TPO 44 - an application of nanotechnology

1. What is the main purpose of the lecture?

A. To provide an example of a practical use of nanotechnology.
B. To show the origins of the field of nanotechnology.
C. To give a brief outline of the main concepts of nanotechnology.
D. To explain the growing interest in nanotechnology research.

2. How does the professor organize the information he presents to the class?
A. He describes the inspiration behind the nanocoating, then how the coating works.
B. He describes how the nanocoating is currently marketed, then the inspiration behind it.
C. He explains how fogging occurs, then the basic concepts of nanotechnology.
D. He explains how fogging occurs, then how the nanocoating prevents it.

3. According to the professor, how does the new nanocoating work?

A. By forcing light to bounce off a glass-coated polymer.
B. By forcing water droplets to roll off an ultrathin surface.
C. By causing water droplets to merge into a single sheet of water.
D. By causing light to scatter randomly in many directions.

4. According to the information in the lecture, why does the new nanocoating not last as
long on plastic as it does on glass?
A. Plastic cannot withstand extremely high temperatures.
B. The internal structure of plastic repels a positively charged polymer.
C. The coating solution scatters when it comes into contact with plastic.
D. Plastic surfaces scratch more easily than glass surfaces do.

5. What inspired the team of scientists in developing the new coating?

A. A problem the team frequently encountered in everyday life.
B. The ineffectiveness of spray solutions in flattening water droplets.
 C. The leaves of a plant that the team had been investigating.
D. Interactions observed between silica nanoparticles and polymers.

6. What is the professor's opinion about the approach inventors took to the development
of the new nanocoating?
A. He thinks other inventors should use a similar approach.
B. He is impressed by the flexibility of their approach.
C. He is surprised the research process took so long.
D. He thinks they should have spent more time testing a superhydrophobic coating.

A D C A C B
Listen to part of the lecture in a material science class.

Okay. Last time we finished going over some of the fundamental concepts of
nanotechnology, the multi-disciplinary science of manipulating or controlling extremely small
units of matters on the scale of molecule or even atoms.

So, I want to talk about how nanotechnology has been used today. And just to give you an
idea, we will look at one particular application. A team of material scientists in Massachusetts
have been working on a new ultra-thin coating, a nana coating that might be applied to objects
like bathroom mirrors, car windows and eye glasses to prevent fogging. And the coating has
the potential to be a permanent solution, unlike the kinds of anti-fogging spray-on liquids that
run on the market today.

Now, fogging often occurs when a cold surface comes into contact with warm moist air,
such as when a glass shower door or a mirror fogs up during a warm shower. Now, what’s
actually happening is, or what the fog is, is thousands of tiny spherical water droplets
condensing on the surface of the glass. Light hits the water droplets and is scattered in random
directions, causing the fogging effect. Now, the kind of spray-on treatment, I mentioned, well
they wear off. What happens is they cause the tiny water droplets to flatten when they
condense on the surface of shower door or bathroom mirror or whatever the object it is, it’s
been applied to. Because the droplets are flatten when the light hits them, the light doesn’t
scatter, but, as I said, those kind of treatment don’t last very long.

The new coating has two important components: one, negatively charged the silica nano-
particles, these are basically tiny particles of glass, and two, a positively charged polymer
which you already know. A polymer is a chemical compound. They are layered over each other.
The polymer then the silica nanoparticles, the polymer then the silica nanoparticles, you see.
They are layered in such a way that the silica nanoparticles don’t pack together tightly, in other
words, the structure has pores or holes, little tiny pockets throughout it. The coating prevents
fog from developing, because it loves water. It attracts the water droplets, sucking them into
the tiny pores, and that offers the shape of the droplets, the droplets are forced to flatten and
to join together into a single sheet of water rather than remaining as single droplets, each of
which is a sphere that scatters the light into different directions. Okay. So, instead of being
scattered, the light passes through the thin sheet of water. So, there is no fogging effect. The
ultra-thin coating can be made more durable by heating it and of course the object is applied
to, to an extremely hot temperature, 500 degree Celsius, what that does is burning the polymer
away and fuse the silica nanoparticles together while maintaining the structure of pores. But
that’s possible only on materials that they can withstand high heat. Glass, yes, plastics, no. But
they are working on solving that problem, trying to come up with a way to coat plastics and
other materials durably and effectively.

Interestingly, it was a plant, the lotus’ plant that inspired this work, I guess you can say,
inspired it in an indirect sort of way. The leaves of this plant are what we call super-
hydrophobic. Lotus’ leaves been super-hydrophobic don’t attract water. They repel it in a big
way. When raindrops fall on lotus’ leaves, they remain spherical, they roll right off. So for a
long time, the Massachusetts scientists try to create a coating that active like these lotus’
leaves, a coating that was super-hydrophobic. But, then they begin to think of the opposite of
extreme. Could they accomplish their goal by making a coating that instead of repelling water,
actually attracting water? Well, they seem to get quite far with this approach. It’s really strong
work with a range of interesting consumer applications. It’s not costly to manufacture the
coating. Some car makers are interested in planning to their windshields, looks likable,
probably we see it on the markets and everyday products in the next few years.