Tag Archives: nanotextiles

Nigeria and its nanotechnology research

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Agbaje Lateef’s (Professor of Microbiology and Head of Nanotechnology Research Group (NANO+) at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology) April 20, 2022 essay on nanotechnology in Nigeria for The Conversation offers an overview and a plea, Note: Links have been removed,

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Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Nigeria and Algeria lead the field in Africa. Since 2006, South Africa has been developing scientists, providing infrastructure, establishing centres of excellence, developing national policy and setting regulatory standards for nanotechnology. Companies such as Mintek, Nano South Africa, SabiNano and Denel Dynamics are applying the science.

In contrast, Nigeria’s nanotechnology journey, which started with a national initiative in 2006, has been slow. It has been dogged by uncertainties, poor funding and lack of proper coordination. Still, scientists in Nigeria have continued to place the country on the map through publications.

In addition, research clusters at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and others have organised conferences. Our research group also founded an open access journal, Nano Plus: Science and Technology of Nanomaterials.

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To get an idea of how well Nigeria was performing in nanotechnology research and development, we turned to SCOPUS, an academic database.

Our analysis shows that research in nanotechnology takes place in 71 Nigerian institutions in collaboration with 58 countries. South Africa, Malaysia, India, the US and China are the main collaborators. Nigeria ranked fourth in research articles published from 2010 to 2020 after Egypt, South Africa and Tunisia.

Five institutions contributed 43.88% of the nation’s articles in this period. They were the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Covenant University, Ota; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; University of Ilorin; and University of Lagos.

The number of articles published by Nigerian researchers in the same decade was 645. Annual output grew from five articles in 2010 to 137 in the first half of 2020. South Africa published 2,597 and Egypt 5,441 from 2010 to 2020. The global total was 414,526 articles.

The figures show steady growth in Nigeria’s publications. But the performance is low in view of the fact that the country has the most universities in Africa.

The research performance is also low in relation to population and economy size. Nigeria produced 1.58 articles per 2 million people and 1.09 articles per US$3 billion of GDP in 2019. South Africa recorded 14.58 articles per 2 million people and 3.65 per US$3 billion. Egypt published 18.51 per 2 million people and 9.20 per US$3 billion in the same period.

There is no nanotechnology patent of Nigerian origin in the US patents office. Standards don’t exist for nano-based products. South Africa had 23 patents in five years, from 2016 to 2020.

Nigerian nanotechnology research is limited by a lack of sophisticated instruments for analysis. It is impossible to conduct meaningful research locally without foreign collaboration on instrumentation. The absence of national policy on nanotechnology and of dedicated funds also hinder research.

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In February 2018, Nigeria’s science and technology minister unveiled a national steering committee on nanotechnology policy. But the policy is yet to be approved by the federal government. In September 2021, I presented a memorandum to the national council on science, technology and innovation to stimulate national discourse on nanotechnology.

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Given that this essay is dated more than six months after Professor Lateef’s memorandum to the national council, I’m assuming that no action has been taken as of yet.

A June 2022 addition to the Nigerian nanotechnology story

Agbaje Lateef has written a June 8, 2022 essay for The Conversation about nanotechnology and the Nigerian textile industry (Note: Links have been removed),

Nigeria’s cotton production has fallen steeply in recent years. It once supported the largest textile industry in Africa. The fall is due to weak demand for cotton and to poor yields resulting from planting low-quality cottonseeds. For these reasons, farmers switched from cotton to other crops.

Nigeria’s cotton output fell from 602,400 tonnes in 2010 to 51,000 tonnes in 2020. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the country’s textile industry had 180 textile mills employing over 450,000 people, supported by about 600,000 cotton farmers. By 2019, there were 25 textile mills and 25,000 workers.

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Nowadays, textiles’ properties can be greatly improved through nanotechnology – the use of extremely small materials with special properties. Nanomaterials like graphene and silver nanoparticles make textiles stronger, durable, and resistant to germs, radiation, water and fire.

Adding nanomaterials to textiles produces nanotextiles. These are often “smart” because they respond to the external environment in different ways when combined with electronics. They can be used to harvest and store energy, to release drugs, and as sensors in different applications.

Nanotextiles are increasingly used in defence and healthcare. For hospitals, they are used to produce bandages, curtains, uniforms and bedsheets with the ability to kill pathogens. The market value of nanotextiles was US$5.1 billion in 2019 and could reach US$14.8 billion in 2024.

At the moment, Nigeria is not benefiting from nanotextiles’ economic potential as it produces none. With over 216 million people, the country should be able to support its textile industry. It could also explore trading opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to market innovative nanotextiles.

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Lateef goes on to describe his research (from his June 8, 2022 essay),

Our nanotechnology research group has made the first attempt to produce nanotextiles using cotton and silk in Nigeria. We used silver and silver-titanium oxide nanoparticles produced by locust beans’ wastewater. Locust bean is a multipurpose tree legume found in Nigeria and some other parts of Africa. The seeds, the fruit pulp and the leaves are used to prepare foods and drinks.

The seeds are used to produce a local condiment called “iru” in southwest Nigeria. The processing of iru generates a large quantity of wastewater that is not useful. We used the wastewater to reduce some compounds to produce silver and silver-titanium nanoparticles in the laboratory.

Fabrics were dipped into nanoparticle solutions to make nanotextiles. Thereafter, the nanotextiles were exposed to known bacteria and fungi. The growth of the organisms was monitored to determine the ability of the nanotextiles to kill them.

The nanotextiles prevented growth of several pathogenic bacteria and black mould, making them useful as antimicrobial materials. They were active against germs even after being washed five times with detergent. Textiles without nanoparticles did not prevent the growth of microorganisms.

These studies showed that nanotextiles can kill harmful microorganisms including those that are resistant to drugs. Materials such as air filters, sportswear, nose masks, and healthcare fabrics produced from nanotextiles possess excellent antimicrobial attributes. Nanotextiles can also promote wound healing and offer resistance to radiation, water and fire.

Our studies established the value that nanotechnology can add to textiles through hygiene and disease prevention. Using nanotextiles will promote good health and well-being for sustainable development. They will assist to reduce infections that are caused by germs.

Despite these benefits, nanomaterials in textiles can have some unwanted effects on the environment, health and safety. Some nanomaterials can harm human health causing irritation when they come in contact with skin or inhaled. Also, their release to the environment in large quantities can harm lower organisms and reduce growth of plants. We recommend that the impacts of nanotextiles should be evaluated case by case before use.

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Dear Professor Lateef, I hope you see some action on your suggestions soon and thank you for the update. Also, good luck with your nanotextiles.

Fashion Week Netherlands and a conversation about nanotextiles

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Marjolein Lammerts van Bueren has written up an interview with the principals of Nanonow consulting agency, in a Dec. 15, 2016 article for Amsterdam Fashion Week, where they focus on nanotextiles (Note: Links have been removed),

Strong, sustainable textiles created by combining chemical recycling and nanotechnology – for Vincent Franken and Roel Boekel, their nanotechstiles are there already. With their consulting firm, Nanonow, the two men help companies in a range of industries innovate in the field of nanotechnology. And yes, you guessed it, the fashion industry, too, is finding ways to use the technology to its advantage. Fashionweek.nl sat down with Franken to talk about textiles on a nano scale.

How did you come up with the idea for Nanonow?

“I studied Science, Business & Innovations at the VU in Amsterdam. That’s a beta course that focuses on new technologies and how you can bring them to the market, and I specialised in nanotechnology within that. Because of the many – still untapped – opportunities and applications there are for nanotechnology, I started Nanonow with Roel Boekel after I graduated in 2014. We’re a consulting firm helping companies that still don’t really know how they can make use of nanotechnology, which can be used for a whole lot of things.”

Like the textile industry?

“Exactly. Over the last few years, we’ve done research into several different industries, like the waste and recycling industry. Six months ago we started looking at the textile industry, via Frankenhuis, an international textile recycler. When you throw your clothes in the recycling bin, a portion of them are sold on and a portion are recycled, or downcycled, as I call it. They pull the textiles apart, and those fibres – so the threads – are sold and repurposed into things like insulation. Roel and I thought that was a shame, because you’re deconstructing clothes that have often barely been worn just to make a low-value product out of them.”

So you’ve developed an alternative, Nanotechstiles. Tell us about it!

“We actually wanted to make new clothes from the deconstructed clothes. This is already happening via mechanical recycling, where you produce new clothes by reweaving the old textile fibres. But for me, the Holy Grail we’re looking for – I’m a tech guy after all – is the molecules inside the fibres.”

“First, we don’t want to use the existing thread, but instead we want to pull the thread apart completely then put it back together again. This is called chemical recycling and it’s already happening today. You can remove the cellulose fibres from cotton then put them back together to form viscose or lyocell. The downside of that is that the process is pretty expensive and the quality isn’t always that good.”

“Then you also have nanotechnologies, an area that’s developing rapidly and is already being used to strengthen textiles, which makes them last longer. But there are more options for making textiles no-iron, antibacterial – so that it doesn’t start to smell as quickly – or stain resistant. You can also integrate energy-saving electronics into them, or make them water resistant, as you saw last year on Valerio Zeno and Dennis Storm’s BNN TV programme, Proefkonijnen.”

“When you use nanotechnology to make materials smaller, you transform them, as it were, giving them completely different characteristics. So the fact that you can transform materials means that you can also do this with the threads themselves. We believe that when you combine chemical recycling with nanotechnology, what you get is the perfect thread. We call them nanotechstiles, and in the end, they lead to higher quality clothes that are sustainable, as well.”

“The fact that you can transform materials means that you can also do this with the threads themselves”

How far along are you in the research for nanotechstiles?

“We won the TKI Dinalog Take Off in the logistics sector last year with our nanotechstiles idea. That’s a prize for young talent with innovative ideas for economics and logistics. Since then, we’ve been trying to make the concept more concrete. Which recycling methods can we combine with which nanotechnologies? We’re already pretty far along in that research process, but there hasn’t been any clothing produced from it as yet. We’re focusing on cotton because it makes up the largest proportion of waste. At the moment, we’re in talks with the Institut für Textiltechnik at the University of Aken about how we can produce clothes from our nanotechstiles.

Have you also discovered some pitfalls as part of your research?

“The frustrating thing about nanotechnology is that the more you know about it, the less you can do with it. A lot of options are eliminated during the research process. I’ll give you an example. You want to make clothes that don’t smell as quickly? Well, on paper we know that silver kills 99.9% of bacteria, though we haven’t tested it. So then that leaves you with 0.1%, and that percentage can grow exponentially by using the nutrients from other bacteria. So the material in the clothing itself is safe, but what if a few particles come loose in the wash and get into the drinking water? What happens then? A lot of potential options are eliminated as you go through a process like that because they can be dangerous.”

What are the downsides and how can you guarantee that a design is safe?

“A tremendous amount of nanotechnologies are still in the research phase, so they’re too expensive to develop. We’d like to be using some of them now, but it turns out that there are still too many uncertainties to realistically put them into use. It’s essential to apply the principles of safety by design, only using nanotechnologies where the safety concerns have been well thought out. That’s something we’ve been in touch with the Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (Royal Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM) about. We take safety and the environment into account at every step in the production process for nanotechstiles.”

What the biggest challenge to your concept?

“We already know how certain nanotechnologies respond to cotton, but the biggest challenge is to figure out how they respond to recycled fabrics. You have to remember that nanotechnology isn’t just one thing. You can apply it to any material, which gives you thousands of possibilities. The question is, which one do you think is the most important? For example, you can add carbon nanotubes to make a fabric stronger, but then you’d be paying thousands of euros for a single shirt, and no one wants that.”

What’s the next step?

“Right now, we’re trying to get a sort of crowdfunding campaign started amongst businesses. We’re hoping to build relationships with companies like IKEA, who want to use our sustainable and stain-resistant textiles for things like their employee uniforms. So in addition to the subsidies, they’re helping to fund the research in that way. Based on that, we’ll eventually choose a nanotechnology that we can work up into an actual textile.”

I encourage you to read the original article with its embedded images, additional information, and links to more information.

One last comment, nanotechnology-enabled textiles are usually brand new materials so this is the first time I’ve seen a nanotechnology-based approach to recycling textiles. Bravo!

Smart suits for US soldiers—an update of sorts from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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The US military has funded a program named: ‘Dynamic Multifunctional Material for a Second Skin Program’ through its Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) Chemical and Biological Technologies Department and Sharon Gaudin’s Feb. 20,  2014 article for Computer World offers a bit of an update on this project,which was first reported in 2012,

A U.S. soldier is on patrol with his squad when he kneels to check something out, unknowingly putting his knee into a puddle of contaminants.

The soldier isn’t harmed, though, because he or she is wearing a smart suit that immediately senses the threat and transforms the material covering his knee into a protective state that repels the potential deadly bacteria.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federal government research facility in Livermore, Calif., are using nanotechnology to create clothing designed to protect U.S. soldiers from chemical and biological attacks.

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“The threat is nanoscale so we need to work in the nano realm, which helps to keep it light and breathable,” said Francesco Fornasiero, a staff scientist at the lab. “If you have a nano-size threat, you need a nano-sized defense.”

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Fornasiero said the task is a difficult one, and the suits may not be ready for the field for another 10 to 20 years. [emphasis mine]
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One option is to use carbon nanotubes in a layer of the suit’s fabric. Sweat and air would be able to easily move through the nanotubes. However, the diameter of the nanotubes is smaller than the diameter of bacteria and viruses. That means they would not be able to pass through the tubes and reach the person wearing the suit.

However, chemicals that might be used in a chemical attack are small enough to fit through the nanotubes. To block them, researchers are adding a layer of polymer threads that extend up from the top of the nanotubes, like stalks of grass coming up from the ground.

The threads are designed to recognize the presence of chemical agents. When that happens, they swell and collapse on top of the nanotubes, blocking anything from entering them.

A second option that the Lawrence Livermore scientists are working on involves similar carbon nanotubes but with catalytic components in a polymer mesh that sits on top of the nanotubes. The components would destroy any chemical agents they come in contact with. After the chemicals are destroyed, they are shed off, enabling the suit to handle multiple attacks.

An October 6, 2012 (NR-12-10-06) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) news release details the -project and the proponents,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators are developing a new military uniform material that repels chemical and biological agents using a novel carbon nanotube fabric.

The material will be designed to undergo a rapid transition from a breathable state to a protective state. The highly breathable membranes would have pores made of a few-nanometer-wide vertically aligned carbon nanotubes that are surface modified with a chemical warfare agent-responsive functional layer. Response to the threat would be triggered by direct chemical warfare agent attack to the membrane surface, at which time the fabric would switch to a protective state by closing the CNT pore entrance or by shedding the contaminated surface layer.

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High breathability is a critical requirement for protective clothing to prevent heat-stress and exhaustion when military personnel are engaged in missions in contaminated environments. Current protective military uniforms are based on heavyweight full-barrier protection or permeable adsorptive protective overgarments that cannot meet the critical demand of simultaneous high comfort and protection, and provide a passive rather than active response to an environmental threat.

To provide high breathability, the new composite material will take advantage of the unique transport properties of carbon nanotube pores, which have two orders of magnitude faster gas transport rates when compared with any other pore of similar size.

“We have demonstrated that our small-size prototype carbon nanotube membranes can provide outstanding breathability in spite of the very small pore sizes and porosity,” said Sangil Kim, another LLNL scientist in the Biosciences and Biotechnology Division. “With our collaborators, we will develop large area functionalized CNT membranes.”

Biological agents, such as bacteria or viruses, are close to 10 nanometers in size. Because the membrane pores on the uniform are only a few nanometers wide, these membranes will easily block biological agents.

However, chemical agents are much smaller in size and require the membrane pores to be able to react to block the threat. To create a multifunctional membrane, the team will surface modify the original prototype carbon nanotube membranes with chemical threat responsive functional groups. The functional groups on the membrane will sense and block the threat like gatekeepers on entrance. A second response scheme also will be developed: Similar to how a living skin peels off when challenged with dangerous external factors, the fabric will exfoliate upon reaction with the chemical agent. In this way, the fabric will be able to block chemical agents such as sulfur mustard (blister agent), GD and VX nerve agents, toxins such as staphylococcal enterotoxin and biological spores such as anthrax.

The project is funded for $13 million over five years with LLNL as the lead institution. The Livermore team is made up of Fornasiero [Francesco Fornasiero], Kim and Kuang Jen Wu. Other collaborators and institutions involved in the project include Timothy Swager at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jerry Shan at Rutgers University, Ken Carter, James Watkins, and Jeffrey Morse at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Heidi Schreuder-Gibson at Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, and Robert Praino at Chasm Technologies Inc.

“Development of chemical threat responsive carbon nanotube membranes is a great example of novel material’s potential to provide innovative solutions for the Department of Defense CB needs,” said Tracee Harris, the DTRA science and technology manager for the Dynamic Multifunctional Material for a Second Skin Program. “This futuristic uniform would allow our military forces to operate safely for extended time periods and successfully complete their missions in environments contaminated with chemical and biological warfare agents.”

The Laboratory has a history in developing carbon nanotubes for a wide range of applications including desalination. “We have an advanced carbon nanotube platform to build and expand to make advancements in the protective fabric material for this new project,” Wu said.

The new uniforms could be deployed in the field in less than 10 years. [emphasis mine]

Since Gaudin’s 2014 article quotes one of the LLNL’s scientists, Francesco Fornasiero, with an estimate for the suit’s deployment into the field as 10 – 20 years as opposed to the “less than 10 years” estimated in the news release, I’m guessing the problem has proved more complex than was first anticipated.

For anyone who’s interested in more details about  US soldiers and nanotechnology,

  • May 1, 2013 article by Max Cacas for Signal Online provides more details about the overall Smart Skin programme and its goals.
  • Nov. 15, 2013 article by Kris Walker for Azonano.com describes the Smart Skin project along with others including the intriguingly titled: ‘Warrior Web’.
  • website for MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies Note: The MIT researcher mentioned in the LLNL news release is a faculty member of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.
  • website for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Be still my heart: e-bras and e-vests

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Have they thought about the sweat? Engineers at the University of Arkansas have developed garments (a sports bra for women and a vest for men) than can monitor their physiological responses and track their location. From May 3, 2012 news release on the University of Arkanasa newswire page,

An interdisciplinary team of engineers at the University of Arkansas has developed a wireless health-monitoring system that gathers critical patient information, regardless of the patient’s location, and communicates that information in real time to a physician, hospital or the patient herself.

The system includes a series of nanostructured, textile sensors integrated into a conventional sports bra for women and vest for men. Via a lightweight and wireless module that snaps onto these garments, the sensors communicate with system software that relies on a smart phone to collect information, compress it and send it over a variety of wireless networks.

“Our e-bra enables continuous, real-time monitoring to identify any pathophysiological changes,” said Vijay Varadan, Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering. “It is a platform on which various sensors for cardiac-health monitoring are integrated into the fabric. The garment collects and transmits vital health signals to any desired location in the world.”

The system monitors blood pressure, body temperature, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption, some neural activity and all the readings provided by a conventional electrocardiograph (ECG), including the ability to display inverted T waves, which indicate the onset of cardiac arrest. The system does not require a cuff or any extra accessories to measure blood pressure and could therefore replace conventional blood-pressure monitors. It could also replace the cumbersome combination of ECG sensors and wires attached to patients while they walk on treadmills.

The researchers have provided this image,

The wireless monitoring system includes sensors, integrated into garments, that communicate health information to smart phones.

Here’s a bit more about the technology (from the May 3, 2012 news release),

The sensors, which are smaller than a dime, include gold nanowires, as well as flexible, conducting textile nanosensors. The sensors are made of arrays of gold nano-electrodes fabricated on a flexible substrate. The textile sensors are woven into the bra material. These sensors do not require conventional sticky electrodes or the use of gel.

Electrical signals and other physiological data gathered by the sensors are sent to the snap-on wireless module, the contents of which are housed in a plastic box that is slightly smaller than a ring box. As the critical wireless component, the module is essentially a low-powered laptop computer that includes an amplifier, an antenna, a printed circuit board, a microprocessor, a Bluetooth module, a battery and various sensors. The size of the module depends heavily on power consumption and minimum battery size. Varadan said that anticipated battery and Bluetooth upgrades will allow the researchers to build a smaller – 1.5 inches long, 0.75 inch wide and 0.25 inch deep – lighter and flexible module that will replace the rigid box.

Researchers are considering other applications for this technology (from the May 3, 2012 news release),

Data from the sensors then stream to commercially available cell phones and hand-held devices, which expand the use of the system beyond health care. By carrying a cell phone, athletes can monitor all signs mentioned above and other metrics, such as number of calories burned during a workout. To render clean data, the software includes filtering algorithms to mitigate problems due to motion of the hand-held device during exercise.

In light of the suggestion that this could be used by athletes I’m repeating my rhetorical question, have they thought about the sweat?

Thanks to Nanowerk where I first found out about this research at the University of Arkansas in their May 4, 2022 news item.

 

Nano clothing takes Manhattan

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Fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza has been making the media rounds lately about nanotechnology-enabled textiles/clothing. From the August 2, 2011 article by Jill Colvin for DNAinfo.com,

Imagine clothes that change color with the press of a button, charge your cell phone, clean the air, kill bacteria and repel stains so they never have to be washed again.

That’s the mission of Cornell University fiber science pioneer Juan Hinestroza, who’s leading the revolution to bring high-end function to high-end fashion in Manhattan.

Presenting his findings to a small group of reporters at Cornell’s ILR Conference Center in Midtown Tuesday, Hinestroza said that in less than a decade, he expects nanotechnology to be commonplace in the clothing industry.

It’s interesting to see this as I first came across Hinestroza’s work in 2007 when I was developing my Nanotech Mysteries wiki page, Scientists get fashionable.

copyright 2007 Cornell University) Design student Olivia Ong ’07 with garments, treated with metallic nanoparticles through a collaboration with fiber scientists, Juan Hinestroza and Hong Dong, that she designed for ‘Gliteratti’ collection.

(For permission to copy and use the image please contact, The Cornell Chronicle media office here: nwp2@cornell.edu or 607.254.6236.)

The fabric you see in the image cost, in 2007, $10,000 per square meter. I wonder what it would cost today?

 

German report on nanosilver toxicity and some thoughts on the US EPA silver nanomaterials consultation

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More about nanosilver toxicology (see earlier posting about US EPA silver nanomaterials consultation) this week courtesy of an article by Michael Berger about a new report from a group of German researchers. From the article on Nanowerk,

Silver had already been recognized in ancient Greece and Rome for its infection-fighting properties but in modern times pharmaceutical companies made more money developing antibiotics. However, thanks to emerging nanotechnology applications, silver has made a comeback in the form of antimicrobial nanoparticle coatings for textiles, surgical instruments, lab equipment, floors or wall paints (see for instance: “Antibacterial nanotechnology multi-action materials that work day and night”).

The flip side of silver’s desired toxicity towards microbes is that it might have toxic effects for humans as well (“As nanotechnology goes mainstream, ‘toxic socks’ raise concerns”) and this has raised debate about the safety of nanosilver products. Although scientists have worked to reduce the toxicity of antimicrobial nanosilver in products, concerns remain.

Not helping to put these concerns to rest is a new report from a group of researchers in Germany that shows that toxicity of silver nanoparticles increases during storage because of slow dissolution under release of silver ions.

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According to Epple [Matthias Epple, a professor for inorganic chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen], there is a general agreement that dissolved silver ions are responsible for the biological action that is especially pronounced against microorganisms. The lethal silver concentration of silver nanoparticles for human mesenchymal stem cells is about three times higher than that of silver ions (in terms of the absolute concentration of silver in a given solution).

The report has been published by the American Chemical Society in Chemistry of Materials. You can find an abstrect here, the full article is behind a paywall.

I was interested to note that the focus for the report is on the dissolution of nanoscale silver in water. By contrast, the US EPA consultation uses, as its starting point for the case study, nanoscale silver in an antibacterial spray. While laboratory researchers tend to focus on specifics such as the dissolution of  silver nanoparticles and ions, the EPA’s strategy allows for a 360o view. Theoretically, commenters could focus on anything from the production of the air spray, its own packaging, its use in various situations such as hospitals or food packaging, etc., and the various ways it dissipates into the environment, e.g. being washed off and ending up in the water supply.  This can lead to a comprehensive framework for future research activities examining more specific questions which provide answers that fit back into the framework.

Berger’s article reminds me of an October 29, 2009 news item on Science Daily about Swiss researchers, clothes washers, and nanosilver,

Scientists in Switzerland are reporting results of one of the first studies on the release of silver nanoparticles from laundering those anti-odor, anti-bacterial socks now on the market. Their findings may suggest ways that manufacturers and consumers can minimize the release of these particles to the environment, where they could harm fish and other wildlife.

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They found that most of the released particles were relatively large and that most came out of the fabrics during the first wash. The total released varied from 1.3 to 35 percent of the total nanosilver in the fabric. Bleach generally did not affect the amount released. “These results have important implications for the risk assessment of silver textiles and also for environmental fate studies of nanosilver, because they show that under certain conditions relevant to washing, primarily coarse silver-containing particles are released,” the paper says.

The research report was published by the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal. The abstract is available here, the full article is behind a paywall.

Textiles that can detect counterfeiting devices, bacteria, and dangerous chemicals; a 22 nm chip; copyrighting food?

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I’m going to watch at least part of the live stream for the PEN event (Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation) that’s taking place this morning (9:30 PST), so this is going to be a quick posting.

In my master’s project (The Nanotech Mysteries wiki), I featured a 2007 news item about a student designer at Cornell University who used textile fibres coated with nanomaterials in her clothing designs. (You can see the wiki page here.) Today, I caught a news item on Azonano about some textile scientists at Cornell University who launched a start-up that markets these kinds of fabrics.

Fabrics with embedded nanoparticles to detect counterfeiting devices, explosives and dangerous chemicals or to serve as antibacterials for hospitals, law enforcement or the hospitality industry are just a few of the products that a new company, [iFyber LLC] launched by two Cornell researchers, will produce.

This is exciting as I’ve gotten to follow the story a little further than usual. Generally, I find out about a product and then learn that it had its origins in an academic laboratory.

Intel has announced a new 22 nanometre (nm) chip. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini today displayed a silicon wafer containing the world’s first working chips built on 22nm process technology. The 22nm test circuits include both SRAM memory as well as logic circuits to be used in future Intel microprocessors. “At Intel, Moore’s Law is alive and thriving,” said Otellini. “We’ve begun production of the world’s first 32nm microprocessor, which is also the first high-performance processor to integrate graphics with the CPU.

I posted about the 32 nm chip and Intel’s investment in retooling three of their manufacturing facilities to produce the chip here. As I recall, IBM has a 28 nm chip.

I’m not sure what to make of all this. I find these innovations exciting but I always wonder about the practicalities. Since these chips aren’t visible to the naked eye, how does your computer get fixed (e.g. chip replacement) by your average computer repair shop? How reliable are these chips?

Finally, here’s a posting I found on Techdirt about copyrighting hummus, etc. There is a group in Lebanon who are planning to sue  Israel for using words like hummus, tabbouleh, etc. to describe their food products. It seemed a little odd to me when I scanned the headline but as Techdirt sardonically points out, the word champagne is for the exclusive use of wine producers in  France and there have been other successful attempts at this type of copyright claim. (As I recall,  not even French wine producers from  regions other than Champagne can call their product champagne.) I followed one of the Techdirt links here for more information. My understanding after viewing a tv clip and reading the article (both Israeli-produced) is that the Lebanese group is motivated by the fact that Israel has been more successful at marketing and selling these products internationally.  I also wonder how the other countries that market and sell these products will react to Lebanon’s proposed copyright claim.

Silver nanoparticles, local business, and some toxicity findings

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In December 2008 I saw an article in The Province’s business pages about a local apparel (sportswear) company, Firstar, which produces shirts that don’t smell or stain due to a special polyester fabric that is “moisture- and heart-repelling and bacteria-destroying.” This time they’ve gotten a write up in Business Vancouver

When I first wrote about the company (Dec.22.08), I noted that there was a mention of silver ions which gave the fabric its anti-bacterial properties. I noted that the silver ions were likely silver nanoparticles. I did email a question to the company about this. There was a reply but no information about the silver nanoparticles and possible health issues.

It’s interesting to note that the Business in Vancouver article makes no reference to silver ions and the fabric is described as a microfibre material. Of course, the focus is mostly on the business side of it, which is natural given the paper’s readership/market.

Seeing the article reminded me of them and I went looking for information about silver nanoparticles and some of the concerns regarding its use. I found this article by Michael Berger. It seems that silver nanoparticles can be toxic and the reason for being concerned is that the particles are appearing in the water supply. The sport shirt that hardly ever has to be washed eventually  does have to be washed. And because silver nanoparticles can be washed away, they end up in the water supply.

There are a lot of companies (not just Firstar) using nanoparticles in their products and what that means nobody really knows. Personally, I’d be a little careful about using anything with silver nanoparticles in it.