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Europe leads in nanotechnology

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 26, 2005

After having established itself in the materials industry, nanotechnology has become the new wave in the medicine and life sciences, display devices and electronics industries.

Nanotechnology has transformed and modernised the materials industry by empowering scientists to manipulate materials at the atomic level.

This remarkable ability enables materials manufacturers to offer materials with customisable properties such as unsurpassed electrical as well as optical conductivity and mechanical strength.

After having established itself in the materials industry, nanotechnology has become the new wave in the medicine and life sciences, display devices and electronics industries.

Although it can reduce a company's disposal costs and enhance its commitment to environment, it can also provide value-added features at only marginally higher costs.

Nanotechnology is finding extensive use in an increasing number of applications - from space and science to everyday materials such as glass.

One such popular application is the drug delivery system for cancer therapies.

Nanoparticles are particularly suited to curing specific conditions such as cancer, as their sizes are comparable with tissue cells.

"When combined with currently available binding agents, these nanoparticles can turn into targeted drug delivery systems", says Technical Insights Analyst Hrishikesh Bidwe from Frost and Sullivan.

"Drug discovery processes can use nanofluidic technology to improve current assays and chromatographic techniques, while diagnostics can use nanoparticles and quantum dots to target and differentiate healthy molecules from damaged or infected molecules and cells".

Another emerging area of application is the automotive industry, where the smoother, stronger and more durable nanoparticles-based coating can provide scratch-resistant and self-cleaning surfaces.

Their superior conductivity makes them excellent static charge bleeders in clear packaging for electronic parts and aircraft windows.

The electronics industry has also enthusiastically adopted this technology.

It is already working on novel equipment such as high-density storage media and ultrafast memory chips.

Display devices are also finding new uses for nanotechnology, especially for carbon nanotubes in field emission displays.

Using a novel technology such as nanotechnology to develop products is an arduous and complicated task, the details of which do not particularly interest the end user.

They are more likely to be concerned about the features of the product and its functions.

"Once base technologies such as particle formulation and nanotechnology synthesis into polymers become standard processes, development of products for mainstream commercial applications is expected to become a lot easier", notes Bidwe.

"This development is also likely to reduce the time to market and shorten the product development life cycle".

All these developments are likely to require substantial funding, which, very often, cannot be afforded by small companies.

To stave off this challenge, most companies tend to collaborate with bigger enterprises to strengthen their base in terms of basic research, manufacturing, marketing and support.

Some healthcare organisations partner with each other during the clinical stage so that they can create new and effective drugs or drug delivery systems.

"There are several European research programmes relating to nanomaterials that are carried out in collaboration with industry majors such as BASF Corporation and The Dow Chemical Company", observes Bidwe.

"These programmes are conducted with specific commercialisation plans".