F.A.Q.

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What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is a field of applied science focused on the design, synthesis, characterization and application of materials and devices on the nanoscale. Defined by the United States' National Nanotechnology Initiative website as, "the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications."

What are manufactured nanomaterials?
Manufactured nanomaterials are items made up of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are made starting at the molecular level. For example, nanomaterials based synthetic bone has been produced by manipulating calcium and phosphate at the molecular level. The synthetic bone can be used in instances where natural bone has been damaged or removed, as in the treatment of fractures. Traditionally, you would use bone grafts or other large pieces of bone. Manufactured nanomaterials are also made from carbon, silicon, carbide, boron, nitrides, and peptides, etc.

What is a buckyball?
In the 1980s, chemists discovered a new allotrope of carbon. The carbon atoms in this allotrope are arranged in a sphere-like form of 60 atoms. The form resembles a building invented by American architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983). The building is known as a geodesic dome. Each of the points on the dome is occupied by one carbon atom. The discoverers named the new form of carbon buckminsterfullerene in honor of Fuller. That name is too long to use in everyday conversation so it is usually shortened to fullerene or buckyball.

What is a nanotube?
A nanotube gets it name as a result of its small size. The diameter of a nanotube is extremely small and is measured is nanometers. A nano is equivalent to one billionth of the base unit or the decimal equivalent of 0.000000001.

What is a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT or SWNT)?
Graphite is made up of planes of carbon that form a hexagonal lattice, much like sheets of chicken wire. If you take one of these planes/sheets and roll them into a tube so that the overlapping hexagons line up with each other, you have a single-wall carbon nanotube. These tubes are generally 1-2 nm is diameter, similar to human DNA (~2 nm), and usually range from hundreds of nanometers to many microns in length.

What is a multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT or MWNT)?
This structure consists of many concentric shells, akin to a Russian matrioshka doll. They typically have diameters of tens of nanometers, and are microns long, up to hundreds of microns.

What consumer products use nanomaterials?

Do buckyballs occur naturally?
Yes, particularly when a combustion reaction occurs. For example: burning a candle, a volcanic eruption, or a forest fire.

Does OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) currently regulate the use of nanotechnology?
At this time OSHA identifies carbon nanotubes as nuisance dust. OSHA does not have a permissible exposure limit for carbon nanotubes or any other nanoparticles. It is likely that with emerging technology further guidelines will be developed and put into place.

What are molecular assemblers (i.e. nanobots, nanomachines, nanites, and nanobites)?
At this time synthetic molecular assemblers have never been constructed. A wide array of controversy surrounds the possibility of creating such a “machine”. They are thought to be highly desirable since they have been theorized to manufacture products with absolute precision and thus without any pollution. However, others have warned that such a powerful technology might get out of control and begin to compete with natural life forms on earth. A molecular assembler is a single molecule machine that would assemble individual atoms or molecules according to specific instructions to construct a desired product. Some biological molecules such as ribosome’s fit this definition since working within the cell’s environment; they receive instructions from mRNA and then assembles specific sequences of amino acids to construct protein molecules. However, the term “molecular assembler” refers to theoretical man-made synthetic devices.

How do nanomaterials travel in the environment?
They move within water and air (like many other contaminants). Scientists at Purdue University are in the midst of studying exactly how they move and what harm they might do to the environment.