Answer to Question #291146 in Civil and Environmental Engineering for Topher

Question

I. Explain the difference between Taniguchi “top-down approach” to the “bottom-up approach” of Drexler.

II. Explain the importance of coating superparamagnetic colloids In Vivo and In Vitro applications.

III. Discuss the potential applications of nanotechnology in the field of energy and environment.

Answer 1

I. Explain the difference between Taniguchi “top-down approach” to the “bottom-up approach” of Drexler.

The top-down approach starts from a bulk material that incorporates critical nanoscale details. In this approach, a biomaterial is engineered by scaling down a complex entity into its component parts, such as creating small crystals from a bulk mineralized hard tissue via acid-etching. By contrast, the bottom-up approach assembles materials from the nanoscopic scale, such as molecules and atoms, to form larger structures.

II. Explain the importance of coating superparamagnetic colloids In Vivo and In Vitro applications.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide NPs (SPIONs) require an optimized coating, via which IONs can see any biological entities (e.g. proteins, cell membranes). The only fabricable part of interaction compartment at the nanobio interface is the coating on the engineered NPs. The NP's core possesses almost all of the most important NP characteristics such as the chemical composition of materials, shape and angle of curvature, porosity and surface crystallinity, heterogeneity, and roughness.

III. Discuss the potential applications of nanotechnology in the field of energy and environment.

Nanotechnology is being used in several applications to improve the environment and to produce more efficient and cost-effective energy, such as generating less pollution during the manufacture of materials, producing solar cells that generate electricity at a competitive cost, cleaning up organic chemicals polluting groundwater, and cleaning volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from air.