Category Archives: nano numbers

designer solar panels

02/02/2008 DesignFlute 8 Comments

Designer screen printed solar cells are possible now with the new technique developed by researches at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.

Instead of mounting the solar module on the roof, it could be integrated in the glass façade of a building. It is possible to produce it in desired colours, print images or text on the module.

These design options open up an entirely new range of possible applications. It can be used as shade, window or even as company’s logo while generating electricity.

The key component of the new module is an organic dye which in combination with nanoparticles converts sunlight into electricity.

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nano numbers

nanotech & Nobel

09/10/2007 DesignFlute 2 Comments

How it is possible to store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard drives. How is billions of bits of information stored on something the size of a dime. The miniature your device (specially the hard disk) gets – Blame it on nanotech!

Blame it on a very specific discovery called ‘Giant Magnet-o-resistance’.

The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery.

In 1988 the scientists, Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect called- Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR.

The first real application of the promising field of nanotechnology was ushered in by using GMR effect, the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. So the nanotech owes it real application to these two scientists who has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics only minutes ago!

(nano art images via northwestern edu.)

2007 physics nobel prize Albert Fert GMR i-pod nanotechnology Peter Gruenberg stockhlom

nano numbers

nano sun – tiniest art

12/09/2007 DesignFlute 9 Comments

This is one of the tiniest pieces of art ever made – an image of the sun made from 20,000 microscopic particles of gold.

The recreation of Robert Fludd’s 17th century drawing of the Sun – the alchemists’ symbol for gold – is shown being created by precisely placing 20,000 gold particles, each about 60 nanometers in diameter, etched on a silicon chip “wafer”.(60 nanometers is 60 billionths of a meter; a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpDn2qOHl8U]

This is not only a piece of art but it is also micro-engineering. It is nanotechnology racing ahead. This creation means 2 things:-1^st this is a new nano “printing” technique and 2^nd the scientists believe this will lead to breakthroughs in ultra-miniature; ultra-tiny chips, lenses, and biosensors.

IBM researchers in collaboration with scientists from the ETH Zurich have achieved this breakthrough.

The achievement, published in the September issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, offers a promising and powerful new tool for use in a wide range of fields and industries such as biomedicine, electronics and IT .

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art design IBM nanotechnology research science

green roots, nano numbers

paper battery

15/08/2007 DesignFlute 2 Comments

Take a piece of paper, take carbon nano tubes and some electrolyte solution. Lo! And behold energy is produced!

Paper battery is made from plant cellulose which is used in making paper. So it is environment friendly. It has carbon nano tubes. And it produces energy.

It is a paper thin, can be bent battery prototype. It is small, light-weight and has endless design as well as application possibilities. The prototype has been made using inexpensive materials.

Each gram of paper produces about 10 milliamps of current at 2 volts, which can power a fan and LED light.

It is not only a battery but a capacitor too.

It looks, feels and weighs like a paper. It can be twisted, trimmed with scissors. Like paper you can stack one sheet on top of another to increase the power output. Researchers have experimented with 10 sheets. It can be given any shape even of a car door.

Potential uses of this battery would be in medical equipments like pacemakers and insulin pumps; in combination with solar cells. It is also going to change how we charge our cell phones, digital camera and laptops. It would be useful in aircrafts, boats and automobiles where power source gets bulky.

A team of scientists headed by chemist Robert Linhardt, materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, and engineer Omkaram Nalamasu of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York has developed this wonder nano battery.

Interestingly scientists believe that they would be able to mass produce it like newspaper on rolls of paper.

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eco energy nano technology science

nano numbers

sunlight in my fist

11/07/2007 DesignFlute Leave a comment

One is going to get goosebumps if one see things materialized which one had talked so passionately about.

Parans, still seems like impossible but is what I dreamt of.

Four months ago we were moving to a place where electricity charges are steep. So we were thinking of alternative methods. One day I told my husband why can’t we store sun’s light, why can’t we store winter’s cold. The look on his face told me to stop farrying around my futuristic fairy tales.

I started to look for a solar air condition on the net and I stumbled upon parans lighting site. I was so tempted I even wanted to make dealership enquiries.

Parans lighting system can’t store light though. This lighting uses sunlight , optical fibres and prisms. This technology is developed in Sweden by engineers at the Chalmers University in Gothenburg.

See here how this unbelievable light work.

This technology provides natural light in energy efficient way. When parans’ people are coming to India?

And when natural cold can be stored too so that I get my natural air condition. Say what I am crazy. No, those days are not too far!

energy lighting solar

nano numbers

fresh air

28/06/2007 DesignFlute 2 Comments

I am obsessed with nanotechnology. I dream of a home where I would be running everything with the help of this technology. I would let you in for a secret dream, I infact marry nanotech to quantum physics and believe me! their are magical instruments which when and as needed change shapes and functions. But these are too distant dreams. As nanotech machines are steadily becoming a reality can I have this air purifier as my first nano machine? The germ guardian has developed this personal air purifier. It is like a necklace .

It uses negative ions to force away various pollutants. It uses rechargeable lithium batteries.

The site says you can” wear it on airplanes, buses, elevators and more. I want to try this in Mumbai’s traffic jams. The price is $39.99. Are there any free trials?

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