Foram produzidos nos EUA e na Europa os primeiros protótipos de um novo material «omnifóbico» – capaz de repelir substâncias líquidas com uma eficácia nunca antes conseguida. Mais informação em Diário Digital 

José Santos 

Com a ajuda da internet e alguma imaginação, uma dona de casa alemã viu um pequeno hobbie artesanal tornar-se um sucesso comercial. Notícias TSF

Carina Machado

Magellan Systems International, LLC (majority owned subsidiary of DuPont) is developing a new synthetic fiber known as M5®. The developers claim that this new fiber will bear exciting new properties like ultra-high strength, ultra-high thermal and flame resistance. Additionally, it promises to have excellent resin adhesion characteristics that should deliver significant value in uni-directionals, woven pre-pregs, and in mechanical paper applications.

Magellan Systems International, LLC claims that this new fiber represents a dramatic improvement over materials currently employed in critical-use applications such as soft and hard ballistics protection, fire protection, non-structural composites, and a host of other applications where premium performance is valued.

Magellan relies heavily on its majority owner, DuPont (Kevlar®’s proprietary), for financial, technical, and business management support, and as such, we all are looking forward to see it, test it and use it…

For more information: www.m5fiber.com

Bruno Jarrais

Instead of steel, aluminum or carbon fiber, the GINA Light Visionary Model has a body of seamless fabric stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will.

For more information: blog.wired.com
José Santos

Launched alongside The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is a bridge between highly advanced technologies and their potential benefits to end-users. This device concept showcases some revolutionary leaps being explored by Nokia Research Center (NRC) in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre (United Kingdom) – nanoscale technologies that will potentially create a world of radically different devices that open up an entirely new spectrum of possibilities. Morph concept technologies might create fantastic opportunities for mobile devices:

- Integrated sensors might allow us to learn more about the environment around us, empowering us to make better choices

In addition to the advances above, the integrated electronics shown in the Morph concept could cost less and include more functionality in a much smaller space, even as interfaces are simplified and usability is enhanced. All of these new capabilities will unleash new applications and services that will allow us to communicate and interact in unprecedented ways.

Read more here: NOKIA

Bruno Jarrais

Nanomaterials are often referred to as the holy grail of next generation materials and devices. However, serious concerns exist relating to the eventual negative effects on human health and the environment posed by these tiny bits of matter. A comprehensive article on this topic has recently been published on the “Scientific American” Magazine.

For more information: Scientific American or CDC Niosh

José Santos

The quote Me, Myself and iPhone is the reflex of the iPhone-boom that is already happening all over the world, especially in USA, and now in Europe: 4 millions iPhone sold in 200 days !

The main characteristics overwhelm who nearly likes technology, design and granted overall capability. It’s your computer on your pocket!

Some questions are coming up all over internet, like: when can we see iPhone nano? Or even, iPhone shuffle?! 

Now, here is my question: How much really nano can/could we find on the iPhone?

• Multi-touch display, made with special coating techniques in order to deposit nano-layers of conductive polymers?
• Nano-coated scratch-proof screen?
• Stereo earphones with built-in microphone with high miniaturization?
• Built-in rechargeable Nano lithium ion battery?

All I know is: this fits in 115x61x11,6mm! Cheap and simple? Well…not yet!

Maria José Machado

Thanks to nanotechnology, we might nowadays wonder how black the blackest colour is! Researchers from Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA) have produced the darkest material ever made using carbon nanotubes. According to Pulickel Ajayan, who led the research team at Rice University in Houston, this material reflects only 0.045% of the light that strikes it (or by other words, 99.955% of the light that hits it gets absorbed). The previous record holder for darkness, a nickel-phosphorus alloy, reflects four times as much light.

Carla Joana Silva

Self-sustainability is nowadays a hot-spot for some societies, where people look for the ecological/economical way of life. Riding bicycle to work, create own vegetables, bio-based fibres or self-cleaning garments can be few examples for rough but easy self-sustainability.

A nice example is given by the designer Joo Youn Paek, that designed a Self-Sustainable Chair: a dress made of 7 trash bags, 2 foot-pumps and a pair of slippers. The dress inflates on each step, turning it to a comfortable resting chair! The deflation happens due to weight of the user, inviting him to walk again “as a loop behavior on the street”.

Could we say this is, not only self-sustainable, but also an interactive garment? Why not? It creates an amusing performance on daily routine, not requiring lots of cables, electronic or injecting pumps, like a wearable canoe presented by Yeal Mer, for emergency floods, after the storm in New Orleans.

I can say both are nice, easy and useful, but what are actually the world priorities?! Preventing the lack of Earth resources or protecting humans from extreme climate changes?

Have you ever seen an Advent Calendar of the size of a red blood cell? Of course it’s hard to see it in a glimpse, but it’s even harder to built it without the help of precise equipment. A group of scientists, in Germany, created a Calendar that measures 8.4µm by 12.4µm, with nice Christmas images in each day of December, where each image can measure about 20 nm.  

The construction was made with the help of electron microscope, making the etching of a semi-conducting gallium arsenide wafer coated with Poly(methyl-methacrylate - PMMA).

Based on a joke, but is serious science!      

Maria José Machado

The use of nanodiamonds for delivering of chemotherapy drugs has been reported in the journal Nano Letters. Researchers from the Northwestern University demonstrate that such approach has the benefit of avoiding the negative effects associated with current drug delivery agents (e.g. cell inflammation). This study has the potential to impact several areas of Biomedicine. Learn more about it here.

T. S. Mayor

T. S. Mayor

Going on with the Workshops that are happening week-by-week, is time to brief you the 2^nd workshop about Surface Engineering and Functional Materials (that occurred in 17^th October). The first part of the presentation was focused in technologies for surface engineering that will exist in CeNTI and its respective capabilities. The range of technologies is large and, for this reason, some examples were giving, respecting the synergy between processes and the incorporation of (nano)functional materials. The second part was to give attention to the relation between functional materials and functionalities that can be achieved in textile substrates.  To explore this area you can click here and here.

Maria José Machado 

The first CeNTI Workshop was held last Wednesday at V.N. Famalição. Several entrepreneurs had the chance to get an insight into the technologies and equipments CeNTI is about to acquire in the field of non-conventional fibres and functional materials. The atmosphere was very dynamic, which resulted in live discussions between participants. I look forward to the next Workshop (Surface Treatments and Functional Materials, 17th October). Stay tuned here !

T. S. Mayor

Depending on the sectors, from knitting, weaving, fibres, chemical products or milling, the strategy differs dramatically. Some sectors are looking for “do it faster” and “right at first time”. Others, like dyeing and printing markets, look for “water and energy saving”. Also, non-conventional line-guides are given to Europe market, where new technologies are offered, as well new apparatus for new products building. European Market was not leading all sectors, as some years ago. Asian companies are strongly represented in apparatus building, and it is possible to see also some fusions between companies from Europe and Asia.

The new area at ITMA – Research and Education Area presented some new trends for technology in textile sector. Some known institutes and research centers showed R&D for areas like wearable electronics, new functionalisations, non-conventional fibres and, of course, some courses in new textile market areas. Scaling-up for industry level is the most sensitive subject to be take into account in the next ITMA. To present R&D+I, not only final product need to be presented, but also the manner to achieve the product, with sustainable processes.To finalize, 3 days is not enough to see everything with open eyes, but is sufficient to see where we are and how far we can go!  

Maria José Machado

Recent developments in nanotechnology will boost the cleaning and conserving of paintings, marble sculptures and other work of art. Chemists in Italy have devised a nanomagnetic sponge which can be loaded with solvents and that can be easily removed after the cleaning using a simple magnet. Read more on this topic.

T. S. Mayor

Spiderman, the hero that belongs to our imaginary, might not be so far from the real world, according to Nicola Pugno , a physicist of the Politecnico di Torino in Italy. He claims that by mimicking nature, thanks to carbon-nanotube-based technology, humans could soon do the same by donning a sticky "Spiderman suit" woven. In his article, published last week in J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, he suggests that a man can theoretically be supported by a transparent cable with cross-section of 1 cm² and feasibly, with spider material gloves and boots, could remain attached even to a ceiling: a preliminary step towards a Spiderman suit. Nanointerlocking, capillary and van der Waals forces, all potential adhesive mechanisms, are discussed, demonstrating the key role played by hierarchy in the design of superhydrophobic, i.e. self-cleaning and superadhesive materials. If you want to know more, "stick" to nanotechweb.

Carla Joana Silva

The hunt is on for new non-silicon high performance photovoltaic materials. Non-silicon photovoltaic materials prove to have several advantages in relation to silicon based materials, specifically some non-silicon materials are transparent allowing the photovoltaic material to be used in writ watches or, in the long run, as window panes and wind shields in automobiles. Other materials can generate electricity even at narrow incidence angles and polarized light. 

Read more…

Have you ever wanted to call a friend but your phone battery was dead?  Well… very soon you will only have to use your hand to power the phone. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits have developed a way of harnessing natural body heat to generate electricity. Interested? 'Plug' it here.

T. S. Mayor

NanoMission™ is a cutting edge gaming experience which educates players about basic concepts in nanoscience through real world practical applications from microelectronics to drug delivery. On the site from Playgen you are able to find several games, which one of them is a nano adventure in the Nano World – NanoMission™ with several modules: NanoImaging, Learning Scale and NanoMedicing. Download it…and have fun!

 Maria José Machado

A water desalination system using carbon nanotube-based membranes could significantly reduce the cost of purifying water from the ocean.

The technology could potentially provide a solution to water shortages or where a lack of clean water is a major cause of disease.

For more information: techreview 

José santos

Products like e-paper, displays on sunglasses and maps on car windshields can soon be more than a movie special effect! Scientists from Purdue University have managed to fabricate fully transparent high-speed nanowire transistors, which definitely constitute a major step towards the development of "see-through" flexible electronic displays. "See-through" this discovery here.

T. S. Mayor

The International Textile Machinery Exhibition ITMA 2007, which will take place in Munich from 13 to 20 September 2007, has the main theme of a “Place for Innovation”. A current example of this is nanotechnology, a technology of the future that also enables new properties and saving potential for textiles and clothing, for example in materials and energy costs. 

Some examples like spider-silk, merino wool achieved on polyester fibres, nanocoatings, self-cleaning textiles will be presented in the hall B2. Hope to meet you there!

For further information, go to: www.itma.com

Maria José Machado

Sometimes in our life, when sizing is a task from your everyday, sizes, “supersizes” and “nanosizes” are knotty to imagine, or even associate to something we can see, or even touch. A brilliant idea to transport this sizes into images and frames gives a scary information about “How small we are!”. I invite you to have a seat and look at here!  

Maria José Machado