Week 8

Nanotech and Art

For such a long time, people have been attracted by the macroscopic appearance of substances. It has been a long term puzzle to precisely manipulate atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale product. Fortunately, that is exactly what nanotechnology offers us. Applications of nanotechnology cover a range of different fields including surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology and semiconductor physics. Nevertheless, nanotechnology also enables artists to create amazing works.

URL<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGgPrgO-nGw>.

There is a video showing how nanotechnology affects painting. The pigment that the painter use is produced using special Nano techniques. After the pigment is dried, special phase change appears and creates an old feeling.

As a material engineering major student, I am inspired by a number of superior material synthesis methods using nanotechnology. The dimensions of nanomaterials are 100 nanometers or less. By modifying the microstructure, people want to not only improve the performance, but at the same time achieve spectacular morphology that can be appreciated from aesthetics perspective. The picture below is an example showing some “flowers” that are made from zinc oxide. Each flower is only two micrometers long, and is formed in a vacuum chamber using ultraviolet illumination. The color change looks very natural and petal is also detailed.

URL<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/art-nanotech.html>.

One interesting material that I have been doing research on is graphene. It is basically carbon but arranged in a two-dimensional, atomic-scale, monolayer structure. As shown in the picture below, it has perfect hexagonal geometric lattice which leads to several outstanding chemical and mechanical properties. For example, it is very hard while being a good electrical and thermal conductor. The special morphology also inspired many artists to create amazing works.

URL<http://royal.pingdom.com/2015/05/22/graphene-will-rock-your-world/>.

Reference 

1.Wang, Zhong Lin. "Splendid one-dimensional nanostructures of zinc oxide: a new nanomaterial family for nanotechnology." Acs Nano 2.10 (2008): 1987-1992.

2. Xu, C. X., et al. "Photoluminescent properties of copper-doped zinc oxide nanowires." Nanotechnology 15.7 (2004): 856.

3. Geim, Andre K., and Konstantin S. Novoselov. "The rise of graphene."Nature materials 6.3 (2007): 183-191.

4. Zhu, Yanwu, et al. "Graphene and graphene oxide: synthesis, properties, and applications." Advanced materials 22.35 (2010): 3906-3924.

5. Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. DESMA 9. Web.  May. 2015.