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PLASTICS NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology involves being able to understand and to control matter at the
amazingly small dimensions of one to 100 nanometers, with one nanometer being
equivalent to one-billionth of a meter (i.e., one millionth of a millimeter). As a point of
reference, a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick or the data in CDs is
stored as indentations (pits) that are approximately 100 nm deep by 500 nm wide.
Nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter
at this length scale. At the nano-scale, the physical, chemical, and biological
properties of materials differ from the properties of individual atoms and molecules
or bulk matter, creating improved materials, devices, and systems that exploit these
new properties.
For example, Copper nanoparticles smaller than 50 nm are considered super hard
materials that do not exhibit the same malleability and ductility as bulk copper.
Ferroelectric materials smaller than 10 nm can switch their magnetization direction
using room temperature thermal energy, thus making them useless for memory
storage.
Moreover nanoparticles have been found to impart some extra properties to various
day to day products. Like the presence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles impart
what we call as the self-cleaning effect, and the size being nanor ange, the particles
can't be seen. Nano Zinc Oxide particles have been found to have superior UV
blocking properties compared to its bulk substitute. This is one of the reasons why it
is often used in the sunscreen lotions. Nanoparticles have also been attached to
textile fibers in order to create smart and functional clothing.
There are several methods for creating nanoparticles; attrition and pyrolysis are
common methods. In attrition, macro or micro scale particles are ground in a ball
mill, a planetary ball mill, or other size reducing mechanism. The resulting particles
are air classified to recover nanoparticles.
Types of Nanoparticles
Carbon Tubes: Single Walled & Multi Walled
Clays: Montmorillonite, Halloysite, Vermiculite
Nanofibers & Silica
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) typically have diameters 1000 times smaller than
traditional carbon fibers. CNTs can be up to 50 times stronger than steel and have
excellent thermal and electrical conductivity.
A unique aspect of nanotechnology is that Nanoparticles have a very high surface
area to volume ratio. For example, montmorillonite nanoclay platelets have a
surface area of 750 m2/g. This means that ~7g of platelets could cover an area the
size of a football field.
This nanoparticle must be compatible, get well dispersed in polymer matrix and
provide improved optical, physical and mechanical properties.
Unfortunately nanoparticles are rarely compatible with polymer matrices and a
tremendous amount of time, money, and effort has gone into trying to overcome this

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