
order of 1−100 nm, and are therefore 100–1000 times
smaller than conventional grain dimensions.
• However, compared to the size of an atom (0.2–0.4
nm in diameter), nanocrystalline grains are still
significantly big.
• For example, a nanocrystal of size 10 nm contains
over a hundred thousand atoms (assuming a spherical
nanograin of 10 nm and atomic diameter of 0.2 nm),

4
5
 Definition of Nanomaterials
• Nanomaterials may be classified as those materials
which have at least one of their dimensions in the
nanometric range, below which there is significant
variation in the property of interest compared to
microcrystalline materials.
• Nanomaterials can be metals, ceramics, polymers or
composites.
• Nanotechnology is an umbrella term for many areas of
research dealing with objects that have one of their
dimensions in the realm of a few hundreds of
nanometres.

6
 Nanomaterials are not new
• We now know that
the beautiful ruby red
color of some ancient
glass paintings is due
to gold and silver
nanoparticles trapped
in the glass matrix

7
 Nanomaterials are not new
• The decorative glaze or metallic
film known as ‘luster’, found on
some medieval pottery,
contains metallic spherical
nanoparticles dispersed in a
complex way in the glaze, which
gives rise to special optical
properties.
• The techniques used to produce
these materials were a closely
guarded secret, and are not
completely understood even
now.

8
 Nanomaterials are not new
• (an alloy of iron and carbon)
is believed to have been first
prepared in India about 1500
years ago and is popularly
known as wootz (Damascus
steel)
• This steel was used . to make
swords, which were so strong
and sharp that they could
easily cut a helmet into two
pieces.
• Very recently, high-resolution
electron microscopy of such
a steel (picked up from a People now believe that the high strength of
museum) showed the these steels may be due to the presence of
presence of carbon these carbon nanotubes, which are known for
nanotubes their exceptionally large Young’s modulus.

9
 Nanomaterials are not new
• Carbon black is a
nanostructured material that is
used in car tires to increase the
life of the tire and impart black
color. This material was
discovered in the 1900s.

• Fumed silica, a component of

silicon rubber, coatings,
sealants and adhesives, is also
a nanostructured material. It
became commercially available
in the 1940s.

10
Early applications of nanotechnology:
Nano-gold
• Materials in the nanometre-scale exhibit uniquely different physical, chemical and
mechanical properties compared to bulk materials. Gold, for example, under ordinary
conditions is a yellow, inert metal, capable of conducting electricity.
• If a centimetre-long gold foil is taken and broken into a dozen equal pieces, the pieces will
still appear golden yellow. However, when the pieces are broken down about a million
times, into bits just a few nanometres wide, almost every characteristic changes.
• Reflected light of gold nanoparticles varies in colour, depending upon their dimensions.
• The melting point of gold also drops by almost 50% when the grain size is reduced below
10 nm.

11
Nanosize and properties

12
Small things can make a big difference
• The modifications in the
properties due to reduction in
grain size to nanoscale
dimensions are very large, and in
most cases the resultant
properties are superior to those
of conventional materials.
• It is no wonder that
nanomaterials are finding use in
a large number of applications.
More and more potential
applications of nanomaterials are
being discovered.

13
 Nanosize and properties
• Figure 1.8 shows that
nearly all properties like
hardness, strength,
ductility, elastic modulus,
melting point, density,
thermal conductivity,
thermal expansion
coefficient, diffusivity, and
so on, change for
nanomaterials.

14
 Nanosize and properties
• Nanostructured
materials are composed
of grains and grain
boundaries.
Nanometer-sized grains
contain only a few
thousands of atoms
within each grain. A
large number of atoms
reside at the grain
boundaries, as shown
in Fig. 1.9.
15
 Nanosize and properties
• As the grain size decreases, there is a
significant increase in the volume fraction of
grain boundaries or interfaces and triple
junctions, as shown in Fig. 1.10.

• With increase in defect density the properties

of the material are bound to be governed to a
large extent by defect configurations,
dynamics and interactions. For example, the
way in which a crack grows in a larger-scale
bulk material is likely to be different from the
same in a nanomaterial where crack and
particle size are comparable.

• Hence the mechanical and chemical properties

of nanomaterials are significantly altered due
to defect dynamics.

16
 Nanosize and properties
• The elastic modulus of nanomaterials can be significantly different
from that of bulk alloys, due to the presence of increased fraction of
defects.
• Nanocrystalline ceramics are tougher and stronger than those with
coarse grains.
• It has also been shown that electrical, optical and magnetic properties
are influenced by the fine-grained structure of these materials.

17
 CLASSIFICATION OF
NANOSTRUCTURED
•
MATERIALS
Siegel classified nanostructured materials into four
categories according to their dimensionality:
• 0D: nanoclusters
• 1D: multilayers
• 2D: nanograined layers and
• 3D: equiaxed bulk solids.

18
 Carbon Nanostructures
• In the mid-1980s, a new class of materials “hollow
carbon spheres”—was discovered.
• These spheres were called bucky balls or fullerenes, in
honor of the architect Buckminster Fuller.
• Fuller designed a geodesic dome with geometry similar
to that found at the molecular level in fullerenes.
• The C60 (60 carbon atoms chemically bonded together
in a ball-shaped molecule, Fig. 1.15)
• Buckyballs inspired research that led to the fabrication
of carbon nanofibres, with diameters under 100 nm.

19
20
 Emerging trends in nanostructures
• Nanostructured materials may occur in several different geometric
configurations including : wires, Tubes, Rods, Horns, Shells, Pores…
etc.
• They possess unique properties and are being developed for specific
applications.
• Some of these interesting and emerging trends in nanostructures are
described in the next few slides.

21
 1- Nanowires
• These can be defined as 1D
nanostructures with nanometric width
dimensions and exhibiting aspect ratios
of 1000 or more. Nanowires exhibit
interesting properties deviating from
bulk.

• So far, nanowires of several metals

(Au, Ni, Pt), semiconductors (InP, Si,
GaN) and insulators (SiO2, TiO2) have
been fabricated. Nanowires can find
interesting applications in the field of
electronic, opto-electronic and nano-
electromechanical sensors and devices.
• They are also used as metallic
interconnects in quantum devices and
for toughening advanced composites.
• It is possible to alter the growth
parameters of nanowires so that they
grow in a helical formation. Such
nanowires are referred to as
nanosprings.
22
2- Nanorods
• These differ from nanowires in their aspect ratio. Standard aspect
ratios for nanorods are 3–5. This means that unlike nanowires with
an unconstrained dimension along the longitude, nanorods have all
their dimensions in the range 1–100 nm and hence are 3D
nanostructures. They may be synthesized from a variety of
materials and can find diverse applications e.g. the display
technologies.

23
 3- Nanoshells
• These are the structures where the
nanocrystalline particles are coated with
a thin layer of a different material with
thickness in nanometric dimensions.
Due to their nanometric width and size,
nanoshells can exhibit interesting
quantum confinement effects.

• For example, gold nanoshells coated on

dielectric silica nanoparticles have been
widely studied in drug research. It is
possible to vary the light absorption and
emission characteristics of gold
nanoshells by controlling the thickness
and size of the nanoparticles
(particularly as they approach the
wavelength dimensions of the light
medium used). 24
3- Nanoshells
Laser light is not strongly absorbed generally
by human tissues and blood. However, due
to resonance effects, it is possible for
nanoshells to absorb significant amounts of
incident laser light, resulting in intensive
localized energy absorption. By attaching
certain antibodies to such nanostructures, it
is possible to provide site specificity, for
example, for selective segregation of such
nanoparticles in cancerous or tumour cells.
Subsequently, as the body is irradiated with
laser light, there will be selective heating of
nanoshells concentrated at cancerous cells,
leading to selective burn out of such
deleterious cells.
25
 4- Nanotubes
• These are tubes with diameters in the
nanoscale. Although nanotubes of various
other materials have been reported, carbon
nanotubes are by far the most important
group. A single-walled carbon nanotube
(SWCNT) is obtained by rolling a sheet of
graphene (a monolayer of a hexagonal
lattice of carbon) into a cylinder. Typical
diameters of SWCNTs are in the range of
0.7–1.4 nm and their length can be several
micrometres.

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) can be regarded as a coaxial assembly of

SWCNTs. MWCNTs have their diameters in the range of 5–50 nm. Carbon
nanotubes are unique nanostructures with remarkable electronic and mechanical
properties.
Carbon nanotubes exhibit good nano-mechanical properties due to their high
Young’s modulus. The modulus of single-walled (1210 GPa) and multi-walled (1260
GPa) carbon nanotubes is now established as a world record as the highest known
modulus for any material. In comparison, metallic wires such as copper and steel
have a modulus of only110 and 200 GPa, respectively.
26
 5-Nanofluids
• These are fluids (e.g. water, ethylene
glycol, lubricants) with dispersions
of nanosized particles (e.g. carbon,
metals, metal oxides, etc.). The
nanofluids are characterized by
unique properties and have several
applications.

• The most popular nanofluids are

magnetic nanofluids (ferrofluids) and
thermal nanofluids. In case of
thermal nanofluids, improvements in
energy efficiency and convective
heat transfer have been demonstrated
by many investigators and thermal
conductivity of the fluids has been
enhanced to as high as 150% with
the dispersion of minute quantities of
nanoparticles. A number of
applications such as drug delivery,
refrigerant chillers, cosmetics, power
generation, air-conditioning, etc.
27
 Application of nanomaterials
• Since nanomaterials possess unique chemical, physical
and mechanical properties, they can be used for a wide
variety of applications, ranging from toothpaste to
satellites.
• Nanotechnology is finding application in virtually all
fields ranging from science to engineering, influencing
our lifestyle in many ways. The consumer world is
being flooded with ‘nanotechnology enhanced’
products, with many more to come. Nanomaterials are
finding application in cosmetics, textiles, healthcare,
tissue engineering, catalysis, functional coatings,
medical diagnosis and therapeutics, sensors and
communication engineering, water and air pollution
treatment.
• Some of these applications are discussed below.
28
1- Electronic devices
• Numerous nano-electronic applications are in use for
communication and computing purposes. Miniaturization
is the mantra of the electronics industry, which is driving
research on reduction in the size of transistors, resistors,
capacitors, etc.

• Moore’s Law, an empirical observation made in 1965,

states that the number of transistors on an integrated
circuit for a minimum component cost doubles every 24
months. even four decades later, the growing electronics
industry still follows this law.

• Nanostructures hold promise for the development of high-

density (terabit/cm2) memory with nanosecond read/write
times; there are several technologies being explored.
29
2-Opto-electronic devices

• Opto-electronic devices
convert electricity to light
and vice versa. They have
broad bandwidth and
efficiency.

30
3- Renewable energy
• Some of the promising new areas for the use of
nanotechnology in this field are: use of
nanomaterials to extract hydrogen from water, to
harvest energy from the sun and biomass, to store
energy as hydrogen fuel cells, batteries and
capacitors.

31
4- Insulation
• Insulation: aerogels are
nanomaterials synthesized by
the sol-gel process, which are
porous, foam-like and
extremely light-weight, and
yet can withstand about 100
times their weight.

• They are currently being used

for insulation in offices,
homes, etc. They are also
being used in ‘smart’
windows, which darken on a
sunny day and lighten on a
cloudy day.

32
 5-Cutting tools
• Microdrills (drill bits with
diameter less than the
thickness of human hair),
used in the
miniaturization of
microelectronic circuits,
are required to have
enhanced wear
resistance.
Nanocrystalline carbides
and nitrides are harder
and wear-resistant, and
hence are currently being
used in these microdrills

33
6- Catalysis
• One of the most lucrative
areas for a nanotechnologist
is catalysis.
• Chemical catalysis benefits
significantly from
nanoparticles, due to the
extremely large surface-to-
volume ratio.
• A variety of chemical
reactions take place on the
surface of a catalyst, and
hence the larger the surface
area, the more active the
catalyst.

34
 Endless other applications

• Medicine
• Food packaging
• Filtration
• Eliminating of pollutants
• Sensors …. etc.

35
 Nature is the best Nanotechnologist
• Have you ever wondered at the
engineering skills of a web-
spinning spider (Fig. 1.20)? The
web is made up of nanofibres
that are light and insoluble in
water, but in terms of specific
strength, they are stronger
than steel. These webs that can
withstand environmental
effects such as rain, wind and
sunlight are a marvel of nature.
• The spider has sufficient supply
of raw materials to spin the
web over great distances
relative to its body size. The
speed with which the spider is
able to cast its net in an
organized fashion under
ambient conditions is
intriguing.
36
 Nature is the best Nanotechnologist
• Yet another example of a nanostructure developed by nature is the
ability of a gecko to walk across a ceiling against gravity.

37
 Nature is the best Nanotechnologist
• The self-cleaning nature of a lotus leaf comes from the nanospikes
present on its surface; it helps the water droplets and dust particles
(Fig. 1.21; see Plate 3) roll off with ease.

38
 Nature is the best Nanotechnologist
• Water striders are
able to walk on the
surface of water
without getting wet
because of the
nano-grooves
present in the
microhairs of their
legs.

39
Thank you

40