A leading nanotechnology scientist has raised questions over a billion dollar industry by boldly claiming that there is a limit to how small nanotechnology materials can be mass produced.
In a paper published in IOP Publishing’s journal Nanotechnology, Professor Mike Kelly, Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics, University of Cambridge, stated that you cannot mass produce structures with a diameter of three nanometres or less using a top-down approach.
The top-down approach to manufacturing, which Kelly states is limited, uses external tools to cut and shape large materials to contain many smaller features. Its alternative, the bottom-up approach, involves piecing together small units, usually molecules, to construct whole materials – much like a jigsaw puzzle – however this process is too unpredictable for defect – free mass production of arrays.
Kelly used statistical evaluation of vertical nanopillars – that have been suggested for uses in sensors and displays – as an example to demonstrate his theory. He states that the proof comes in two stages. The first is due to the fact that when materials are mass produced on such a small scale there will be a lot of variation in the size of different components.
As a result of this variation, the properties of the material will vary to an extent where the material cannot function to full capacity within an array.
Professor Kelly says, “If I am wrong, and a counterexample to my theorem is provided, many scientists would be more secure in their continued working, and that is good for science.