Nanoscience in the Geosciences
What are nanoscience and nanotechnology?
What impact do they have on the Geological Sciences?
Nanoscience and technology are not exactly new, but nevertheless rapidly expanding fields that are providing revolutions in all sciences on the scale of what genomics and proteomics have done in recent years for the biological sciences. Nanoscience is based on the fact that properties of materials change as a function of the physical dimension of that material, and nanotechnology takes advantage of this by applying selected property modifications of this nature to some beneficial endeavor.
The prefix ‘nano ’ is used because the property dependence on physical size is generally observed close to the nanoscale, somewhere around 10^-9 m. The dimensions at which changes are observed depend on the specific material and the property in question, as well as which of the three dimensions are restricted in real space (e.g.small particles vs.thin films vs.‘one-dimensional’ phases). Properties change in these confined spaces because the electronic structure (i.e.the distribution of electron energies) of the material is modified here in the gray area between the bulk and atomistic/molecular realms, or equivalently between the continuum and strictly quantum domains.
Earth materials with at least one dimension in the nanorange are essentially ubiquitous. Many have been known for several decades and more are being discovered all the time. But the scientific emphasis has now shifted to that of measuring, understanding and ultimately predicting the property changes from the bulk to nanodomains, and to the understanding of the significant ways that Earth processes are affected by these changes. In addition, where possible, Earth scientists are using nanoscience to develop nanotechnology that will play important roles in Earth sustainability issues of the future.
-Prof. Mike Hochella, Jr.
For more detailed information, see the following scientific journal articles by Dr. Hochella:
Nanoscience and technology: the next revolution in the Earth sciences. Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2002), 203(2), 593-605
Sustaining Earth: Thoughts on the present and future roles of mineralogy in environmental science. Mineralogical Magazine (2002), 66(5), 627-652
There's plenty of room at the bottom: Nanoscience in geochemistry. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2002), 66(5), 735-743
and also
Lower, S. K., Hochella, M. F., Jr., Banfield, J. F., Rosso, K. M. (2002) Nanogeoscience: From the movement of electrons to lithosphere plates. Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 83, 53-56.
Lower, Steven K., Hochella, Michael F., Jr., Beveridge, Terry J. (2001) Bacterial recognition of mineral surfaces: nanoscale interactions between Shewanella and a-FeOOH. Science (Washington, DC, United States), 292(5520), 1360-1363.
The first book on nanoscience in the geosciences has been published:
Nanoparticles and the Environment, J.F.Banfield and A.Navrotsky (eds.). Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume 44. - Published by the Mineralogical Society of America and available through their website.
Report of NSF-sponsored Nanogeoscience workshop, summer 2002:
This report is written to a technical geoscientist audience, and not very useful as introductory material. However, it contains some interesting examples of nanogeoscience research. It can be downloaded and viewed as an Adobe Acrobat Reader file.
If you don't have access to expensive scientific journals, contact Andy Madden to request copies to be sent to you.