Friday, April 07, 2006
Fabric may be worth its weight in gold
The e-textiles incorporate NanoSonic's trademarked material Metal Rubber.
The latest from The Ticker blog
BLACKSBURG -- Pesky little Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold -- a fairy tale feat.
Molecule by molecule, scientists at NanoSonic have "spun" gold and silver and plastics into remarkable new fabrics.
A 3-square-foot sample of NanoSonic's "e-textiles" is lighter than a fistful of straw, electrically conductive, durable, transparent, stretchable, washable and capable of blocking radio-frequency radiation.
Think tulle, the kind of fine net fabric found in tutus and veils, but endowed with a host of high-tech properties with enough military value to wring a swoon from Donald Rumsfeld.
These nanotechnology-produced e-textiles, which incorporate NanoSonic's trademarked composite material Metal Rubber, seem impressive enough. But what practical uses might they serve in the real world?
The question elicits smiles from NanoSonic's brainy entrepreneurs, who respond to nanotechnology naysayers by diving ever deeper into research and development.
They seem to be just about as giddy as chemists and engineers can get about the possible applications for the company's fancy fabrics, whose conductivity could make these electronic textiles an ideal material for sensor-laden "smart clothes."
In combat conditions, a U.S. soldier clothed in layers of garments made from e-textiles could wear sensors close to his or her skin that monitor blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate and the like.
Another layer, perhaps integrated into a Kevlar vest, could register impact from a bullet or shrapnel. And sensors in an outer garment could "sniff" the air for agents of chemical or biological warfare.
Such "wearable electronics" also could have a number of biomedical applications.
Or, because the e-textiles both block and reflect radio frequency radiation, the material could provide a durable and lightweight reflector for a space satellite.
"There are a number of possible defense and aerospace applications," said Rick Claus, co-founder and president of NanoSonic.
In July 2004, NanoSonic and aeronautics and technology giant Lockheed Martin Corp. announced a partnership whose focus would be the development of nanoscale materials for potential use in aircraft or other applications.
"They're interested in our materials," said Claus.
The prefix "nano" comes from the Greek word for dwarf. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is about 60,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. Nanotechnology manipulates matter on an ultra-small scale, creating materials at the scale of molecules by manipulating single atoms.
In recent years, the Blacksburg-based company has made national news -- in newspapers, trade journals and even Esquire magazine -- after introducing Metal Rubber. A composite material, Metal Rubber has elasticity like rubber and conductivity like metal.
Founded in 1998 by Claus and Yanjing Liu, then a graduate student at Virginia Tech, NanoSonic licensed nine patents from Virginia Tech. Claus said two of those patents have been instrumental in NanoSonic's development and use of a nanotechnology process called "electrostatic self-assembly."
Here's how ESA works. First, scientists treat a base material, such as glass, so that it retains a specific electrical charge.
Then, they repeatedly dip the base material into baths with ions of alternating positive and negative charges. The oppositely charged nanoparticles attract and stick to one another, like Velcro. Each dip builds up layers, creating a new material.
Today, NanoSonic has 62 employees. Most work in the company's crowded space off South Main Street in Blacksburg. Claus said NanoSonic, a private company with "a couple of stockholders," has always made money.
"We've been in the black every quarter since we started," he said. "And we're not businesspeople."
Asked to reveal the company's revenue for its most recent fiscal year, Claus purposefully estimated a vague range -- between $7 million and $10 million, he said.
NanoSonic has been parsimonious, Claus said, in spending on such things as office furniture. Most of the furniture has come from surplus sales at nearby Virginia Tech, where Claus is a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering.
Many of his NanoSonic colleagues are Virginia Tech graduates, including Andrea Hill, sensors group leader, and Jennifer Lalli, vice president of business development and director of nanocomposites.
Claus, Hill and Lalli said they have been inspired and motivated by respected skeptics of nanotechnology.
"People have said, 'You'll never make anything big, you'll never make anything thick. You'll never make fabrics,' " Claus said.
"Part of the impetus for [the e-textiles] is people telling us we can't do it."
