Microreactor Speeds Nanotech Particle Production by 500 Times

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Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a new method to speed the production rate of nanoparticles by 500 times, an advance that could play an important role in making nanotechnology products more commercially practical.

The approach uses an arrayed microchannel reactor and a "laminated architecture" in which many sheets, each with thousands of microchannels in them, are stacked in parallel to provide a high volume of production and excellent control of the processes involved.

The new approach created by a research team of five engineers at OSU used a microreactor with the new architecture that produced "undecagold nanoclusters" hundreds of times faster than conventional "batch synthesis" processes that might have been used.

This research, Chang said, created nanoparticles based on gold, but the same concept should be applicable to other materials as well. By lowering the cost of production, even the gold nanoclusters may find applications, he said, because the cost of the gold needed to make them is actually just a tiny fraction of the overall cost of the finished product.

The nanotechnology field seems to be developing faster and faster these days. It will be interesting to see how many companies and new buisnesses open up and begin using nanotech.

With a 500 times faster rate of production compared to what processes used to be used, I could see more new technology being developed, and at a faster rate.

This is a wonderful post. I can't help but hope that perhaps this will equal out to more jobs in the US, and Texas, since we have a few considerable technical operations in place already. I remember a few years back when Texas was going to be the next silicon valley before the tech bubble popped. This sort of advancement could also have reverberations throughout the medical field as well...