Graphic representation of a 3-D atomic resolution screw dislocation in a platinum nanoparticle. Credit: Chien-Chun Chen and I-Sheng Chou, UCLA

Researchers from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute and Northwestern University have combined multiple imaging techniques to produce high quality 3D images of platinum nanoparticles, allowing advanced visualization of atomic-scale structural defects (an important advancement over X-ray crystallography).

The original 2012 work, published in Nature and posted by Jim Lewis here, used electron tomography to study 10-nm gold particles and was described at Phys.org:

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“This is the first experiment where we can directly see local structures in three dimensions at atomic-scale resolution — that’s never been done before,” said Jianwei (John) Miao, a professor of physics and astronomy and a researcher with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA.
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X-ray crystallography is a powerful technique for revealing the structure of perfect crystals, which are materials with an unbroken honeycomb of perfectly spaced atoms lined up as neatly as books on a shelf. Yet most structures existing in nature are non-crystalline, with structures far less ordered than their crystalline counterparts — picture a rock concert mosh pit rather than soldiers on parade.
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Miao and his colleagues used a scanning transmission electron microscope to sweep a narrow beam of high-energy electrons over a tiny gold particle only 10 nanometers in diameter (almost 1,000 times smaller than a red blood cell). The nanoparticle contained tens of thousands of individual gold atoms, each about a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. These atoms interact with the electrons passing through the sample, casting shadows that hold information about the nanoparticle’s interior structure onto a detector below the microscope.

Miao’s team discovered that by taking measurements at 69 different angles, they could combine the data gleaned from each individual shadow into a 3-D reconstruction of the interior of the nanoparticle. Using this method, which is known as electron tomography, Miao’s team was able to directly see individual atoms and how they were positioned inside the specific gold nanoparticle.
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The new study, using multiple imaging techniques, will be published in an upcoming issue of Nature, and includes a video showing three-dimensional volume renderings (available for viewing at Phys.org:

The authors describe being able to see how the atoms of a platinum nanoparticle—only 10 namometers in diameter—are arranged in three dimensions. They also identify how the atoms are arranged around defects in the platinum nanoparticle.
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This novel method is a combination of three techniques: scanning transmission electron microscopy, equally sloped tomography (EST) and three-dimensional Fourier filtering. Compared to conventional CT, the combined method produces much higher quality 3-D images and allows the direct visualization of atoms inside the platinum nanoparticle in three dimensions.
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“This is the first instance where the three-dimensional structure of dislocations in nanoparticles has been directly revealed at atomic resolution,” Ajayan said. “The elegant work demonstrates the power of electron tomography and leads to possibilities of directly correlating the structure of nanoparticles to properties, all in full 3-D view.” Defects can influence many properties of materials, and a technique for visualizing these structures at atomic resolution could lead to new insights beneficial to researchers in a wide range of fields.

-Posted by Stephanie C

Basic manipulations of atoms and bonds by scanning probe have become familiar capabilities that follow similar protocols: the STM tip is precisely positioned relative to the molecule and then energy (tunneling current) is modulated to achieve particular operations, including scanning, translocation across the substrate surface, and making/breaking chemical bonds.  Going a tremendous step beyond the basics, Wilson Ho* of University of California, Irvine and colleagues recently reported the selective formation of two distinct types of chemical bonds between gold adatoms and the sulfurs of 1,4-bis(4’-(acetylthio)styryl)benzene molecules (converting Ac-S-DSB-S-Ac to Au-S-DSB-S-Au) on a NiAl(110) surface.

1,4-bis(4’-(acetylthio)styryl)benzene

First, selective dissociation was achieved by successively positioning the STM tip at precise positions above each acetyl group and increasing sample bias to cause bond rupture, leaving a substrate-stabilized S-DSB-S molecule.

Each sulfur atom retained a lone pair and an unpaired electron which were available for bonding. Individual gold atoms were then manipulated toward the sulfurs from specific directions that targeted a particular electron group, and a pulse of energy was supplied from the STM tip to trigger discreet bonding. Bonding via the unpaired electron produced a covalent bond, while bonding via the lone pair produced a coordinate bond.

In this stepwise manner, the team was able to selectively produce molecules containing a covalent bond between one S-Au pair and a coordinate bond between the other S-Au pair, as well as molecules containing two covalently bound S-Au pairs or two coordinate pairs, for a total of nine distinct DSB-2S-2Au complexes to date.

Notably, the spatial location of the electron groups around the sulfur atoms appears to follow the symmetry of the DSB framework. Dr. Wilson Ho explained that, “Once the symmetry of the DSB is imaged and determined, we can infer the electron groups on the exposed sulfurs. The Au atoms can then be manipulated to form different types of bonds depending on whether they attach to the lone pair or the unpaired electron of the S atoms.”

This remarkable use of directionality for selective bond formation serves to further illustrate the fundamental accessibility of machine-guided synthesis: orbital overlap and energy barriers are key, and manipulation approaches will be increasingly understood and exploited as molecular fabrication technologies continue to develop.
*Sincere thanks to Dr. Wilson Ho for generous communications regarding this work
-Posted by Stephanie C

… Nanoscale forms of substances like silver, carbon, zinc and aluminum have many useful properties. Nano zinc oxide sunscreen goes on smoothly, for example, and nano carbon is lighter and stronger than its everyday or “bulk” form. But researchers say these products and others can also be ingested, inhaled or possibly absorbed through the skin. And they can seep into the environment during manufacturing or disposal.

Nanomaterials are engineered on the scale of a billionth of a meter, perhaps one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair, or less. Not enough is known about the effects, if any, that nanomaterials have on human health and the environment, according to a report issued by the academy’s expert panel. The report says that “critical gaps” in understanding have been identified but “have not been addressed with needed research.”

And because the nanotechnology market is expanding — it represented $225 billion in product sales in 2009 and is expected to grow rapidly in the next decade — “today’s exposure scenarios may not resemble those of the future,” the report says.

The panel called for a four-part research effort focusing on identifying sources of nanomaterial releases, processes that affect exposure and hazards, nanomaterial interactions at subcellular to ecosystem-wide levels and ways to accelerate research progress. …

A free PDF of the report A Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials is available.
—James Lewis

A decade ago, University of Oregon chemist James E. Hutchison wrote an invited article in Chemical & Engineering News in which he envisioned “a generalized roadmap for the future design and development of green nanoscience materials.”

That roadmap has grown up and is now in front of chemistry leaders worldwide with the publication of “Green Nanotechnology Challenges and Opportunities.” The new “white paper” on the potential of incorporating benign chemistry practices was co-written by Hutchison. The American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute issued the document, which is freely available at www.acs.org/greenreport.

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“The roots of green nano are really deep here in Oregon,” said Hutchison, who holds the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry at the UO. “This report mirrors the strategy that we have had for several years now. This is the way that things are going to be done. The report addresses the need for commercialization, for new policies — a new science for addressing our societal needs. It’s been 10 years in coming, but we are at the table now.”

The report outlines the promise of green nanotechnology, which promotes the design of useful particles thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair in a way that reduces or eliminates waste or the production of hazardous substances. It also spells out what actions need to be undertaken by the various stakeholders, Hutchison said.

When successfully implemented, green nanotechnology could lead to a revitalized and sustainable U.S. chemical and materials manufacturing base, the white paper says. Nanoparticles could well find their ways into medicine, electronics, energy production and other industries.

“Green Nanotechnology Challenges and Opportunities” presents examples of both encouraging success in meeting the challenges of near-term nanoparticle development and reasons for concern that inept government regulation will retard progress.

A solid success is the development of sensitive assays for the biological effects of nanoparticle to be used to guide research and development of nanoparticles for applications. The combination of the embryonic zebrafish model with precisely engineered gold nanoparticles means that the effect of specific changes to charge, surface chemistry, and particle size can be investigated for subtle biological effects.

An example of the challenges yet to be overcome is the case of Dune Sciences. This company licensed a promising nanotechnnology innovation to permanently attach silver nanoparticles to surfaces so that commercial antimicrobial applications of silver nanoparticles could be developed without the worry of potentially toxic silver nanoparticles escaping into the environment. Unfortunately no path could be found through the EPA regulatory maze to register the product, despite the evident fact that the proposed product was safer than what was already on the market. This impasse prevented the company from securing funding and necessitated putting development of the product on hold.

The report also presents a brief analysis of the different barriers to developing nanotechnology in the US and in China that is worth a look.

Given Foresight’s interest in the long-term development of atomically precise productive nanosystems as a future manufacturing technology, with both its much greater potential benefits and its potentially more complex regulatory issues, the path forward being blazed by green nanotechnology is worth following.

… collects review articles from the six topics of the conference, while also including comments, discussions and debates obtained during the conference.

The issues discussed at this landmark conference were:

• Noncovalent Assemblies: Design and Synthesis
• Template Synthesis of Catenanes and Rotaxanes
• Molecular Machines Based on Catenanes and Rotaxanes
• Molecular Machines Based on Non-Interlocking Molecules
• Towards Molecular Logics and Artificial Photosynthesis
• From Single Molecules to Practical Devices

In addition, and this is probably the most novel feature of the book, comments, discussions and debate will constitute a substantial part of each chapter, in accordance with the tradition of Solvay Conferences.

On the Amazon web page above it is possible to “Search inside this book” to browse the Table of Contents, index, and several internal pages of the book.

…a current update and the most comprehensive summary so far of the many potential applications of advanced diamondoid medical nanorobotics to conventional and anti-aging medicine. Here’s the abstract:

Nanotechnology involves the engineering of molecularly precise structures and molecular machines, and nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine, including the development of medical nanorobotics. Theoretical designs for diamondoid nanomachinery such as bearings, gears, motors, pumps, sensors, manipulators and even molecular computers already exist. Technologies required for the molecularly precise fabrication of diamondoid mechanical components and medical nanorobots, along with feasible strategies for the mass production of these devices, are the focus of active current research. This chapter describes a comprehensive solution to human morbidity and aging which will be attained when mankind has established control over all critical molecular events in the human body through the use of medical nanorobotics. Medical nanorobots can provide targeted treatments to individual organs, tissues, cells and even intracellular components, and can intervene in biological processes at the molecular level under direct supervision of the physician. Programmable micron-scale robotic devices will make possible comprehensive cures for human disease, the reversal of physical trauma, and individual cell repair. This leads to the complete control of human aging via nanomedically engineered negligible senescence (NENS) coupled with nanorobot-mediated rejuvenation that should extend the human healthspan at least tenfold beyond its current maximum length. The nanomedical solution is the final step in the roadmap to the control of human aging.

Best wishes,

Robert A. Freitas Jr. http://www.rfreitas.com
Author, Nanomedicine http://www.nanomedicine.com and http://www.MolecularAssembler.com
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing

Posted by Travis Earles on November 01, 2010 at 12:07 PM EDT

Starting today, public comment is being accepted on the draft Strategic Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which is posted at the NNI Strategy Portal. The NNI is an interagency program for coordinating Federal research and development in nanotechnology, which is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers. At these super small scales, unique phenomena emerge, enabling the development of materials and devices with novel applications. Research in nanoscale science and engineering has the potential to bring about new nanotechnology innovations, such as improving how we collect and store energy, reinforce materials, sense contaminants, target drugs, and shrink and accelerate computational devices.

The NNI Strategic Plan is the framework that underpins the nanotechnology work of 25 NNI member agencies. It aims to ensure that advances in nanotechnology R&D and their applications to agency missions continue unabated in this fledgling field. Its purpose is to facilitate achievement of the NNI vision by laying out targeted guidance for agency leaders, program managers, and the research community regarding planning and implementation of nanotechnology R&D investments and activities.

…You may review the draft Plan and submit comments of approximately one page or less (4,000 characters) from now until November 30, 2010.

To comment on the DRAFT National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan 2010, you must first register. In a quick scan I did not find any mention of the advanced nanotechnology that is Foresight’s primary concern. Searches for the phrases “atomic precision”, “atomically precise”, “productive nanosystems”, and “molecular manufacturing” all came up negative. The various program component areas (see page 5) do make a strong case for expanded incremental improvements in the design, manufacturing, and use of nanostructured products in a wide range of applications—electronics, materials, energy, medical, environment, health, and safety, etc. Perhaps the closest indirect allusion to advanced nanotechnology is Program Component Area 5 – Nanomanufacturing:

R&D aimed at enabling scaled-up, reliable, and cost-effective manufacturing of nanoscale materials, structures, devices, and systems. Includes R&D and integration of ultra-miniaturized top-down processes and increasingly complex bottom-up or self-assembly processes.

Whether your primary interest is near-term or long-term, let them know what you think of their plan.

Designed for nano-aware individuals in both the public and private sectors, this volume—the first of its kind—provides a concise, readable resource on nanoscience education and workforce development in the field. The first part of the book provides a historical perspective on the complexity of K-12 education communities, while presenting inspiring examples of successful changes, including a definition of nanotechnology and a broad evaluation of the global and national landscapes of the field. The second section, Teaching Nanotechnology, turns to the critical process of teaching K-12 students the skills to understand and evaluate emerging technologies they will encounter in the future. The third part investigates the current status of developed teaching materials with links to all resources, evaluating the U.S. model and comparing with others around the world. The last section considers plans of action, offering links to sustainable development tools. It is a book designed to enhance awareness, review the facts, and fabricate a platform from which to launch a plan.

Kudos to Judith Light Feather and Miguel Aznar for addressing these crucial issues.

We address this question as it relates to Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM), a critical technology specifically cited in one of PCAST’s White Papers for this question:

“ISSUE: What should be the Federal Government’s role in the development of production processes and related sensing, measurement, and analytical capabilities for molecular-level, atomically precise production.”

This has been a central question for both the Foresight Institute and the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing since our inceptions in 1986 and 1991, respectively. Our position is that the development of Productive Nanosystems—high volume, lost-cost assembly systems for atomically precise products—is of strategic importance to our nation. Projected benefits promise clean and abundant energy, permanent cures for serious diseases, a clean environment, and the security of advanced capabilities for a strong national defense. APM will dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing most commercial products, paying for its development costs many times over, but the technical challenges and development time horizon have precluded major initiatives by industry players.

In addressing the question of consortia, we broaden our response to consider a range of complementary approaches. The scientific and engineering challenges needed to develop Atomically Precise Manufacturing requires a focus and commitment that extends well beyond the limitations of a consortium-based activity, and is best handled by a mix of programs that focus on different strengths:

- Consortia
- Incentive prizes
- 3-5 year Fixed Fee Small Business Initiatives
- DOE or NIH Grant Programs
- Major DoD or NASA Acquisition Programs

A table comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches is available at: http://imm.org/images/IMM-FI-R&DLeverageTable.jpg

SBIR/STTR projects are useful as quick ways to provide funding to smaller teams in industry and academia, stimulating innovative R&D projects toward APM in the short term. Incentive prizes (Xprize, DARPA challenges) are particularly good at organizing entrepreneurial teams to integrate and make operational technologies that have been developed, but are immature. Consortia will take longer to organize, but can leverage private capital and create incentives for industry to cooperate on a massive precompetitive R&D base.

To create focused research results that will provide major advances in Energy and Medicine, and a flow of knowledge to the industry teams, we recommend the use of grant programs funded by NIH and DOE. These target areas are detailed in the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, available at www.foresight.org/roadmaps

Developing APM systems requires a long term commitment on the order of 10-15 years. For the complex and focused systems integration and engineering program that we envision, the structured discipline developed for major federal acquisitions by NASA and DoD is an ideal approach. Awarding two or three prime contracts with alternative development approaches (as with the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program) will provide more widespread participation, reduce overall risk, and accelerate development to the benefit of all.

Unlike in most large federal acquisition programs, and certainly unlike in a typical consortium-based effort, there are major policy issues to be addressed at the national and international levels. The impact of APM on the economy, nationally and internationally, will require an engaged discussion from a wide range of stakeholders. And the technology will be dual-use—mandating DoD involvement toward objectives that are stabilizing and positive for global security.

Many rewards and challenges await. This is a program worthy of becoming our highest national priority, with the attendant devotion of our best minds and strongest spirits.

Respectfully submitted,

David Forrest, President of IMM and Senior Fellow with the Foresight Institute
Neil Jacobstein, Chairman, Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, CEO, Teknowledge
Christine Peterson, President, Foresight Institute

We hope you’ll log into the site and indicate your views of the above.  Special thanks to Dr. David Forrest, President of IMM and Senior Fellow at Foresight, for his key role in preparing this statement.  —Chris Peterson

Peterson suggests that a closer look at the software developers might provide some clues about responsible cultures of innovation. “If you really want to know how to create a sense of responsibility, look at the software development community,” she says. “They see their work as political. They see it as ethics-based. They think of the ethical consequences of their decisions. They’re very politicized and very aware. So, why is that? Why is that true in software and not so much true in other areas?”

Of course this isn’t true of all software developers.  Just many of them.  —Chris Peterson