High School sophomore wins regional science competition
using nanotechnology.
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High School student works on nanotechnology project,
wins science fair
Blacksburg, May 7, 2002 -- Shivan Sarin is only a high school sophomore.
But he is already a master in the emerging field of nanotechnology.
Sarin recently won one of two grand awards in a science
fair competition based on work he conducted to create a solar cell using
the art of nanotechnology.
Sarin, who attends William Flemming High School and
who is also a student at the Roanoke Valley Governor’s School, learned
about nanotechnology by reading scientific papers from technical publications
such as the Journal of Physics and Chemistry and a world conference proceedings
on the subject of photovoltaic solar energy conversion.
Sarin, first in his class of some 360 students at William Flemming, had
his interest in nanotechnology peaked when he read an article in the Roanoke
Times describing the activities of a Blacksburg, Va. company, NanoSonic,
Inc. The company was in the initial stages of developing a prototype of
a nanotechnology school kit for middle school children. The U.S. Department
of Education was funding this work.
Subsequently, Sarin approached Richard O. Claus, president
of NanoSonic, as well as the director of Virginia Tech’s Fiber &
Electro-Optics Research Center (FEORC) to determine if he might be able
to pursue an independent nanotechnology project with FEORC.
Claus agreed, and Sarin spent three to four days a week
for several months visiting the Virginia Tech lab. A Virginia Tech chemical
engineering graduate student, Jean Huie, assisted Sarin with how to use
the lab’s instrumentation and some additional background research.
"Shivan is a highly motivated student who worked
hard and learned a great deal to take part in the research at NanoSonic.
His work with NanoSonic represents a great example of a student doing
quality research, motivated by his own interests and desire to learn,"
says Aaron Schuetz, a physics teacher at the Governor’s School, and
described by Sarin as "his mentor."
But even mentors know their students’ limitations.
"Shivan made my job as his teacher very easy. He worked hard, learned
a lot, and performed some excellent research. All that was left for me
to do was nag him about turning in papers," Schuetz smiles.
In the FEORC lab, and working in conjunction with the
NanoSonic project, Sarin created nanocrystalline titanium dioxide-based
dye-sensitized solar cells. These cells use nanotechnology methods to
complete a circuit and to create a voltage. The energy comes from the
transformation of light into an electrical current.
"I attempted to optimize the solar cells’
efficiency by changing different parts of the solar cell. In some cases,
I changed an element. For example, there are dyes used in the solar cells,
and the dye allows the electrons to flow through the cell and release
electrons into the titanium dioxide. When the dye is excited, it can release
more electrons," Sarin explains.
FEORC researchers patented an electrostatic self-assembly
(ESA) process used in nanotechnology that, among other characteristics,
is able to operate at room temperature for most manufacturing needs, and
one that is environmentally benign. NanoSonic has licensed this and other
related patents from Virginia Tech.
Sarin hopes that this ESA process combined with his novel approach to
making solar cells will provide a more economical manufacturing procedure
in the future. He is competing in the Intel International Science Fair
in Louisville later this year as a result of his winning the regional
fair.
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NanoSonic has developed and holds patents on ESA
processes that can be performed at room temperature, eliminating the
need for a furnace to sinter the thin films.
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Department of Education funds grant to NanoSonic,
Inc., to develop nanotechnology kits for school children
MARCH 12, 2002 -- By the start of the next academic
year for secondary school children, school systems throughout the country
should be able to purchase a low-cost science class tool kit that provides
middle and high school youth with skills in the relatively new, highly
advanced field of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology blends the fields of chemistry, physics,
biology, and engineering. Through nanotechnology, materials are synthesized
layer by layer, starting at the molecular level. With this process, designers
are able to achieve desired properties such as electrical conductivity,
mechanical hardness, or magnetic permeability.
For school children, a nanotechnology kit will allow
them to conduct experiments to create materials for such technologies
as the next generation of electronics or permanent magnets.
The kit will offer the students the chance to perform
experiments using a modified electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) process.
ESA is the preferred technique when creating materials at the molecular
level.
The experiments will be designed for middle and high
school science classes. The kit should also include a Nanotechnology Workbook,
a CD-ROM demonstration video, and a teacher’s guide. This guide will
provide teachers with lesson plans that articulate how nanotechnology
addresses Standards of Learning (SOLs).
Backing these initiatives is the U.S. Department of
Education (DoEd). It selected a nanotechnology company in Blacksburg,
Va. to create these kits. Gretchen Distler, a middle school teacher in
the Montgomery County public school system in Virginia, has acted as a
consultant on the project.
Richard O. Claus, Virginia’s Outstanding Scientist
for 2001, who is a distinguished professor of electrical and computer
engineering at Virginia Tech and the president of NanoSonic, is overseeing
the project.
ESA is an environmentally friendly process, absent of any volatile organic
compounds that are commonly found in today’s microelectronic business.
ESA also consumes negligible power.
NanoSonic has developed and holds patents on ESA processes
that can be performed at room temperature, eliminating the need for a
furnace to sinter the thin films. The process can also be completed without
a clean room (commonly needed when developing microelectronic devices).
Using the synthesis process they propose, substrates may be dipped in
small lab beakers and washed with tap water. The nanostructured materials
are complete as soon as they are removed from their last water bath.
The kits will allow the students to build their confidence
in this highly technical field because they will be able to fabricate
their samples many times with approximately the same results, regardless
of small experimental errors.
Click here
for additional information.
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