A new development in nanotechnology has been achieved from a substance that can be found even in the custody of children.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team has come up with a quick and cost-effective way of reducing things to a nanometer.
The process is called impoliation fabrication and starts with polyacrylate (a super absorbent polymer commonly found in diapers).
Size is important
The first step of the process is to add a liquid solution to a piece of polycrylate, which causes it to swell, according to the scientific paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team last Thursday in Science.
The team then used the laser to bind the fluorine molecules with polycrylate in a specific pattern.
These particles were points of connection to any material the researchers wanted to reduce to the nanometer.
"We are creating the connection points we want to light and then we can connect what we want with those points," researcher Edward Boyden said in a press release at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"It could be a quantum point or a piece of nuclear acid or even tiny particles of gold," he said.
The researchers then dried the polyacrylate with acid.
This reduces the size of polyacrylate-related material to thousands of times its original size.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this process is its ease of delivery. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology press release, many biology and materials science laboratories have the equipment to start reducing things to the nanometer.
As for what the researchers might reduce, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team is already exploring possible uses, including optics and robots.
But in the end they see no limits to the possible applications of this technology.
"There are a lot of things you can do with this technique," Boyden said.
Source : Science Alert
Source : Science Alert
0 Comments