WVU Enters the Nano Age

Cross-Disciplinary Effort Puts WVU in Unique Position

If you have not heard of nanotechnology, you have not been reading the science section of your newspaper. Involving the observation and manipulation of material smaller in size than a wavelength of light, nanotechnology offers the potential to profoundly change the way we live our lives.

Already, nanotechnology is being used in the development of better sensors for airbags on the cars that we drive, better packaging for foods and beverages, and even better tennis balls. Will we someday soon drive a car with windows that clean themselves, or wear computers on our sleeves? Will your physician be able to detect cancer through an iris scan or a breath test, or kill a tumor while leaving the rest of your body unscathed?

WVU researchers in nanotechnology – a group that spans several disciplines, both within the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and within other Colleges at the University – tell us that developments like these are on the horizon through this emerging area of research.

Larry Hornak is a professor of electrical engineering in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. He is also interim director of WV Nano, an organization charged with leading WVU’s institution-wide effort to advance and promote interdisciplinary nanoscience and engineering  research. It is this research base which is the foundation upon which nanotechnology innovations are built. WV Nano members include WVU faculty from disciplines as diverse as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, physics, and health sciences.

Nanotechnology naturally breaks down barriers between disciplines, said Hornak, and the emergence of nanoscience and engineering as a research focus across the College and University is a natural next step where research and education programs must go. However, he added, WVU must stake out a niche in which to distinguish itself. WVNano’s focus is on bringing together the semiconductor device and biomolecular worlds to explore integrated molelcular recognition systems capable of rapidly detecting biomolecular species for health and security applications.

In doing so, WVU leverages it strengths, including its comprehensive health sciences center and strong programs in biomolecular sciences and solid-state electronics and photonics. WVU is establishing a foothold in the development of the next generation of biometric devices based on molecular detection. WVU already has the nation’s only NSF Center addressing physiological biometrics in CITeR, the Center for identification Technology Research (www.citer.wvu.edu).

The University is attracting a powerful team of highly trained and talented faculty members who are collaborating on projects ranging from fighting bioterrorism to developing new technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Along with new faculty come funding for advanced research and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. All of this adds up to a powerful combination of people and technology, a combination that is cutting across the traditional lines between scientific disciplines and helping to construct a new way of looking at the world of science and engineering.

What is Nanotechnology?

The concept of nanotechnology is not really that difficult to understand: Simply put, nanotechnology will enable scientists to precisely manipulate the basic building blocks of matter – molecules and eventually even atoms. Because human hands are millions of times too large to do this, nanotechnology involves the construction of incredibly small machines – or nano-devices – to do the work for us.

The scale of nanotechnology is very, very, very small. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The world of nanoscale ranges in size up to approximately 100 nanometers, or one-one thousandth the width of a human hair.

The reason that small scale is so critical in nanotechnology research – and the main reason it offers such exciting potential in so many areas – is the fairly recent discovery that materials behave with different functionality at the nano-scale than they do on a larger scale.

At the nano-scale, for example, a common material such as carbon, normally a mild conductor of electricity, becomes a superconductor. At the molecular level, materials can often be controlled with extreme precision, leading to the potential for the construction and manipulation of extremely small devices that can function with a high degree of precision and efficiency.

But, how useful can devices that are one-one thousandth the width of a human hair actually be, one might ask? This is where nano-scale and micro-scale devices – measured in microns or millionths of a meter – come together. In essence, nano-scale materials can be fastened onto micro-scale structures, and these, in turn, can be used to produce useful, macro-scale devices.

By building from the nano-scale up, the unusual material functionality found at the nano-scale can be projected to a useful scale.

Clean Room Provides Cutting-Edge Tool for Research

The latest tool in the nanotechnology arsenal at WVU arrived in 2005 when the College opened its Nano/microengineering Shared Clean Room Facility, housed in the Engineering Science Building. The new Clean Room Facility, the first of its kind in West Virginia, is located in the Engineering Sciences Building on the Evansdale Campus in Morgantown. The facility is open to use by faculty and students across the University, and is currently in use by various researchers from Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering. Made possible by commitments from WVU, the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, and the Lane Department of Computer Science of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, the new facility has more than 3,300 square feet of laboratory space.

The shared clean room has three distinct zones, which house a Class 100 photolithography room with three mask aligners and a dual spinner hood with hotplates for photo-resist thermal processing; a Class 1,000 wet processing room equipped with acid and solvent benches, a photo-resist development bench, and two additional hoods for non-standard new processes; and two Class 10,000 rooms, one for dry processing, with equipment for thermal processing, thin-film deposition, metallization and plasma etching, and one that serves as a room for characterization and packaging of nano devices.

Before entering the facility, researchers and visitors alike must don disposable coveralls to prevent dust, dirt, lint, or skin cells from being introduced into the environment. Makeup is strictly forbidden for the same reason, and hair must be covered.

These rules are there for a reason: “When you’re working with materials that are one-thousandth the width of a human hair, contamination is an ever-present danger,” said Kolin Brown, Phd. Brown is the program coordinator for the facility, and part of his responsibilities include maintaining cleanliness.

“This facility is vital to our ability to conduct cutting-edge research across the disciplines in nanotechnology,” said Hornak, “and to attract both faculty and students with the talents and skills to take the lead in this area of research.”

Josh Nightingale, who recently graduated from the College with a dual degree in computer engineering and electrical engineering, and who has been accepted to graduate school in the same department, agrees.

“The clean room shows the school’s commitment to nanotechnology research,” he said. “Working in this laboratory got me excited about this area of research, and definitely encouraged me to stay here and to continue my graduate studies.” Two other December 2005 graduates from the Lane Department, Josh Harman and Lee Rodak, have also been accepted into the graduate program in the department.

In addition to the clean room, the College houses many other advanced laboratories and state-of-the-art equipment that is essential for research in nano-scale devices and materials. These include a scanning electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope, both housed within the Department of Chemical Engineering but available for use by all researchers. Both are essential for studying materials and devices grown and developed at the nano-scale.

College Faculty Pursuing Interdisciplinary Research in Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology research within the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources is led by a team of top-notch faculty who are working to find new ways to develop and use nano-scale materials and devices.

One exciting area of research, led by Hornak, involves the development of photonic devices that are based on the interaction of light with nanoscale structures and materials. These devices are being used in the development of cutting-edge biosensors that may be able to detect a minute quantity of anthrax in the water, or even in the air, with a higher degree of sensitivity and accuracy than is offered by current technologies.

Biosensors also have the potential to be extremely useful in biomedical applications, with the development of nanoscale devices that may be able to detect, or event treat, certain cancers at the very earliest stages. Research involving the critical intersection of biology and engineering is taking place in collaboration with faculty at WVU’s Health Sciences Center.

“The Health Sciences Center, with its advanced research faculty and programs in a wide variety of areas within the biomedical sciences, combined with the diversity of talent within our own College and throughout the University, puts WVU in an excellent position to pursue cross-disciplinary research in nanotechnology,” said Hornak, “and particularly in the areas in which medical science and nanotechnology intersect at our chosen niche area of molecular recognition.”

Dimitris Korakakis, PhD, is conducting research using a method of growing nano-scale materials known as metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). WVU is one of only 10 universities nationwide that has an AIXTRON MOCVD machine set up for the growth of nittrides. Korakakis and his associates are using it to grow materials from the nanoscale up - working in particular with gallium nitride - and to develop improved light-emitting materials which may be useful in new and improved biosensors, optical devices, and electronic devices.

Parviz Famouri, PhD, is focused on the development of improved micro-electronic mechanical (MEMS) devices, which are tiny mechanical elements made out of silicon attached to the chip surface and used as sensors and actuators in a wide variety of applications ranging from medical devices to the oil pressure sensors and airbags in cars. The work of Famouri’s group which spans engineering, chemistry, and the health sciences has progressed beyond traditional MEMS devices into a novel area known as bio-MEMS, in which the muscle fibers myosin and actin are anchored to a chip for protein transport, sorting, and recognition.

Rakesh Gupta, PhD, the George and Caroline Berry Professor of Chemical Engineering, is conducting work on the development of wood/polymer composites. Gupta’s research involves the use of carbon nano-fibers and nano-clays to increase the stiffness of wood/plastic composites and also to improve other mechanical properties. The goal is to produce a less-toxic alternative to traditional treated lumber as a construction material. Gupta is also researching, among other things, the use of nano-fillers to improve the barrier properties of polymers being employed in fiber-reinforced plastic bridges all over West Virginia, thereby increasing their durability and life span. Gupta’s unique work in the use of nanoscale materials in construction materials is attracting a great deal of national attention.

In 2005-06, several new faculty members involved in nanotechnology research joined the College. These include: In the Lane Department, Pouya Valizadeh, PhD; in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Nick Wu, PhD, and Darran Cairns, PhD; and in Civil Engineering, Benoit Van Aken, PhD.

What the Future Holds

The world is investing in nanotechnology at a rapidly accelerating pace, and certainly intellectual discovery is a factor in the current interest in nanotechnology. But economics are a driving force as well. Nanotechnology offers great potential for economic development, and the United States is working to maintain a lead to avoid losing ground economically.

“By attracting top-notch faculty and students, and by investing in the technology needed to pursue this emerging area of research,” said Dean Cilento, “our College and our University are taking a leadership role that has the potential for improve our way of life in ways that we cannot yet even imagine. We look forwarding to continuing to work together to see where it will lead us, as scientists and as members of society.”