By Barbara G. Goode
Small Times Staff
Feb. 9, 2007 — “Nanotechnology,” said National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) director William Jeffrey, “promises to redefine 21st century manufacturing just as the assembly line redefined 20th century manufacturing.” But, Jeffrey pointed out, “there are definite ‘minefields’ that must be crossed and technical barriers that must be scaled before nanotechnology can reach its full potential.”
Nanotech was a major focus of Jeffrey’s a press briefing this week in which he discussed NIST’s fiscal-year 2008 plans.
Jeffrey began by pointing out that President Bush’s 2008 budget request calls for an 11% increase in funding for the NIST core (research and facilities) over the 2007 request. That is a 21% increase over the funding as specified in the joint resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week and sent on to the Senate. The proposed increases are part of the President’s American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI), a long-term plan to not just maintain but to enhance the U.S.’s global economic competitiveness. Under the ACI, funding for NIST’s core, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science is slated to double by 2016.
The 2007 and 2008 budget requests include a total of $26 million in initiatives for NIST research in nanotechnology. This includes funding for the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, a partnership among NIST, industry, and universities that combines a “world-class” nanofabrication and nanometrology user facility with a strong research program. The Center’s emphasis will be on overcoming technical barriers for nanotechnology development and adoption.
“For example,” Jeffrey said, “products built from nanoscale components require entirely new ways to accurately quantify their properties and determine their sizes, shapes, and chemical composition. And there is an urgent need to improve understanding and measurement of nanomaterials to ensure safe handling and protection against potential health or environmental hazards that may be posed by specific types of these materials.” NIST says it has already made substantial contributions on these two fronts for the carbon nanotube, which may one day be the critical elements in the strongest of fibers, the fastest of circuits, and the most sensitive of sensors. “But first we must learn how to make them consistently in the same sizes and shapes, with reliable properties,” said Jeffrey.
He also said that the unusual properties of carbon nanotubes have raised questions about possible health and environmental effects. “Recent NIST measurements have shown that typical nanotube samples are far from uniform and often contain large amounts of impurities that arise as a byproduct of the manufacturing process,” said Jeffrey, adding that we don’t yet know whether possible adverse effects of nanotube samples are caused by the nanotubes themselves, by impurities, by size variation, or by some other factor. “But we do know that for health and environmental researchers to draw valid conclusions they need accurate ways to measure, analyze, and purify nanotube samples,” Jeffrey noted. “NIST will use a portion of its funding to develop the measurement techniques required to better characterize potential nanotechnology impacts to our health, safety, and environment.”
Among NIST’s proposed 2008 research initiatives is an additional $4 million in funding for quantum science to help provide the fundamental physics methods needed to manipulate individual atoms and light particles.
NIST’s 2008 facilities budget is designed to ensure that staff and guest researchers have the laboratory capabilities they need to continually advance measurement’s cutting edge, said Jeffrey. So, the 2008 budget will start construction of state-of-the-art laboratory space that will meet the stringent environmental conditions. Likewise, the capacity and capability enhancements at the NIST Center for Neutron Research is critical for promoting innovation. This initiative begun in 2007 is in the second year of a planned five-year program to expand significantly the capacity and capabilities of the center. “With the 2008 funding, we will complete construction of a new guide hall which will ultimately house five new state-of-the-art instruments and allow an additional 500 researchers per year to study advanced materials and biological systems at the smallest spatial scales,” Jeffrey explained.
According to Jeffrey, the proposed NIST increases and the fact that the House joint resolution provided a $60 million increase in NIST’s core ¿ despite a severe budget climate ¿ demonstrates broad recognition of the important role that NIST plays in supporting innovation. “Research universities are the wellspring of American scientific creativity and new knowledge. Industry uses that knowledge to build the products that allow a pilot to find her way in a snowstorm or a teenager to carry thousands of songs, a phone, and a photo album in one pocket-sized device. NIST is the glue that holds the two together. The results of NIST research are found in virtually every manufacturing and service industry,” he said.