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Thursday, 23rd August 2007 (4856 views)

Gold nanoparticles covered in anti-biotin have been used to help try and develop the world's first nano conveyer belt in Switzerland, reports Chemical Technology.

The Zurich-based Department of Materials at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have constructed nano cargo loading stations.

This is a crucially important step if a nano production line is to ever be created.

Viola Vogel, who works at the department, told the magazine: "Nothing comparable to a macroscopic assembly line exists at the nanoscale."

"Imagine if you wanted to build a car by fabricating all of its components, putting them in a glass full of water and hoping that they would self-assemble spontaneously into the finished car."

The behaviour of the gold nanoparticles was monitored by Ms Vogel and her colleagues using an electron microscope.

Nanotechnology is a blanket term for anything that is a billionth of a metre long. Gold's resistance to surface oxidation is one important quality that makes it so useful in this sector.

 

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