Two Nano-related Awards by NIST-ATP

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP) awarded Veeco Instruments Inc. and The Dow Chemical Company $6.6 million in funding for a three-year project to develop a quantitative nano-mechanical measurement instrument.

NIST also awarded Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc., Motorola, Inc. and Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, Inc. a $3.6 million grant to develop "free standing" carbon nanotube electrodes for micro-fuel cells in order to meet the ever-growing demand for more power and longer run times in portable microelectronics. The Advanced Technology Program award from NIST supports a 3 year, $7.4 million project to exploit the unique properties of single wall carbon-nanotubes (SWNT) in order to achieve siginificant breakthroughs in fuel cell performance, durability and manufacturability.

Veeco and Dow's proposal was one of 32 selected for award funding from a total of 870 proposals following a rigorous peer-reviewed selection process.

Veeco and Dow propose to jointly develop and validate the world's first platform for high speed, high bandwidth, quantitative nano-mechanical measurements (QNM) on length scales smaller than 50nm, on a wide range of materials. Successful completion of this proposal would lead to the creation of a new measurement platform enabling the development of nanomaterials. The QNM will be developed at Veeco. The platform will be based on recently demonstrated advancements in atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Veeco and Dow's partnership on this project is based upon Veeco's leadership position in AFM science and instrumentation, complemented by Dow's expertise in nanomaterials science and advanced characterization. Technical leads on the joint proposal are Dr. Gregory Meyers, Technical Leader, Dow Chemical, and Dr. Craig Prater, Director of Technology Development, Veeco Research AFM Group.

"The motivation for this project is to remove a fundamental limitation in the development of nanomaterials. Nanomaterials are forecasted to be a multi-billion dollar industry, but material scientists currently lack the ability to accurately and quickly map the mechanical properties of many materials on the nanoscale. Our program will provide a solution," commented Anthony Martinez, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Veeco Metrology.

According to Dr. Prater, "The National Nanotechnology Initiative and the U.S. chemical industry have identified the need for the rapid design of new materials based upon a scientific understanding of material properties at the nanoscale. The Dow/Veeco project to develop quantitative nanomechanical measurements on a wide range of materials will be integral to this 'Materials by Design' vision. We are pleased to receive this prestigious award from ATP, which will accelerate the timeframe of this project by several years."

Carol Dudley, R&D Vice President for Dow's Core R&D, added, "The proposed program aligns a common vision of both companies, namely the acceleration of nanomaterial solutions to the marketplace. This effort will support many ongoing R&D efforts at Dow spanning material offerings for the automotive, electronics, coatings and fabricated products markets as well as efforts in development of new materials characterization technologies."

"We expect this technology will allow material scientists to much more rapidly develop and commercialize new materials with breakthrough performance," said Roshan Shetty, Director Strategic Alliances, Veeco Research AFM Group. "AFMs are unique in the local nanoscale information they provide. Quantitative measurements would be a revolutionary breakthrough that will migrate AFM technology from R&D to nanoscale manufacturing and quality control across multiple industries."

"It is a privilege to be associated with such great technology focused companies in this project and we are pleased that NIST sees the merit and the potential in this technology,” states Professor Richard E. Smalley, a 1996 Nobel Laureate and Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. chairman and co-founder. “Single wall carbon-nanotubes will enable many new products and I believe that fuel cell development will be an early beneficiary of their powerful properties. Carbon nanotechnology should prove to be one of the great enablers in solving our country’s energy problems.”

Hand-held electronic devices are increasing in sophistication with their demands for electrical power seemingly rising exponentially. Rechargeable battery technology is mature, and unlikely to satisfy this demand. Small fuel cells have the potential to provide the power required, but this potential has not yet been recognized. In the longer term, success of the "hydrogen economy" is critically contingent upon increasing performance and durability, while decreasing associated manufacturing costs of present-day proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. These capabilities will be particularly important in fuel cells for distributed power generation and automotive applications.

If successful, the technology would enable not only dramatically improved compact PEM fuel cells for a host of current hand-held electronic devices, but would also enable the design and commercilization of more powerful next generation “wireless” devices.

The Advanced Technology Program, managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides cost-shared funding to industry for high-risk R&D projects with the potential to spark important, broad-based economic benefits for the United States. The awards are made on the basis of a rigorous peer-reviewed selection process.

Source: NIST.