NASA Tech Briefs’ National Nano Engineering Conference (NNEC) is the premier event focused on current and future developments in engineering innovations at the nanoscale, as well as the commercialization of nanotechnology. The event returns to Boston this year on November 12-13 at the Boston Colonnade Hotel, featuring the fourth annual Nano 50 Awards, recognizing the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products that have significantly impacted the development of nanotechnology.

This year’s nanomaterials track includes Joseph Riemer, President of Sono-Tek Corporation, who will discuss ultrasonic atomization for nano particle dispensing and coating. The session explains how advances in nanotechnology have helped to create the ultrasonic atomization dispersion syringe pump SonicSyringe, and the ultrasonic atomization spray nozzle to produce nano particles that are accurately and cost effectively deposited on target substrates. This presentation will be held on Wednesday November 12th 2008 at 2:00 pm.

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Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have theorized a way to increase the speed of pulses of light that bound across chains of tiny metal particles to well past the speed of light by altering the particle shape. Under the theory, nanosized metal chains would serve as building blocks for high-frequency optoelectronic and optical devices in high-speed optical computing applications.

Recent nanotechnology developments have enabled researchers to fabricate nanoparticle chains with great precision and fidelity. Penn’s research team capitalized on this technological advance by utilizing metallic nanoparticles as a chain of miniature waveguides that exchange light.

Currently, the advance is theoretical. But, from a practical standpoint, creating a metallic nanochain would provide the combination of smaller-diameter optical components coupled with larger bandwidth, making them optimal wave guiding materials.

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The proliferation of solar, wind, and tidal electric generation, and the emergence of hybrid electric automobiles demands flexible and reliable methods of high-capacity electrical storage. A team of Penn State materials scientists is developing ferroelectric polymer-based capacitors that can deliver power more rapidly, and are much lighter than conventional batteries.

The researchers developed a polymer of polyvinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene which, with the addition of chlorotrifluoroethylene, had a very high dielectric permittivity at room temperature. They found that by altering the amounts of the various chemical components of the polymer, they could tune the dielectric property and energy density. Dielectric polymers could also substitute for the dielectric silicon dioxide layer currently used in computers. Their use would open the way for flexible electronics applications, such as foldable screens and
computers.

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Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative center of the University of Maryland and NIST, have reported a new way to fine-tune the light coming from quantum dots, by manipulating them with pairs of lasers. The accomplishment could accelerate development of powerful advanced cryptography applications, projected to be a key 21st-century technology.

When energized, a quantum dot emits photons just as a solitary atom does, but imperfections in a quantum dot’s shape cause energy levels to separate. This ruins the balance of the ideal state required to emit entangled photons. The NIST-JQI team used lasers to control the energy levels of quantum dots. By adjusting the intensity of the laser beams, they were able to correct for imperfection-caused variations. In doing so, the team was the first to demonstrate that laser-tuned quantum dots can efficiently generate photons one at a time, as required for quantum cryptography and other applications.

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Purdue University researchers have harnessed the sensitivity of days-old fish embryos to create a fiber optic-based tool to detect a range of harmful chemicals. By measuring rates of oxygen use in developing fish, the technology could reveal the presence of minute levels of toxic substances. It could thus warn of environmental contamination, noted Marshall Porterfield, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue.

Respiration is often the first of a fish’s bodily functions affected by contaminants. The fiber optic technology quickly monitors this activity and produces results within minutes, said Porterfield. It detects four common pollutants: atrazine, cadmium, pentachlorophenol, and cyanide.

The most widely-used analogous technology monitors gill movements and other activities of bluegill fish with electrodes secured to the fish’s bodies. Porterfield believes the Purdue system could be advantageous as it records respiration in a sensitive life stage, and the optical equipment doesn’t consume oxygen or require the same degree of calibration.

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