Tiny Gadget Inspector

Hydrogen-Nanobead-Based Synthetic Gas

2011-01-29T04:56:00.000-08:00

Cella Energy claims to have invented a hydrogen-based synthetic fuel that could replace gasoline in cars, and lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe, but the challenge on our planet has been making and storing hydrogen safely. We can use hydrogen in fuel cell systems where the only emissions are water. We can also convert regular gasoline cars or aircraft jet-engines to hydrogen with minimal modifications. If we burn hydrogen instead of fossil fuels in internal combustion engines or in jet-engines there are no carbon emissions.

This new technology has been researched entirely in the UK, and is based on complex hydrides that are highly unstable, usually degrading rapidly in air. In simpler words, it is a nanotech-driven method that encapsulates hydrogen at usable concentrations in micro-capsules, allowing it to be handled and burned in conventional engines without the need to store it in dangerous high-pressure tanks or super-cooled environments.

According to Cella’s website:

Cella Energy have developed a method using a low-cost process called coaxial electrospinning or electrospraying that can trap a complex chemical hydride inside a nano-porous polymer that speeds up the kinetics of hydrogen desorption, reduces the temperature at which the desorption occurs and filters out many if not all of the damaging chemicals. It also protects the hydrides from oxygen and water, making it possible to handle it in air.

Fundamental to the widespread introduction of hydrogen technologies is a low-cost, practical way of storing hydrogen. This is particularly challenging for transport applications, which places stringent requirements on cost, safety, volume and weight. Hydrogen storage is also vital for the smart-grid to operate effectively.

Features and Benefits of the hydrogen-based synthetic fuel:

low-pressure
safe
ambient temperatures
rapid desorption of hydrogen
pure hydrogen
can be handled safely in the open air
increases revenue for customer
fast introduction into market
saves money and time on packaging
end customer can travel further without refuelling

More Info:

http://www.cellaenergy.com/
http://www.gizmag.com/

DNA used to control switchable Nanostructures made with DNA

2009-12-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a new way to use a synthetic form of DNA to control the assembly of nanoparticles — this time resulting in switchable, three-dimensional and small-cluster structures that might be useful, for example, as biosensors, in solar cells, and as new materials for data storage. The work is described in Nature Nanotechnology, published online December 20, 2009.
The Brookhaven team, led by physicist Oleg Gang, has been refining techniques to use strands of artificial DNA as a highly specific kind of Velcro or glue to link up nanoparticles. Such DNA-based self-assembly holds promise for the rational design of a range of new materials for applications in molecular separation, electronics, energy conversion, and other fields. But none of these structures has had the ability to change in a programmable manner in response to molecular stimuli — until now.

These illustrations show how a 3-D crystal made from nanoparticles changes between two distinct states via an intermediate structure (top row, middle) when looped (left) versus unlooped (right) double-stranded DNA chains are used to link the particles. The scientists were able to measure the distance between the particles in each structure by recording x-ray scattering patterns (bottom row). Switching from looped to unlooped DNA increased the interparticle distance by about 6 nanometers.

“Now we’re using a special type of DNA-linking device — a kind of ‘smart glue’ — that affects how the particles connect to make structures that are switchable between different configurations,” says Gang. This reliable, reversible switching could be used to regulate functional properties — for example, a material’s fluorescence and energy transfer properties — to make new materials that are responsive to changing conditions, or to alter their functions on demand.
Such responsiveness to changes in environmental conditions and the ability to adopt new forms are hallmarks of living systems. In that way, these new nanomaterials more closely mimic biological systems than any previous nanostructures. Though far from any form of truly “artificial life,” these materials could lead to the design of nanoscale machines that, at a very simple level, mimic cellular processes such as converting sunlight into useful energy, or sensing the presence of other molecules. Responsive materials would also have benefits in the field of optics or to produce regulated porous materials for molecular separations, Gang says.
The scientists achieved the goal of responsiveness by creating structures where the distance between nanoparticles could be carefully controlled with nanometer accuracy.
“Many physical characteristics of nanomaterials, such as optical and magnetic properties, are strongly dependent on the distance between nanoparticles,” Gang explains.
In their previous studies, the scientists used single strands of DNA attached to individual nanoparticles as linker molecules. When the free ends of these DNA strands had complementary genetic code, they would bind to attach the particles. Constraining the interactions by anchoring some of the particles on a surface allowed the scientists to reliably form a variety of structures from two-particle clusters (called dimers) to more complex 3-D nanoparticle crystals.
In the new work, the scientists have added more complicated double-stranded DNA structures. Unlike the single strands, which coil in uncontrollable ways, these double-stranded structures are more rigid and therefore constrain the interparticle distances.
Additionally, some of the strands making up the double-stranded DNA molecules have complicated structures such as loops, which pull the bound particles closer together than when both strands are exactly parallel. By varying the type of DNA device, between looped and unlooped strands, and measuring the interparticle distances using precision techniques at Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), the scientists demonstrated that they could effectively control the distance between the particles and switch the system from one state to another at will.
The approach resulted in two-configuration, switchable systems both in dimers and nanocrystals, with a distance change of about 6 nanometers — about 25 percent of the interparticle distance. By comparing kinetics in the two systems, they found that the switching between states is faster in the simpler, two-particle system. The dimers also retain their ability to return to their initial state more precisely than the 3-D crystals, suggesting that molecular crowding may be an issue to further investigate in the 3-D materials.
“Our hope is that the ability to induce post-assembly reorganization of these structures by adding DNA or other molecules as external stimuli, and our ability to observe these changes with nanometer resolution, will help us understand these processes and find ways to apply them in new kinds of nanomachinery in which the system’s functionality is determined by the nanoparticles and their relative organization,” says Gang.
Future studies will make use of precise imaging capabilities, such as advanced electron microscopy tools at the CFN and higher-resolution x-ray techniques that will become available at Brookhaven’s new light source, NSLS-II, now under construction.
Gang’s collaborators on this work include Brookhaven colleagues Mudalige Kumara, Dmytro Nykypanchuk and William Sherman, as well as Mathew Maye, a former Brookhaven chemist now at Syracuse University. The research was funded by the DOE Office of Science, by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development grant, and by a Goldhaber Distinguished Fellowship. Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages Brookhaven Lab, has filed patent applications related to this work. For information about these patents and licensing opportunities, contact Kimberley Elcess, elcess@bnl.gov, 631 344-4151.
Upon publication, the paper will be available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NNANO.2009.378.
The Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs), premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge and Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit http://nano.energy.gov.
Related Links

The Minijector

2009-12-05T00:22:00.000-08:00

Thanko, the Japanese Gadget manufacturer has produced a Tiny Pico Projector for any type of purpose for any situation.

The Thanko M100 measures 37×60×61mm and weighs 142 grams

The projector is able to produce a 45″ screen size from 2m away or 14-inch at 60cm away from wall. The basic resolution is 640×480, 200:1 contrast ratio only, and 10 lumen brightness level.

You can actually use Thanko Pico Projector MINIJEC1 on your PC, iPod or even your iPhone 3GS.

Nano Grippers

2008-02-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

Nanointegration is the technique of interfacing nanotubes and nanowires to microcircuitry, and developing methods for studying nanostructures so they can be used as micro-gadgets.

The Nanointegration Group at thr Technical Univesity of Denmark is focused on building tools for manipulation and characterization of nanostructures.
They focus in areas such as micro four point probes for electrical characterization of nanostructures, TEM chips for insitu structural characterization, non-sticky surfaces for handling of liquid-dispersed nanostructures or automated grippers and soldering for manipulation of nanostructures.

Their latest experiments deal with the optimiziation of the topology of Electrothermal Polysilicon Microgrippers for nanomanipulation. They are part of ongoing efforts to design and optimize handling tools with sufficient gripping force to release nanostructures that are firmly fixed to a surface - such as vertically aligned carbon nanotubes - and handling the nanostructures in automated processes.

More Info:
http://www.nanosystemsengineering.dk/

NanoFlakes

2008-02-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

Danish SunFlake is developing a new generation of solar cells based on a novel shape of semiconductor nanostructures named "NanoFlakes".

These nanostructures could eliminate the need for a lattice-matched substrate as well as for a clean solar grade substrate.
The sole purpose for the carrier substrate is to allow for the growth of the nanostructures and act as a contact to the light absorbing nanostructures when the solar cell is operating.

Their goal is to achieve a solar cell with up to 30% conversion efficiency of the solar energy into electricity and (twice the amount that we convert today) on a low cost substrate based on perfect single crystal III-V nanostructures.

A few of the potential advantages of the SunFlake solar cell design:

n-p junctions in perfect single crystals on a non-lattice matched substrate.
Short distance from electron-hole pair generation to the n-p junction.
Only small amounts of expensive solar grade material isused in the nanostructures, none in the substrate.

Martin Aagesen, who is a PhD from the Nano-Science Center and the Niels Bohr Institute at University of Copenhagen, besides being director of the company SunFlake Inc., commented how he discovered what it could be a revolutionary step in solar energy:

"I discovered a perfect crystalline structure. That is a very rare sight. While being a perfect crystalline structure we could see that it also absorbed all light. It could become the perfect solar cell,"

"The potential is unmistakeable. We can reduce the solar cell production costs because we use less of the expensive semiconducting silicium in the process due to the use of nanotechnology. At the same time, the future solar cells will exploit the solar energy better as the distance of energy transportation in the solar cell will be shorter and thus lessen the loss of energy."

Spectrolab has also addressed the issue of solar cell efficiency using the latest solar cell technology (Improved Triple-Junction with a minimum average efficiency of 26.5%) to power Galaxy IIIC, the world's highest capacity satellite launched on June 15, 2002.

Ultra-Triple-Junction solar cells, with a minimum average efficiency of 28.3%, are now in production and allow satellite operators the choice of increasing the capacity of their existing satellite platforms.

More Info:
SunFlake
Spectrolab

Tiny Gadget Inspector's AdSense Player

2008-02-01T02:08:00.000-08:00

YouTube has launched a new service called AdSense Players.

With AdSense Players you create customized video players for publishing to Websites or Blogs, using keywords or pre-selected premium content, like you see below:

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

This Post is just a test to see what AdSense Player picks up from the content of the Tiny Gadget Inspector's Blog.
Comments are welcome.

diNovo Mini

2008-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

The diNovo Mini is a wireless mini-keyboard with backlighting. So small that it fits in your hand.
Great for connecting your PC to your TV and controlling the whole setup from a comfortable distance, i.e. the sofa.
Take control of your PC entertainment with the only palm-sized, cordless mini-keyboard optimized for the way you get your entertainment.

Features:
Backlighting makes text entry effortless, even in low light. You can chhose between two different backlight colors: orange for cursor mode, and green for media control mode.
Integrated, dual-purpose ClickPad that you can use as a touch pad to point and click or as a directional pad to navigate menus and make selections.

Powered by rechargeable Li-ion batteries, it takes up to one month between charges.
Fitted with Bluetooth® 2.0, you can extend wireless control from up to 30 feet away.

System Requirements

PC with Windows® XP or Windows Vista®
USB Port
This product is compatible with PLAYSTATION®3.

Technical Specifications

25 mm (.98-inch) dual-purpose ClickPad. Works as a touch pad and a 4-way directional pad
Thumb-operated keypad design
63 backlighted keys
Backlighting for two modes—orange for touch-pad mode, green for media-center remote mode
Ambient light sensor measures current available light and turns off backlight, if necessary, to conserve power
Troy gloss silver with midnight black design
Dedicated Windows Media® Center button
Range: up to 10 m (33 feet)

Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.0 wireless technology
Point-to-point technology pre-paired with DiNovo Mini keyboard. (Does not act as a hub.)

Power and Battery

30 days (battery life)
Full-charge: Takes about 4 hours.
Fast-charge: Takes about 10 minutes for 1 day of use
950 mAH lithium-ion battery

Dimensions and Weight

152 mm by 90 mm by 27.5 mm (cover closed) (5.98-inch by 3.5-inch by 1.08-inch)
152 mm by 152.8 mm by 65 mm (cover opened) (5.98-inch by 6-inch by 2.55-inch)
170-175 g (with battery and receiver) (5.99 – 6.17 oz)
59.5 mm by 18.5 mm by 9.1 mm (receiver size) (2.34-inch by 0.73-inch by 0.36-inch)
7 g (receiver weight) (0.25 oz)

Available from:
Logitech

The World's Smallest Hard Drive

2007-10-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

Toshiba Corp. has manufactured the world's smallest hard-disk drive, the MK4001MTD, a device the size of a postage stamp, measuring 0.85 inch (about 2.1 centimeters) in diameter.

The drive, which is small enough to boost the functionality of a new generation of products, including mobile phones, digital audio players, PDAs, digital still cameras, camcorders, etc., can store up to two hours of high-definition moving images and just under 60 hours of music.

The Toshiba HDD is initially expected to be priced at around 30,000 yen (280 dollars).

Specs:

Data Storage Physical Per drive, formatted 4GB
Number of Disks 1
Number of Data Heads 2
Data Transfer Rate 12.5MB/sec
Voltage 3.0V (+10%/-5%)
Rotational Speed 3,600rpm
Average Latency 8.33ms
Height 0.197" (5mm)
Width 0.94" (24mm)
Depth 1.26" (32mm)
Weight 0.3 oz (8.5g)
Shipping -40 - 176F (-40 to 80C)
Operating Vibration 2G (5-500 Hz)
Operating Shock 1000G/1ms
Non-Operating Shock 2,000G/1.0ms

Tiny Linux Computers

2007-10-06T03:58:00.000-07:00

US-based Gumstix is offering Computers with complete Linux Systems that fit in the palm of your hand:

Ready for your software solutions
Compact Flash and Ethernet in a full function, Linux computer

Motherboard:	gumstix connex motherboard
Processor:	Intel XScale® PXA255
Speed:	200MHz
Memory:	64MB RAM and 16MB Flash
Networking:	10/100baseT Ethernet port
Storage/ Communications:	Type II Compact Flash card slot
Software:	Latest Linux 2.6 and more
Power:	4V power adapter included
* netstix 200CF computer has FCC Class A certification for business use. See Part 15, Subpart B, of the Federal Register (CFR 47, Parts 0-19).

way small and way versatile!

Motherboard:	gumstix basix motherboard
Processor:	Intel XScale® PXA255
Speed:	200MHz
Memory:	64MB RAM and 4MB Flash
Connection:	2 serial ports USB client - mini-B socket
Software:	Latest Linux 2.6 and more
Power:	Standard 3.5V - 6V input (power adapter included)

Gumstix is a technology company that designs, builds and sells full function miniature computers and related Linux systems for customers in over 60 countries worldwide.

More Info::
Gumstix

Nanotech Assembler

2007-09-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

A molecular assembler as defined by K. Eric Drexler is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision."
Drexler also introduced several related terms, such as "molecular manufacturing," which he defined as the "construction of objects to complex, atomic specifications using sequences of chemical reactions directed by nonbiological molecular machinery", and "molecular nanotechnology" that comprises molecular manufacturing together with its techniques, its products, and their design and analysis.

Could it be possible that in the not-so-distant future we could be able to manufacture our own gadgetry at home?
It certainly sounds more like fiction than science, and the idea has both its advocates and detractors.
Whether or not it's a viable process remains to be discovered, but the watching the video below, the project does make some sense.
The video explains the process of molecular manufacturing and further assembling.

More Info:
Molecular assembler
Foresight Nanotech Institute

Tiny Phone

2007-07-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

A 3.14-inch cellphone that just makes phone calls.

No email, no Web browsing, no garage door opener—nothing but the necessary voice in-and-out functions and four simple keys, each of which lets you enter three numbers.

Rock the key to the left and you've entered one number, push it downward, there's another and rock that key to the right, and you've entered another.

Source:
http://gizmodo.com

Tiny gadget that helps you grow new teeth

2007-07-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Teeth broken in an accident could soon be 'regrown' using an ultrasound machine half the size of a thumbnail. The process could take just 12 weeks.

Ultrasound is already used to help heal broken bones, now the technology is being applied to teeth.

Nanotechnology, which can reduce electronic circuitry to one thousandth of the size of a human hair, has enabled scientists to develop an ultrasound device small enough to fit inside the mouth.

Until recently the size of ultrasound machines would have made the use of the technique impractical for teeth. Now a wafer-thin ultrasound chip, which is pre-programmed so that it turns on automatically, can be clipped onto the teeth. When it is on, ultrasound waves massage the gums to stimulate and increase blood flow to produce new tooth tissue.

The treatment takes just 20 minutes a day. And, unlike with conventional machines, the patient can have the treatment wherever it suits them. They also feel no sensation as the device works.

Theoretically, patients who have lost several teeth could have them re-grown at once

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Nanosolar

2006-09-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

Nanosolar truly is a company with the potential to change the World.

Nanosolar has developed proprietary technology that makes it possible to simply roll-print solar cells that require only 1/100th as thick an absorber as a silicon-wafer cell (yet deliver similar performance and durability).

Nanosolar's technology dramatically lowers the process cost and complexity involved in the production of thin-film solar cells and makes it possible to scale production very rapidly.
The result sets the standard for the technology and products that make it possible to put A Solar Panel on Every Building™.

Nanosolar is pioneering the “Third Wave” of Solar Power:

The First Wave started with the introduction of silicon-wafer based solar cells over three decades ago. While ground-breaking, it is visible until today that this technology came out of a (research and market) environment with a lot of fascination for spearhead efficiencies and little regard for cost and the ratio between cost and efficiency. Despite continued incremental improvements, silicon-wafer based cells are fundamentally limited by high materials cost and poor capital efficiency. Because silicon wafers do not absorb light very strongly, silicon cells intrinsically require large amounts of semiconductor material. And because wafers are fragile, their handling is intricate and limits achievable process throughput, with the result being poor cost efficiency.
The Second Wave came about a decade ago with the arrival of the first commercial thin-film solar cells. This established that new non-silicon semiconductor materials could dramatically reduce the materials cost of solar cells, with the absorber of such cells being two orders of magnitude thinner than that of silicon wafer cells. However, it turned out that this was not enough to make a fundamental difference in the cost efficiency of solar panels overall: the challenge resided in yield and throughput limits of vacuum based thin-film deposition techniques, which resulted in high process cost. As a result, none of the many thin-film efforts based on vacuum deposition was ever able to produce products more than only marginally less expensive than ever-improving silicon cells.
The Third Wave of Solar Power brings together several fundamental technology innovations that build on the unmet potential of the Second Wave while more than addressing its limitations. The result of these patented and patent-pending innovations is a dramatic improvement in the cost-efficiency, yield, and throughput of the production of thin-film solar cells.

The ability to architect and assemble materials on a nanometer scale now makes it possible to optimize solar cells at the very length scale at which the relevant photovoltaic semiconductor quantum-physics occurs.

Molecular self-assembly techniques for instance now give us the unprecedented capability of designing and creating nanostructured materials with novel properties.
Such techniques generally rely on formulas that control the precise, bottom-up chemical assembly of molecules into geometric structures composed of many molecules, e.g. in the 1nm to 100nm range.

More Info:
Nanosolar

Nanotech Fortunes

2005-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Nanotech Fortunes: Make Yours in the Boom!

Nanotech Fortunes is the source for NanoTech investing.
Professional advice and investment strategies for the nanotech boom.

Interfacial Engineering

2005-11-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Colloidal Domain and the fundamentals of the science and engineering of nanotechnology.