A nanotechnology centre is to use nature's tricks to build structures a millionth of a millimetre across, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Nanotechnology in Northern Ireland has taken a leap forward with the opening of a €12 million research centre. The Nanotechnology Research Institute, built on the University of Ulster's Jordanstown campus, is the latest chapter in nanotechnology research at the university going back 20 years.
Officially opened a fortnight ago, the institute is next to the Northern Ireland Bioengineering Centre, built at Jordanstown in 1986. The two centres will work closely, combining expertise in a key emergent area of study where nanotech structures meet biology, says Jim McLaughlin, director of the new institute and professor of nanotechnology in the school of electrical and mechanical engineering."We find it very natural directing our nanotech research towards this domain."
It is a trend taking place around the world as researchers strive to work at the minute scales preferred by nature. "We can bring together new materials and aspects of biotech in this unique facility," says McLaughlin.
The physics department at Jordanstown had a specialisation in thin film research 20 years ago, and so it has a long association with the nanotech world.
This activity was greatly accelerated with the arrival in Northern Ireland of Seagate, the hard-drive manufacturer. It employs 1,800 people at two plants, in Springtown and Limavady, and its presence spurred greater involvement in nanotech research at the university, says McLaughlin.
"That has required us to build up a lot of analytical techniques," he explains, from atomic-force microscopy to focused-ion-beam etching, opening up the nano world for Jordanstown researchers.
The new institute and its partner together have 75 full-time researchers, with about 50 directly involved in nanoscale work, says McLaughlin. It will very much be a twin effort, with both research domains always to the fore. "It is nanotechnology with a strong bio focus. We are bringing a solid-state world into that domain."
It will see cell biology and microbiology brought into a building run by engineers. The goal will be to use the "tricks of nature" to promote self- assembly of novel structures, thin films and nano devices.
"It is about the application of periodicity in structures," McLaughlin explains: creating a structure that has a high degree of element repeatability. "Sensor applications, for example, will rely on substrates and mechanisms that allow you to create this form of periodicity."
Broad research areas at the institute will include biosensors, tissue engineering, drug delivery, surface science, nanotubes, plasma technology and nanoscale patterning and manipulation.
A research group is looking at titanium-oxide coatings for medical devices. These have a catalytic potential to kill bacteria and degrade proteins, including the prions implicated in BSE. It could provide an antibacterial coating for medical implants that fight infection.
Another research area is thin film formation in plasmas for coating metals and plastics. Nanotubes are being studied for use as electrodes, he says. These hold promise as sensor devices that will use multifrequency electrical impedance to study DNA molecules, allowing two strands to be compared or matched quickly.
These could also be used to diagnose illness, he believes.
"That would be the ultimate sensor," working at the cellular level to deliver medical information.
Funding for the new institute has come from a number of sources, including Invest Northern Ireland, the EU and industry. The institute already has research collaborations under way or soon to be announced with Queen's University Belfast and with Dublin City University.
It will also promote technology transfer, as has been the case with the Northern Ireland Bioengineering Centre. That centre has 27 patents to its name and three spin-out companies, says McLaughlin.