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Nano
Technology
No, its not all hype: these supertiny gizmos will transform our
way of life
There isn't a nano-name company among this year's BW50 companies, and there won't be next year, either. But there are plenty of hopefuls. With all the hype about nanotechnology now swirling around Wall Street, you have no doubt already encountered some nanonewcomer with a catchy name like Nanogram, NanoOpto, Nanophase, NanoProducts, Nanosphere, or Technanogy
More
than 300 nano-whippersnappers in the U.S. and overseas are
targeting what promises to be a new Industrial Revolution.
Nanotechnology will leave virtually no business untouched--or
unscathed. The ability to create materials from building blocks
the size of a virus (page 182) will unleash unprecedented
capabilities. Autos and airplanes, chemicals and plastics,
computers and chips, cosmetics and drugs--all of these
industries, and plenty more, are facing upheavals that could
make the advent of the Internet seem like a minor adjustment.
Tiny upstarts aren't the only ones noticing that small is
beautiful. Nano is receiving enthusiastic scrutiny from some big
companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Led by
IBM (IBM
), Lucent Technologies (LU
), and Hewlett-Packard (HWP
), along with Samsung (SSNLF
) and Siemens (SI
), industrial heavyweights are pumping significant sums into
nanotech research, as are governments around the world. A new
study from CMP Cientifica, a market researcher in Madrid, says
last year's worldwide government figure topped $1.2 billion
(page 184). This year, the private and public sectors will
probably spend $2 billion apiece on nano.
For insurance, big-name companies also are investing in
nano-newbies--or teaming up with them. BASF (BF
), ChevronTexaco (CVX
), DuPont (DD
), and NEC (NIPNY
)) are tapping the expertise of startups, most of which were
founded by university researchers. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (MIELY
) last year set up a $100 million fund to invest in nanotech,
and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW
) in 2000 bought Dendritech Inc.'s dendrimer technology to serve
as the basis for a future family of nanoscale polymers. All
told, venture capitalists and corporate funds will probably plow
$1 billion into nano investments this year, twice what they
invested in 2000, says S. Joshua Wolfe, a partner at New York's
Lux Capital Group.
However, Lux Capital has yet to place its first nanotech bet.
"We get a lot of business plans for nano-X," says
Wolfe. "The first thing we do is strip off that nano prefix
and look at what these guys are really doing." Often, it's
not nanotech at all. "Because nanotechnology is clearly the
Next Big Thing," he adds, "it's attracting a lot of
P.T. Barnums." One company wanted to promote a new drug
based on small particles as a nanodrug, even though it knew the
ingredients fell short of the nanotech scale.
To purists, nanotech means things with one dimension no bigger
than 100 nanometers, or 100 billionths of a meter.
Buckyballs--those soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules discovered
in 1985 by a team led by Rice University's Richard E.
Smalley--are roughly 1 nm in diameter. Carbon nanotubes are
about 1.4 nm thick. The latest entrants: slightly fatter
nanotube-like wires made from silicon, gallium nitride, and
other semiconducting materials.
Despite some misleading hype, there's no shortage of genuine
articles. Take nanowire startup Nanosys Inc. in Palo Alto,
Calif., which uses technology developed by Harvard University
chemist Charles M. Lieber. Nanosys was launched in 2001 by
venture capitalist Larry Bock, who had retired a year earlier
with 14 life-science startups under his belt. Around that time,
"I was reading Science magazine and suddenly
realized there were almost as many articles on nanotech as on
biotech," he recalls.
Fascinated, he started visiting researchers. When he got to
Lieber, "it was an `aha!' moment," Bock says. Because
Lieber's wires are made from the same materials used for
semiconductor lasers, "they have something that carbon
nanotubes don't--optical properties." Seeing huge potential
in tiny lasers for miniature optical sensors capable of
detecting single molecules, Bock came out of retirement.
"This is a much bigger opportunity than any of my previous
starts," he declares.
So far, though, the nano market is small potatoes. Estimated
sales of buckyballs, nanotubes, and other nanomaterials vary
widely, but a reasonable estimate might be $50 million. However,
products made partly with nanomaterials were worth $26.5 billion
last year, reckons NanoMat, a materials-oriented network of
research labs and companies based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Current
products include chemicals produced with microscopic catalytic
particles, sun lotions with invisibly small zinc-oxide flakes to
shield against ultraviolet rays, emulsifiers that keep paint
from separating, and coatings that make eyeglass lenses more
scratch resistant or extend the life of industrial tools.
"There are lots of these unexciting, unsexy nanoproducts
out there," says Edward K. Moran, director of one of
Deloitte & Touche's technology-consulting practices.
More alluring products can be found in company labs, but many
need a year or two to reach the market because new manufacturing
systems also must be developed. Samsung Electronics Co.,
Motorola Inc. (MOT
), and other electronics giants are working on supersharp
flat-screen displays for TVs, computers, and handheld gizmos.
Today's LCDs--power-efficient as they are--are still big drains
on batteries. An array of nano-tubes spitting electrons at the
screen's backside would use just a fraction of that power.
Samsung hopes to ship its first nanotube TVs in time for
Christmas next year.
Nanotechnology will also benefit owners of current laptops.
Batteries made with carbon nanotubes and nanoscale lithium
particles could store higher energy densities, last twice as
long, and recharge faster. Because nanotubes are the best heat
conductors yet found, they could help keep the batteries in
electric cars charged by recovering the energy lost as heat when
a driver stomps on a car's brakes. And nanotube gas-tank
clusters could store hydrogen for fuel-cell-powered cars that
use don't burn gasoline, thus curbing pollution.
Nanotubes are also stronger than steel, so long filaments could
create supertough, fiber-reinforced plastics. These materials
could slash the weight of planes, spaceships, and ground
vehicles. The Pentagon figures nanotubes will yield better
radar-absorbing coatings and help make its planes, ships, and
tanks stealthier. If nanotech lives up to its promise in
aerospace, says David O. Swain, chief technology officer at
Boeing Co. (BA
), it will be an "unbelievable breakthrough." For
space travel, he adds, its importance would be "almost a
bigger step than going from propellers to jets."
To deliver a drug to a precise target and thus minimize side
effects, buckyballs can be assembled into shapes that fit snugly
into receptors on the surface of specific cells. The balls could
be coated with drugs that disrupt the cell's reproductive cycle,
Mirkin explains. Such treatments are now in the works for
cancer, AIDS, and other diseases.
What's more, nanotubes are so thin that they can penetrate the
skin without pain. So Therafuse Inc., a Vista (Calif.) startup,
is developing a skin patch for diabetics. It will draw blood
through nanostraws to monitor glucose levels and inject insulin
when required.
Nanotech also offers "completely new systems" for
detecting biohazards, Mirkin adds. Today, for example, we don't
have anything that can recognize the surface of an anthrax
spore. So technicians have to crack a suspect spore to release
and analyze its DNA. But Mirkin's lab has a different approach:
a minuscule "quill pen" that writes nanothin lines.
"You can program a computer to draw thousands of patterns
based on educated guesses" about unique features on the
surface of an anthrax spore, find patterns that bind only to
anthrax, then reproduce these for detection kits, Mirkin says.
Chicago's NanoInk Inc. licensed the technology last year.
Computer and chip companies were among nanotech's pioneers, and
they remain big investors. But ironically, their payoff may be
up to a decade away, despite the remarkable progress posted by
IBM (IBM
), Hewlett-Packard (HWP
), Hitachi (HIT
), and others in developing nanoscale transistors and, last
year, prototype nanotube circuits. "There's geometric
progress in this area," says Harvard's Lieber. "A year
ago, I would sort of wink at people when I said
`nanoelectronics.' Now, I actually believe in my heart we'll be
able to do it."
However, silicon chips will keep getting better for at least
another decade. Since the semiconductor industry has hundreds of
billions of dollars tied up in silicon assets, nanochips may not
make economic sense until silicon runs out of steam. Also,
researchers still have lots of work ahead in devising
manufacturing methods that will reliably direct nanotubes to
self-assemble into complex circuit designs.
Researchers may need help moving from their labs to nano
startups. Entrepreneurs also need advice on nanotech's
intricacies. To meet these needs, the NanoBusiness Alliance was
formed last year, and its 200 members are eyeing a huge
potential jackpot. The National Science Foundation pegs nanotech
as a $1 trillion market by 2015.
That figure may be conservative. Lux Capital's Wolfe points out
that nanotech has started a snowball rolling, the likes of which
has never been seen. Physicists work with chemists who
collaborate with materials scientists who talk to computer
scientists who are teamed with biologists. Cross-fertilization
that used to be rare is becoming common. Big surprises really do
come in small packages.
Corrections
and Clarifications |
MARCH
25, 2002
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