Hong Kong Researchers Think
Small
Source: IDG
February 8, 2001
According to IDG, nanotechnology researchers at Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) are in the process
of creating microscopic devices that may have huge implications for
information technology. Some of the small discoveries coming from the
physics department are tubes just a few molecules wide, a
microwave-absorbing sheet thinner than paper and a clutch that can
stop and start a micro-motor without the need for tiny gears. These
breakthroughs could make flat-panel displays cheaper, cell phones
safer and microdrives more reliable, the researchers said in an
interview Friday.
Nanotechnology is the study of tiny devices measuring
less than a nanometer - one billionth of a meter. A human hair is
typically 30,000 nanometers wide. Nanotechnology has often been called
the key to breakthroughs in medicine and robotics. However, the
researchers from HKUST think some of their work could be
commercialized in IT hardware.
The ten-year-old university will launch the $1 million
Institute of Nanoscience and Technology in May 2001 using faculty from
electrical engineering and chemistry departments in addition to the
physics team. Nanotechnology experts from top U.S. universities
including Princeton, Stanford and UC Berkeley will serve as advisors.
The focus of the institute will be pure research.
Over the past year, Assistant Professor Weija Wen has
made a white powder made of tiny particles that can be either a fluid
or a solid when combined with oil and changes its state when an
electrical charge is applied or removed - a property known as
electrorheology. Wen's creation is not the first substance that can do
this, but the molecular properties of Wen's particles make this fluid
much more rigid than those that have gone before, he said. For
example, it exceeds the rigidity standard set by General Motors Corp.
for use in a clutch, which GM has been researching for over a decade.
In a car, a clutch like this would last longer than a
mechanical one, Wen told IDG. In a small hard-disk drive, like those
in handheld devices, it would remove the need to make tiny, expensive
gears and clutches. If used to replace existing parts, the technology
could be commercialized in just two or three years, he added. "As long
as IT can't be totally separated from moving parts, you'll need
something to transmit force and torque on a micro scale."
Another creation from HKUST comes from Zi-Kang Tang, a
lecturer in the physics department. Tang created tiny tubes known as
"nanotubes" which represent a step beyond those normally grown in labs
today. In the past few years, Tang has found methods of using zeolite
crystals as a template for the tubes of graphite, making them smaller,
thinner and absolutely uniform, he said. Tang's nanotubes are less
than a nanometer in diameter.
Nanotubes are useful for transmitting electrons
efficiently and at high speeds, like the cathode-ray tubes in TVs and
traditional computer monitors do, except that the electrons in those
tubes need a lot of room to travel so they can be amplified. Using
nanotubes, a monitor manufacturer could manufacture a CRT nearly as
thin as an active-matrix LCD (liquid-crystal display), but much more
cheaply and with less power, said Tang.
LCD makers are already developing CRTs like these, but
using existing, imperfect nanotubes that tend to lose their brightness
in a matter of hours. More perfect nanotubes might be the solution,
Tang said. "If they can overcome the lifetime problem, you might see
it (in products) next year," Tang told IDG.
Another project in the works is heading toward something
that might seem small and simple but which could solve a potentially
huge problem. Wen and Department of Physics Head Ping Sheng recently
created by accident a flexible material thinner than paper that can
absorb 95 percent of the microwaves that hit it.
Wen is envisioning a small shield on a cell phone that
users could flip up next to the phone's antenna to shield themselves
from radiation. This could end the ongoing debate over the effects of
cell-phone radiation on the brain, he said. Whatever the true effects
of microwaves, "There's no denying that not having as much exposure is
a safer option," Wen said.
The physics department at HKUST has developed strength
in nanotechnology over the past several years because it has always
focused on the field of condensed metal physics, rather than cosmology
or some other aspect of physics, Wen said. Researchers also cooperate
with nanotechnology experts in China, where nanotechnology is studied
at some major universities, but only through the same academic
activities in which they share findings with academics elsewhere in
the world.
Private companies will probably have to foot the bill
for the research and development that could turn these discoveries
into practical devices. Lab funds are relatively scarce and dedicated
to more basic science, Wen said. "We're not in this for the money," he
said.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
http://www.ust.hk/