Nanotechnology: from hype to hypermarket

Nanotechnology is beginning to leave the laboratory and hit the high street, delegates to the UK Institute of Nanotechnology conference Nanoparticles for European Industryheard last week. But they were also warned that any nanotechnology-related health scares, as recently occurred in Germany, could stop this commercialisation process in its tracks.

The first commercial applications of nanotechnology have been fairly basic and take advantage of some of the more straightforward properties of nanoparticles, such as their ability to add strength and robustness to materials.

For instance, nanoparticles are already being incorporated into a range of sporting products, including tennis racquets and golf clubs. Meanwhile 60 per cent of cars in the US now contain carbon nanotubes, according to Milo Shaffer, a lecturer in nanomaterials at Imperial College, London.

Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are also being added to sun creams to help scatter ultra-violet light. "They’re very efficient filters," said Gerhard Nohynek, Scientific Director at the French cosmetics company L’Oreal.

In a similar vein, the UK nanotechnology company Oxonica has developed manganese-doped titanium oxide nanoparticles, which are being incorporated into a new range of sun cream developed and sold by the UK retailer Boots.

L’Oreal is also adding nano-emulsions to some of its hand creams, skin conditioners and sun creams. "They’re used to encapsulate sensitive active ingredients," explained Nohynek.

Likewise, the consumer products giant Unilever is looking at encapsulating active ingredients in organic nanocapsules and liposomes for controlled delivery. In addition, the company is investigating more advanced applications of nanotechnology and is in the process of developing self-cleaning surfaces, soil-repellent cotton and artificial bone and tooth enamel.

Novel properties

Other companies are also developing more sophisticated nanotechnology-based products, which take advantage of some of the novel properties that are only available to materials at the nanoscale. For instance, Oxonica, which is a spin-off from Oxford University, has developed cerium oxide nanoparticles that efficiently catalyse the oxidation of carbon. It is now marketing these particles as a fuel additive, called Envirox, that helps petrol to burn more cleanly and removes carbon deposits from vehicle engines.

Although cerium oxide is already used as an exhaust catalyst, the advantages of cerium oxide nanoparticles are that they have a very high catalytic activity and can be widely dispersed in liquid fuel.

"You enhance combustion, you get more complete combustion, you get more value out of combustion and you therefore reduce harmful exhausts, both in terms of emissions and from less fuel use," explained Barry Park, COO of Oxonica.

The main customer for Envirox is currently the UK coach company Stagecoach, which is using it in its entire fleet.

Another nanotechnology product for transport use is being developed by the Israeli nanotechnology company NanoMaterials, which is commercialising research being conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have developed inorganic versions of the famous spherical carbon molecules known as buckyballs.

Made of compounds such as tungsten disulphide and molybdenum disulphide, these nanoparticles consist of numerous stacked spherical layers and look much like a nanoscale onion. NanoMaterials has initially developed these nanoparticles as an extremely efficient lubricant known as NanoLub, but is investigating their potential – and that of nanotube versions – for use as advanced composites and in micro-electronic devices such as sensors.

“We have book demand for tonnes per year of the material and we are in the process of building a pilot plant to produce 150 kilograms per day of the material,” Menachem Genut, President and CEO of NanoMaterials told delegates.

Tip of the iceberg

But the aspects of nanotechnology that have so far been commercialised, most of which are based on nanoparticles, are only the tip of the iceberg and delegates heard about many other potential applications, all of which are still at the research stage. They include the use of nanoporous materials as novel membranes, electrodes, paper coatings, sensors and bioimplants, and nanoscale films and coatings in anti-friction surfaces, thin-film transistors and thermally-insulated windows.

Nanoparticles also still have a great deal more to offer. By 2015, according to a recent nanotechnology roadmap produced for the European Commission, nanoparticles will be incorporated into a wide range of mass produced products, including fungicides, electrodes, inks, packaging, glass coatings, electronic circuits and dental composites.

Some speakers thought that the current use of nanoparticles in sun creams and sports goods would help consumers to accept the future widespread commercialisation of nanotechnology. "Small applications win the day,’"commented Alan Smith, associate director of the UK Department of Trade and Industry’s Micro and Nanotechnology (MNT) Network.

Others were far less certain. ‘Some of the applications [of nanotechnology] are probably vital to the survival of the population of this Earth in the face of global warming,’ said Anthony Seaton, a senior consultant at the Edinburgh Institute of Occupational Medicine, ‘but we’ve also heard about the utterly trivial applications of nanotechnology. These products get out there, large amounts of them are made, and risks to human health come about.’

Seaton mentioned the recent health scare in Germany, where six people were admitted to hospital with severe respiratory problems after using a new bathroom cleaner called Magic Nano. It’s still unclear whether the respiratory problems were caused by silicate nanoparticles in the cleaner, which are designed to block crevices and prevent dirt from building up, or the aerosol propellant. But Seaton said he thought that nanoparticles were the likely culprits.

Even if they weren’t, the fate of genetically modified crops in Europe shows the danger that health scares can pose to a new technology, even if largely unfounded. "By God, it’s a warning," concluded Seaton.