There's big interest in the world of the very small.
Graeme Williams is a third-year student at the University of Waterloo’s Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.
Graeme Williams is a third-year student at the University of Waterloo’s Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.
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With nanotechnology a wide field that can encompass answers to global problems as well as a whole new field of entrepreneurial ventures, growing numbers of students are becoming interested in its study.
Long interested in chemistry and physics, Graeme Williams believes that nanotechnology is the natural evolution of science.
"I read some books on the subject and that motivated me to go into it," says Mr. Williams, 21, a third-year student at the University of Waterloo's innovative Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). "As it [WIN] offers an undergraduate pure nanotechnology program, it's a nice venue to get into."
Nanotechnology is a branch of engineering that focuses on the study and manipulation of matter at the molecular level and generally deals with structures that are 100 nanometers or less (one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or one-millionth of a human hair). Originally coined in 1974 by Professor Norio Taniguchi at Tokyo Science University, nanotechnology crosses boundaries of chemistry, physics, and biology — and has a wide range of applications, from electronics to medicine.
"It's the sheer variety of the things that you can do," says Chris Dick, also 21 and a third-year student at WIN. "At our undergraduate program, we've got everything from drug delivery using polymers to silicon micro-fabrication. There is a huge variety of things that you get exposure to."
While nanotechnology is perceived as highly specialized, it is a multi-disciplinary field and allows nano-engineers to work with a variety of scientists. "It's actually a very broad field," says Mr. Dick, a Waterloo native currently developing procedures and manuals for the fourth-year undergraduate nanotechnology engineering lab.
Moreover, the excitement derives from working with materials at the so-called nanoscale, says Mr. Williams, who hails from Orillia, Ont., and is spending a co-op term conducting research at WIN's Giga-to-Nanoelectronics Laboratory.
"You get all kinds of neat effects, such as quantum tunnel effects that you can play around with," says Mr. Williams, referring to the process in which a nanometer-sized gap between a conducting tip and a conducting surface can be tunnelled through, or bridged, by applying an electric current.
"If you study these matters properly, you can utilize them to your advantage. That's the whole idea of nanotechnology — applying the weird things that we see and trying to better understand them."
A growing number of students are becoming interested in the possibilities of nanotechnology.
Launched in 2004, WIN began with 105 students, says Dr. Arthur Carty, executive director. "When the program was announced, we had 1,000 applications. Every student that was accepted had an average of over 90 per cent, so the quality was very high," says Dr. Carty, noting that the five-year program includes 24 months of co-op, or practical experience in the field.
There are now 350 students in the program and next spring the first batch of about 80 graduates will emerge as nanotechnology engineers. In the fall of 2010, Dr. Carty expects there will be 500 students in total.
"The program was designed from the bottom up — like nanotechnology," says Dr. Carty, referring to the way nano-engineers work at the atomic level. "It was not a combination of engineering and science courses. Everything was designed from scratch."
Students work in a new $4-million lab where they learn the practical aspects of nanotechnology — such as making nanodevices or systems using special tools such as atomic force microscopes and scanning tunnelling microscopes so they can see what they are manipulating at the nanoscale.
"One of the reasons that nanotechnology has progressed in the last 10 years is that we have the tools to see and manipulate at that scale. You can move molecules around," says Dr. Carty, adding that the program balances the fundamental science to understand nanotechnology with the practical engineering aspects.
While nanotech — as it's sometimes known — became a buzzword in the late 1990s when the U.S. government pushed research programs and investors plowed millions into untested applications, Dr. Carty argues that it's moved from hype to reality.
"Many people now believe that nanotechnology will be the next industrial revolution. It's shown by the scale of expenditures on research and development," says Dr. Carty, noting that last year about $18-billion (U.S.) was spent globally on R&D, including about $200-million (Can.) in Canada.
"There are many start-up companies that are making nano-enabled products and processes. It's an innovative, creative field and lots of entrepreneurs are starting up businesses in nanotechnology," observes Dr. Carty. "They want graduates who have the experience and training that enable them to not only understand nanotechnology, but see some of the potential applications."
That view is shared by Dr. Chris Backhouse, director of the engineering physics program, who oversees the nano-engineering option, within the electrical engineering department, faculty of engineering at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton. "Nano-engineering is definitely here," says Dr. Backhouse.
"The electronics industry is now a 'nano' industry," adds Dr. Backhouse. "When you buy your PC with its Pentium chip, its transistors are well into the nano regime by all the standard definitions. But we are starting to see how we can broaden the scope, from just electronics, to everything else. There's a wealth of opportunity out there.
However, while advances have been made in various fields, such as biotechnology, solar energy and fuel cells, he admits the level of sophistication in using nanotechnology is still in the early stage.
Currently, 162 students are enrolled in University of Alberta's four-year nanotechnology program, which is sub-divided between 91 students in electrical engineering, 25 in computer studies and 46 in engineering physics.
"Most of these programs didn't exist three years ago," says Dr. Backhouse, noting that the engineering physics option began in 2006.
"There is a lot of interest in that those students have essentially demanded programs in their area," says Dr. Backhouse, adding that demand from industry and research facilities has also been a contributing factor. "But you also need a recognized need on the part of government which will support the program. That's why these programs have come into being."
But interest in the field has waned among engineering students at the University of Toronto, which was the first Canadian university to offer an undergraduate nano-engineering option in 2000. Today, there are 56 students taking the specialty, compared with 110 students in the 2005-06 school year.
"Those were the great hype days for nano," reflects Dr. Doug Perovic, former chairman of the department of materials science and engineering and professor of materials science and engineering, who designed the nano-engineering program.
"But things have settled down — for the better," says Dr. Perovic. "The hype is disappearing, and investors are asking hard questions. And that's across the whole nano spectrum, which is a good thing."
While there is less excitement than in the early days, Dr. Perovic says there is a different set of students in the program. "They want to solve some real problems, like clean water, climate change and new forms of energy, in addition to those who are keen on faster electronics and new devices. A lot of the engineering science students are globally-conscious, so with the things that we can do, the numbers will grow again."
As for Mr. Williams, he is already looking forward to being in a post-graduate program studying the nascent field of organic electronics, which could be used to replace conventional liquid crystal display technology.
"The stuff I'm working on right now — transparent and flexible displays — is pretty exciting," says Mr. Williams. "I'm happy to be part of it and continue my education. I see myself doing research for a while."
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INSPIRED BY NATURE
While completing his PhD in polymer and materials chemistry at the University of Toronto, André Arsenault was fascinated by the bright flashes of colour that appear to emanate from an opal gemstone.
Dr. Arsenault, who was studying photonic crystals (which affect the motion of photons, or light, in a similar way that semiconductor crystals affect the motion of electrons), noticed that the glass and water that co-exist to form an opal are like marbles that adopt an order, whose spacing between the marbles is at the same scale as the wavelength of light. If it responds to a certain wavelength, it bounces back in the form of colour.
"As with most things, the inspiration was from nature," says Dr. Arsenault, 29, chief technology officer at Opalux Inc., a firm he co-founded 2 1/2 years ago, on the downtown campus of the University of Toronto.
"The field of photonic crystals is inspired by that."
While he is a chemist, Dr. Arsenault describes some of his work as "de facto" engineering, as he had to build devices and measure properties. "In nano, things tend to get a little blurred. We're working at the interface where you can't do much unless you use some of the other disciplines, too."
With the aid of engineers and chemists at the university, and backed by outside investors, Dr. Arsenault has developed technology that makes the materials electronically or mechanically "tunable."
"We don't want to just reflect a colour, but be able to change the colours that are reflected. We want to be able to create a coating or a device that is blue, for instance. You could turn a knob that applies a voltage and it will go to green or red or orange — anything you want."
His firm began to incorporate active polymers into the photonic crystal materials. "It means making a nano composite. That's where the nano comes in: taking materials that are not so interesting on their own, but when you put them together, and structure them small enough, you get these unprecedented properties. You start getting colour. That was really cool for us."
Today, with a team of eight, most of whom are scientists, Dr. Arsenault has developed a number of commercial applications. He hopes to sell the patented P-Ink technology for use in large-scale displays such as storefronts or outdoor billboards that could quickly and easily advertise numerous products and services. He's also developed Elastink technology that allows colours to be changed mechanically and used in applications such as security features in currency or authenticating products.
"By the fall, we hope to have test trials and market studies, and then there would be some scale-up to production," says Dr. Arsenault. "The applications we're talking about are quite high-volume."
Special to The Globe and Mail
Editor's note: Incorrect information appeared for the number of students enrolled in the University of Toronto's undergraduate nano-engineering option in a previous version of this story. This version has been corrected.
