Janea Cristine A. Barrientos Prof.

Bong Mejia
BSBA- HRM 1-1

RECENT INNOVATIONS AND ADVANCEMENTS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY

Technology help us in our everyday life, it was advancing very fast and nanotechnology was one
of the world’s greatest innovation and breakthrough in science. It can significantly change the way the
world functions.

Nanotechnology is the study of extremely small things. And I believe that The Next Big Thing
Is Really Small. According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, nanotechnology can be used
in a variety of fields ranging from chemistry to engineering that will transform many sectors, including ,
energy, information technology, medicine, national defense and transportation. Nanotechnology will
enable the development of next generation materials that are stronger, lighter and more durable than the
materials used today in buildings, bridges, airplanes, automobiles and other applications.

Nanotechnology also holds great promise for creating products for a more energy-efficient
world, such as more efficient fuel cells, batteries and solar panels. It can provide solutions for cleaning
contaminated soil and water, and it will play a critical role in transforming medicine and health care.

There are countries who spend significant amounts of money to support this type of research and
projects. StatNano and Azo Nano provides loads of information on nanotechnology and its market.

 Coming in at number 1, with 51,552 published nano-articles, in 2016 is China. China also
produced 168 nanotechnologies patent applications in USPTO this March. In 2015, the
country’s researchers came up with nano-carrier drugs for pancreatic cancer according to Azo
Nano.

 24,582 nano-articles were published by the USA in 2016. The United States of America 2nd
in 2015 with around $18 million Gross Domestic Product derived from the purchasing power
parity calculations of the industry. October 9 has even been declared as National Nano Day.
Researchers are working on a number of products, including a “power suit” that features
nanomaterials built into the garment’s fabric, with hopes to monitor patients or generate
energy.

 India‘s nano-articles released in 2016 reached 12,224. They had 65 organizations and 15
published nanotechnologies patent applications in USPTO this March. The majority of their
work focuses on silicon products.

 South Korea published 9,103 nano-articles in 2016. They have 58 organizations focusing on
the field, which mostly include universities. Some of the country’s biggest exports include
telecommunications equipment, electronics, oil, chemicals, and machinery. One of their most
recent accomplishments includes a nanotech battery that reduces the charging time for
electronic cars.
  Ranked 3rd in 2012 in research and development expenditure, Germany takes number 5 on
our list of most advanced countries in nanotechnology. The country released 8,730 nano
related articles in 2016. Their innovations in nanotechnology range in a number of daily
products, from food to automobiles. Much of their innovation deals with environmentally
friendly technology and products as well.

 In 2008, Iran’s research and development expenditures were 0.79% of the GDP. They
published 8,306 nanotechnology related articles in 2016. The country continues to invest and
spend in the field, in an attempt to climb the ranking ladder while competing with other major
companies, and now has hundreds of nanoproducts on the market.

 There are 38 nanotechnology organizations in Japan, one of the most advanced countries in
nanotechnology, where the released nanotechnology related articles reached 7,552 in 2016. In
2007, their government invested $800 million in their national nanotechnology program. Now,
the country spends about $1 billion on the industry in a year.

According to Research and Markets, the worldwide nanotechnology market could be worth
approximately $174 billion by 2025, after expanding at an 18.1 percent compound annual growth rate
between 2016 and 2025. Its emerging applications in these three industries, and many others, should
sustain significant investments in related technologies, creating numerous jobs along the way.

Nanotechnology scientists have already begun work that could lead to major breakthroughs.
Nanotechnology may offer a new path forward for effective cancer treatment. Similarly, it may be the
best route for extending current gains in solar energy capture and storage, as well as food production,
processing and packaging.

1. Cancer treatments and medications

The three core cancer treatments are chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. This trio has been
instrumental in saving millions of lives from early cancer-related death, but they all have distinctive
limitations, especially when it comes to their precision in targeting individual cells. In other words, they
often damage healthy tissues while failing to completely eradicate cancerous ones.

Enter nanoparticles for chemotherapy delivery. Researchers from multiple universities have
explored the use of these particles for delivering medications. A group at MIT combined the drug Doxil
with an RNA interference therapy and coated the combo with hyaluronic acid to ensure survival within
the bloodstream.

The use of nanotech may also be beneficial for earlier detection and diagnosis of cancer. For
example, a nanodevice might help capture proteins associated with cancer, along with circulating tumor
DNA and exosomes from tumors. More efficient detection can increase the chances of multi-year
survival, pending proper treatment.
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Nanoengineered bioinks for 3D printing

It looks like 3D bioprinting is developing into a very multidisciplinary field that is going to
require scientists to become knowledgeable outside their main field, including biology as well as
materials science and chemistry, in order to develop advances.

However, not all tissue engineering labs have the necessary chemistry and materials science
expertise and support to replicate the more complex designs that are coming out, which is part of the
reason why researchers at Texas A&M University stuck to inexpensive and widely available ingredients
to create a novel bioink.

Top left: The NICE bioinks print freestanding

hydrogel structures with a high aspect-ratios and
high print fidelity. Top right: The cross-linked
structures are stiff and elastomeric, and can
support more than 50-times their own weight.
Bottom left: The 3D printed structures from NICE
bioink have high structural fidelity (as
demonstrated with this 3D printed ear). Bottom
right: The encapsulated cells aligning parallel to
3D printed NICE scaffold structures after 30 days
in culture and show high survival rates.
2. Renewable energy infrastructure, especially solar cells

The prices of solar cells have been falling for years, leading to a rapid expansion of renewable
energy infrastructure. Between 2008 and 2017, the price per watt of a solar panel installation fell from
$8.82 to $3.36 – a decrease of more than 60 percent.

However, solar still accounted for only 1 percent of electricity production in the U.S. in 2016
and was dwarfed by other renewables, not to mention non-renewables. To increase its market share, it
needs even better affordability compared to cheap non-renewable sources such as natural gas.
Nanotechnology can help on this front by providing:

 Better light absorption.

 More efficient conversion of light to electricity.
 Improved storage and transport of solar energy.
More specifically, nanoscopic structures made from gold and magnesium fluoride may be the key to the
development of thermophotovoltaic cells, which in theory are much more efficient than conventional
solar technology. They can harvest energy even in the dark via infrared radiation and emit their heat
within specific spectral ranges, instead of equally in all directions across a broad range.

Printing solar cells and batteries on paper

The substrate represents a key part in the fabrication of devices for energy harvesting and
storage. Typically, the properties of the substrate have to be tailored considering different parameters
such as the type of device, its durability, the architecture chosen, the deposition technique used, and the
technological process implemented.

Special surface treatments are necessary to enable optoelectronic thin-film device deposition on
paper. Firstly, it is necessary to decrease its natural surface roughness and porosity to ensure the
efficiency of the printing process, reducing the risk of ink diffusion among paper pores by capillary
action and also to prevent cracks and defects in the conductive layers. Secondly, the application of
coating layers prior to ink deposition on the surface encapsulate the cellulose surface and also improve
its color and/or light reflectivity.
 A flexible and foldable array of solar cells that
have been printed on a sheet of paper.

Paper-based devices can be inserted

individually in common commercial products. It
is likely that the most promising sector for
initial markets will be that of paper batteries and
supercapacitors. In fact, power capacitors based
on paper are already in use in applications such
as utility poles. The versatility in being able to
adapt to different forms and shapes should open
up their insertion in many future product
markets.

3. Agricultural production and food processing

Food demand is set to continually increase as the global population keeps growing. The earth’s human
population quadrupled between 1915 and 2015, surpassing 7 billion. An additional 2.4 billion people
could be born by 2050. A 2013 study in Agricultural Economics projected food demand would surge
between 59 percent and 98 percent by then.

Agriculture will need to scale to keep pace with these changes and ensure consistent access to healthy
and safe foods. Fortunately, nanotechnology has many possible use cases in agriculture, from farming to
food packaging.

 Nanocapsules might enable improved delivery of fertilizers and pesticides. Plant and animal
pathogens might also become easier to detect with nanosensors.
 In packaging, nanoparticles might be used to resist heat and light-related spoilage and block
contaminants.
 Coiled nanoparticles could even be incorporated into foods to increase nutrient absorption
without affecting color or taste.
'Cyborg' microfilter actively cleans decontaminated water

The researchers use this flow, without an external force, to get the pollutants towards their
'cyborg microfilter'. The team exploited the negative charge on the rotifers' cilia surface for confining
positively-charged functional particles – plastic microbeads with enzymes that are used to degrade or
capture pollutants in water. They also hope that this method can be expanded to other decontamination
applications by changing the functionalization of the attached microbeads.

Mechanism for the formation of the rotibot: A)

scheme, B) microscopy images, and C)
scanning electron microscopy images,
illustrating the steps toward rotifer (blue)
uptake of the functionalized microbeads
(yellow). i) Microbeads approaching the
rotifer?s mouth due to a strong directional
flow, ii) upon contact with the cilia the beads
adhere in their tips, and iii) the cilia within the
inner lips of the rotifer accumulate the
particles in that location and frees up the cilia
for subsequent adhesion. (Reprinted with
permission by Wiley-VCH Verlag)

Nanotechnology is already benefitting areas such as health care, the environment, energy and
national security. Precision targeting of cancer cells deep within the body; removing pollutants from
groundwater and soil; enhancing performance of solar panels; improving detection of chemical and
biological weapons; and preventing infections in wounds are just a few of the ways nanotechnology is
enhancing our world. With the help of nanotechnology and further studies, scientists may even prevent
diseases in the future which are, at the moment, hard to cure or impossible to cure. With this advanced
kind of technology, there are more in store to discover and build