Nanotechnology gets boost from state group
Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK)
April 23, 2006
Author: Diane Clay; Staff Writer
More than 60 professors at four Oklahoma universities are working together to boost the state's stake in nanotechnology - the tiny science that soon could drive more than $1 trillion of the U.S. economy.
The research group is lead by Warren Ford, a nationally renowned scientist at Oklahoma State University who is working to understand nanoparticles.
With help from the National Science Foundation, Ward along with physicists and chemists from OSU, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Tulsa and the OU Health Sciences Center are studying several aspects of the ultra-small particles, including how they can be used to improve commercial products, medicine, the environment and homeland security.
"This has been a real boon for the growth of nanoscience in Oklahoma," Ford said.
"It allows us to work on projects that are much broader than we would be able to do individually because we have broader expertise."
Some of the projects include:
* A look at unintended consequences of using nanoparticles for medicine and technology. Researchers at OSU said manipulating these small specks of material may cause toxic reactions in tissue and cells and could cause environmental contamination through use and manufacturing.
OSU scientists and researchers at Nomadics Inc., in Stillwater, hope to find potential pitfalls before nanotechnology development gets too far along.
* The same researchers also are looking at the use of nanoparticles as sensors in radiation treatment.
* A nanoparticle is being developed that would stimulate another molecule. That molecule would damage nearby tissue such as a cancerous lesion. This could help with ovarian cancer.
* Nanomaterials are being created that would determine oxygen levels in tissues. The technology could be used in cancer therapy to improve treatment.
* Ward is studying nanoparticles made out of organic particles. They are trying to understand how the structure of materials affect the way they adhere to surfaces.
Ultimately, this could become important in construction of circuitry on a nanoscale.
* Researchers are making particles that are not quite on the nanoscale and are building up materials that defract light in ways that depend on the packing of the particles.
The technology could be used in sensors or photonic materials that would have selective filters at certain frequencies of light.
* Brett Flanders, a researcher in OSU's physics department, is constructing wires out of gold nanoparticles in an attempt to find ways to use nanoparticles to construct wires that have nanometer diameters but micrometer lengths.
* Al Rosenberger, also from OSU's physics department, is developing new semiconductor laser materials by taking nanoparticles and sticking them to the surface of a glass bead. The research is in conjunction with Nomadics.
The result of the laser amplification is going to be more highly focused. It could have a medical application, Ward said.
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