Nanotechnologies Enhance Green-Technologies: Green Technology Articles: Eco20/20

Nanotechnologies Enhance Green-Technologies

If you are among the brilliant science-types who are calmly taking over the world, it's a good bet you already know that Nano-products and nano-materials are naturally more eco-friendly than plus-sized alternatives because nano-sizing ensures fewer resources must be committed to a product's manufacture. Carry on with the tech-magic, please. Don't stop to wait for the gazing with bright-eyed wonder crowds; we'll never catch up, anyway. We're just taking a layman's moment here, to discuss how nano-technology links with eco-friendliness.

Chemical Technologies

* In the medicine industry, nano-scale membranes and catalysts are being used to make chemical handling more efficient and less wasteful, nano-solar arrays are being developed to improve vision, and a host of nano-particles are being tested for toxicity while their developers are busy seeking regulatory approval.

o Major companies are predicting that nano-particles will soon be able to carry a payload of medicine to a specific body-location (a feat conventional drugs cannot achieve); and researchers are envisioning the use of nano-particle pairs for imaging therapy, a process where a disease will be identified for treatment by the imaging particle then treated by the therapeutic particle.

* In a soapy nook of the chemical industry, nano-scale cleaning products have been created to clean hazardous waste spills, nano-products are being developed to monitor environmental pollutants, and microscopically thin bio-surface coating materials are being researched - all in the hope of reducing the use of unfriendly cleaning chemicals.

Energy Technologies

* High-intensity Light-emitting diodes are available right now, today, to replace streetlights and home lights. LED's are proven to dramatically reduce consumption of electricity. Cities all over the world have conducted street-lighting tests with up to 50% savings in energy usage.

o Like every emerging technology, the HI-LED's are a little expensive right now, but if everyone will do their part and buy a few anyway, it will insure this fabulous technology takes its rightful place as the bright new standard all the old lighting technologies are measured against.

Nanotechnology fuel cells for automobiles could save a substantial volume of fossil fuels and dramatically reduce smog and other petrochemical pollutions.

A new material, called nano-flakes, is at hand in the field of solar energy. Researcher Martin Aagesen, who discovered the light-absorbing nano-flakes, has stated they are a perfect crystalline structure with the potential to convert up to 30 percent of the solar energy that reaches them to electricity, which is twice the amount most panels can convert today. The discovery of nano-flake materials has received international attention. Successful development could significantly reduce solar cell production costs.

Computer Technologies

* Nano-magnetic materials are being used in data storage and are being researched by major global electronics companies for use in television displays, cell phones and more. Investors are looking at the potential for mainstream commercialization of nano-magnetics for hundreds of electronic applications.

o Industry excitement is particularly evident over the concept of nano-photonic integrated circuits. Proponents suggest future transmission speeds might reach a thousand times the rate of today's technologies.

One final eco-friendliness note: in applications where toxic ingredients cannot be wholly eliminated from a product, there is much hope that the emergence of nanotech options will at least result in a greatly reduced volume of toxins. And if you happen to be a bright student - study hard, these technologies need you.