Nanografi Nanotechnology

An  antimicrobial  is an agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. There are several industry depends on antibacterial agents like  textile industry, water disinfection, medicine, and food packaging . Organic compounds used for  disinfection  have some disadvantages such as toxicity to the human body. Therefore, the interest in inorganic disinfectants such as metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) is increasing. One of the most important inorganic disinfectant nanoparticles is  Silver (Ag).  Silver ions or salts are well known, but the effects of Ag nanoparticles on microorganisms has received considerable attention in the past few years in the field of microbiology and biotechnology. The antimicrobial activity of Ag nanoparticles was investigated against  yeast,  Escherichia coli , and  Staphylococcus aureus . First advantage of Ag is that it is a  bacterial growth inhibitor . Ag nanoparticles inhibit growth of these ...

Drug delivery  technology  has received considerable attention in the past few years in the field of biomedical nanotechnology. Drug delivery implies that the approaches, technologies, process and systems for transporting a pharmaceutical compound in the body as needed. Drug delivery system is related with the quality, quantity and duration of drug presence. It is also concerned with scientific site of pharmaceutical compounds within the body. That means proper drug delivery system must transport pharmaceutical compounds with proper quantity into the accurate sites of the body. Drug delivery is often approached via a drug's chemical formulation, but it may also involve medical devices or drug-device combination products. Silicon (Si) is a biomaterial, one of the most frequent elements in the earth’s crust.A range of methods can be applied for the fabrication of porous Si, such as chemical stain etching, chemical vapor etching, laser-induced etching, metal-assisted etching, s...

We mentioned in our “Harvesting Solar Power with Nanomaterials” blog how the introduction of nanomaterials in solar technology improves the efficiency, and reduces the cost of solar systems. This is due to the unique properties of the nanomaterials which lead to band gap adjustments, higher absorption, and less charge recombination. Here, we discover the new features that nanotechnology can introduce to the solar cells and solar technology. Extensive research have been done in different universities and facilities to develop solar cells and to introduce new materials in order to improve their performance and create new properties such as flexibility, transparency, and self-cleaning. Flexibility is a new and important property of solar cells that can be achieved by nanotechnology. An example of these research, is the research done in MIT to develop solar cells that are made from single molecule thick sheets of graphene and other nanomaterials such as molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2). Th...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)  are not only an alloptrope of carbon but also an important materials in biological sciences. There are several unique properties of carbon nanotubes.They show extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties. Moreover they work as efficient conductors of heat. They take their names from their size, since the diameter of a nanotube is on the order of a few nanometers. They are approximately 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Furthermore, they can be up to several millimeters in length. Beside these important properties, carbon nanotubes  induce plant cell growth . For example, Tomato plant grown in soil supplemented with CNTs produce two times more   flowers and fruit  compared to plants grown in control soil (Khodakovskaya et al, 2012). Another experimental data from Tiwari et al. (2013) stated that while carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been shown to dramatically  improve germination  of some comestib...

*Cerium the second element in the Lanthanide series. This rare earth element is the most abundantly prevalent rare earth element. *Cerium element was named for the asteroid Ceres, this rare earth metal was discovered in 1801. Cerium rare earth element is discovered in 1803 by Klaproth and by Berzelius and Hisinger. *Cerium rare earth element is found some minerals including allanite,monazite, bastnasite, cerite, and samarskite. Today, monazite and bastnasite are more important sources of cerium rare earth element. In addition cerium metal is more abundant than Lead metal in earth’s crust. *Cerium rare earth metal is considered to be moderately toxic. And Cerium fire produce a harmful gas if pour water on it. *The metal tarnishes in moist air and reacts with water to form cerium hydroxide plus hydrogen gas. Small particles of the metal may ignite if a knife scratches the pure metal surface. *When cerium-lanthanum alloy uses with a sum of neodymium and praseodymium rare e...

Fuel cells are energy conversion systems that converts chemical energy on fuels directly into electric energy. This is achieved by oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction rather than combustion reaction which is used in the conventional methods for electric energy production. Hydrogen and alcohols such as methanol are the type of fuels that are used in fuel cells. Fuel cells are considered the 21 st  century technology for the production of electric energy. This is due to its high efficiency, low emission, safety, and silence. However, issues include cost, durability, and conversion efficiency are among the reasons for not using fuel cells in daily applications. Nanotechnology and nanomaterials introduce solutions for the fuel cells issues that could make them one of the best method for the electric energy production in the near future. The solutions embrace the introduction of new materials and catalysts that increase the conversion efficiency of fuels, increase the durability, a...

Nanoparticles  start to be very popular over the last decade. What are these tiny materials? A nanoparticle (or nanopowder or nanocluster or nanocrystal) means that a microscopic particle. It was at least one dimension less than 100 nm. Several area such as  biomedical, optical, and electronic fields  use these materials in wide variety of potential applications. Current several scientific research mainly concentrated on these materials. Since their size are nearly nanoscale and as the percentage of atoms at the surface of a material becomes significant the properties of materials change. Moreover,when it was compared with the bulk material, nanoparticle exhibits a number of special properties. Another key property is that nanoparticles have a very  high surface area to volume ratio. Thanks to this property, nanoparticles have a tremendous driving force for diffusion ability, especially at elevated temperatures. They also have  unique optical properties . Nanop...

*Gadolinium powder is discovered by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1880. This powder is relatively stable in dry air. It does however oxidize in moisture forming oxides. Gadolinium is not found free in nature, therefore it is not a native metal. Gadolinium powder can be found in minerals such as xenotime and monazite. * Gadolinium is a rare earth metal that possesses unique properties advantageous to specialized applications such as semiconductor fabrication and nuclear reactor shielding.It is very effective for absorbing neutrons, so it is very useful in nuclear reactors.Gadolinium has a very fast burnout rate and has limited use as a nuclear control rod material. * Gadolinium powder has applications in electronics to increase the speed and capacity of computer memory. Also it is used in making Magnets, electronic components. * Gadolinium has excellent magnetic properties. It is paramagnetic at room temperature, but becomes strongly magnetic or ferromagnetic(strongly att...

*Europium is the least abundant of the rare earth elements. It is also the most reactive one. Europium is found in many minerals such as xenotime, monazite, bastnasite, and loparite. It is not found in nature as a free element.Europium was isolated in 1901 and is named after the continent of Europe. *Europium is silvery metal that instantly oxidizes in air. It is the most reactive of the rare earth metals and ignites in air at temperatures in excess of 150 degree to 180 degree. Europium resembles calcium in its reaction with water. Also, Europium metal is the most reactive metal of all rare earth elements. *Europium is about as hard as lead and is quite ductile. *Europium is considered to be mildly toxic. Europium powder is considered to be a fire and explosion hazard. *Europium is used in the printing of euro banknotes. It glows red under UV light, and forgeries can be detected by the lack of this red glow. *Europium powder is used for low-energy light bulbs, thus europium ...

* Thulium element is a rare earth element with symbol Tm. And its atomic number is 69. Thulium rare earth element was discovered by Per Teodor Cleve in 1879. * This rare earth element bright, soft and malleable silver-gray element.It can be cut by a knife.Thulium is a rare earth metal and is one of the least abundant. * Thulium rare earth metal become dulles slowly in dry air to form the oxide. Also this rare earth metal reacts with water to form the hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Especially thulium powder which has high purity is very effective for reacting air and water. * Thulium rare earth element is considered to be non-toxic.  * Radioactive isotope of this rare earth element(170Tm) is produced by bombarding thulium in a nuclear reactor. It has a half-life of 128 days.Also it is used as a movable source of x-rays.  * Thulium rare earth element is used for doping yttrium aluminum garnets (YAG) used in lasers.  * Thulium rare earth element is used in all...