Penn State

Research: Consumer Products

Bringing Nano-Enhanced Products to the Consumer

Although the market for nanotechnology products is still in its infancy, buyers do not have to look far to find a consumer good with a nanotech connection. Sporting goods, clothing, passenger car tires, skin care products, even cooking oils, all incorporate nanomaterials in their production. According to one recent report (BCC Research, 2005), the global value of nanotechnology input for consumer products was $6.8 billion in 2005, and will grow to $10.5 billion annually by 2010. The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, undertaken by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has identified over 200 consumer products claiming to have a nanotechnology component.

Penn State spin-out companies have taken several nano technologies into the marketplace. In the 1990s, a Penn State team in the Department of Chemistry developed Nanobarcodes™, metallic rods with complex patterns that can encode information at the submicron scale. In 2000, a Penn State chemist founded Chiral Quest, a company based on catalysts that direct the formation of molecules useful in the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2005, Penn State jointly developed, with Philips Research, the new industry standard CMOS transistor model for future nanometer chip design. This chip model will be the standard to simulate the behavior of future CMOS chips at the 65 nm technology node and beyond.

NanoHorizons is a Penn State spin-out that licenses nanotechnology applications in a variety of areas, including antimicrobial silver nanoparticles for textiles; improved solar cell technology; and nanotechnology-based mass spectrometry targets for drug discovery.

Other current and near future commercial developments by Penn State researchers include miniaturized ultrasound imaging arrays that in the future will be sensitive enough to monitor the drug reaction within an individual cell; molecular dots carrying fluorescent markers and anticancer drugs that will target tumors; and microminiaturized piezoelectric devices that can manipulate objects at the upper end of the nanoscale.

To access Penn State nano commercial opportunities, visit the Industrial Research Office web site. www.research.psu.edu/iro/

An up-to-date listing of consumer products identified as nano:www.nanotechproject.org/index.php?id=44

Interesting general interest description of current nanotechnology in the UK. Includes a computer simulation by Penn State physicist Vin Crespi:www.wellcome.ac.uk/assets/wtd015798.pdf

Penn State's Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization introduces nano commercialization:www.nnin.org/nnin_nanoproducts.html

Faculty: Consumer Products

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