AGS-TECH Inc.
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Nanoparticles Nanoparticle research is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields. Nanoparticles are of great scientific interest as they are effectively a bridge between bulk materials and atomic or molecular structures. A bulk material should have constant physical properties regardless of its size, but at the nano-scale this is often not the case. Size-dependent properties are observed such as quantum confinement in semiconductor particles, surface plasmon resonance in some metal particles and superparamagnetism in magnetic materials. The properties of materials change as their size approaches the nanoscale and as the percentage of atoms at the surface of a material becomes significant. For bulk materials larger than one micrometre the percentage of atoms at the surface is minuscule relative to the total number of atoms of the material. The interesting and sometimes unexpected properties of nanoparticles are partly due to the aspects of the surface of the material dominating the properties in lieu of the bulk properties. Nanoparticles exhibit a number of special properties relative to bulk material. For example, the bending of bulk copper (wire, ribbon, etc.) occurs with movement of copper atoms/clusters at about the 50 nm scale. Copper nanoparticles smaller than 50 nm are considered super hard materials that do not exhibit the same malleability and ductility as bulk copper. The change in properties is not always desirable. Ferroelectric materials smaller than 10 nm can switch their magnetisation direction using room temperature thermal energy, thus making them useless for memory storage. Suspensions of nanoparticles are possible because the interaction of the particle surface with the solvent is strong enough to overcome differences in density, which usually result in a material either sinking or floating in a liquid. Nanoparticles often have unexpected visible properties because they are small enough to confine their electrons and produce quantum effects. For example gold nanoparticles appear deep red to black in solution. Nanoparticles have a very high surface area to volume ratio. This provides a tremendous driving force for diffusion, especially at elevated temperatures. Sintering can take place at lower temperatures, over shorter time scales than for larger particles. This theoretically does not affect the density of the final product, though flow difficulties and the tendency of nanoparticles to agglomerate complicates matters. The large surface area to volume ratio also reduces the incipient melting temperature of nanoparticles. 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 nanorange, 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. Clay nanoparticles when incorporated into polymer matrices increase re-inforcement, leading to stronger plastics, verified by a higher glass transition temperature and other mechanical property tests. These nanoparticles are hard, and impart their properties to the polymer (plastic). Nanoparticles have also been attached to textile fibers in order to create smart and functional clothing. If you can think of an application for such nanopowders useful for your business, let us know and receive our input. We can design, prototype, manufacture, test and deliver these to you from advanced fabs specialized in such applications. We are also experts in intellectual property protection and can make special arrangements for you to ensure your designs and products are not copied. Our nanoparticle designers are some of the best in the World with multiple patents each, royalty rights for their inventions, dozens of engineering publications and Ph.D degrees from institutions such as Stanford University, UCSD, Berkley, Massachussets Institute of Technology, Yale University, Caltech, Princeton, Bell Laboratories. They are the people who developed some of the World's most advanced materials and devices. Please describe us your application and let us formulate something useful for you. If you are mostly interested in our engineering and research & development capabilities instead of manufacturing capabilities, then we invite you to visit our sister website http://www.ags-engineering.com Moulding and Solar Products in New Mexico |
