A recent issue of Business Week highlighted advancements being made in the field of nanotechnology, moving it from the 'lab to the marketplace.' "Get ready for cars, chips, and golf balls made with new materials engineered down to the level of individual atoms," the article said.
The article defines nanotechnology as "industry's tiniest stage. The standard unit of measurement, a nanometer, is a billionth of a meter – barely the size of 10 hydrogen atoms in a row."
Developments from various companies, including Voltron from DuPont, are highlighted:
"How do these tiny molecules create big new products? Sometimes size alone is the key. Consider DuPont's new Voltron, a super-durable wire coating used in heavy-duty electric motors. If you looked at previous generations of such coatings through a powerful microscope, the chemical components would look loosely packed, with irregular spaces between the molecules. This structure leads the material to break down more easily. Voltron's nanoscale particles fill in many of the voids, making a stronger insulator that lasts longer. In DuPont's tests on electric motors, a coating of Voltron extended the time between failures by a factor of 10, to more than 1,000 hours. And since such motors consume an estimated 65 percent of U.S. electric power, lengthening their life and efficency promises big energy savings. 'This chemical combination can only be done with nanomaterials,' says Krish Doraiswany, a senior planning manager for DuPont's nanotech research effort."
http://www.dupont.com/
Posted 23rd February 2005
