Nanosciences and the Center for Nanoscale Materials

Miniature machines injected into the bloodstream for healing, super-strong alloys and data-storage devices the size of a pin are no longer the stuff of futuristic novels. The basic research that will lead to these advances and more is being carried out at Argonne 's newest national research facility – the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM).

Researchers are creating and studying nanomaterials that are built from the bottom up with particles just a few atoms across and are measured in the billionths of a meter.

Items created at the nanoscale have enhanced properties: Ceramics are suppler and metals stronger. Accordingly, nanoscience and nanotechnology are among the hottest areas of research internationally.

Nanomaterials are expected to open new possibilities in areas as diverse as superconductivity, computer memory media, electrical and thermal transmission, micro-switching devices and highly sensitive free-radical detectors.

Argonne is an ideal location for the CNM because this is the only place in the country with hard X-rays at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), neutrons at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source and the Electron Microscopy Center — three powerful and complementary tools for materials research at the nanolevel.

One of five new centers devoted to nanomaterials research, a CNM research facility is being built adjacent to the APS. Funding is provided by the State of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Energy.

CNM's first instrument will be the pioneering nanoprobe beam line under construction at the APS. The nanoprobe is a hard X-ray microscopy beamline with the highest spatial resolution in the world. With its combination of fluorescence, diffraction, and transmission imaging at a spatial resolution of 30 nanometers or better, the nanoprobe will penetrate samples and provide information about their internal structures.

Because the distinctions among disciplines blur when working at the nanoscale, materials scientists, biologists, chemists, physicists and researchers from other disciplines explore the promises of nanotechnology together. They are finding that these materials may act like biological systems and may be self-healing and adaptable to changing environments.

Argonne materials scientists have been studying nanomaterials since the 1980s. The laboratory's ultrananocrystalline diamond films, whose grains are measured in the billionths of a meter, received a 2003 R&D 100 Award. Potential applications range from low-friction coatings to diamond electronics and biosensors. Argonne materials scientists are using these films to develop an artificial retina as part on a national research consortium.

Materials scientists are also working with industry to improve the capacity of “smart cards” that can hold a bearer's medical history for use by doctors, pharmacists or even paramedics in an emergency.

Other applications for nanomaterials include:

• Chemical catalysis
• Sensors
• Information storage
• Computing
• Biological intervention, and
• Environmental sensing and remediation.