Big dreams for nanotechnology

LOWELL -- A revolution of tiny proportions is taking place at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Researchers are harnessing the power of nanotechnology, trying to move the science into the everyday.

''It's going to mean big changes," said Carol Forance Barry, an associate professor in the university's Department of Plastics Engineering and a leader in nanotechnology research.

UMass-Lowell is using millions of dollars in government funding to run two centers devoted to the study of nanotechnology, which deals with particles too small for the human eye to see. The goal, researchers said, is to turn laboratory successes into processes that help businesses improve on and invent practical products. That, in turn, can bolster the area's and the state's standing as a leader in economic development.

''If you can commercialize it here, that leads to jobs staying here. That's why a lot of states are interested in fostering nanotechnology," said Joey L. Mead, an associate professor in the Department of Plastics Engineering and a nanotechnology researcher.

UMass-Lowell, in collaboration with Northeastern University and the University of New Hampshire, last fall received a $12.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The money, which will be disbursed over five years, established the Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing.

In addition, the state in December awarded UMass-Lowell a $5 million matching-funds grant through the John Adams Innovation Institute to fund the Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence.

''It's a very important step forward," Cort Boulanger, vice president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, said of UMass-Lowell's role. ''In many ways, we're still in the research phase, but we're moving to practical applications."

Massachusetts is well poised to take advantage of nanotechnology, Boulanger said. It has potential applications in biopharmaceutical, medical devices, information technology, telecommunications, and defense industries, all strong industries in Massachusetts.

Boulanger added: ''This is an area the state should invest in."

Nanotechnology gets its name from particles on the nano scale. Such particles are larger than atoms but smaller than microparticles; a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. That's about one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair.

While matter has always existed on the nano scale, scientists couldn't see it until the invention of the atomic force microscope in the 1980s. And once researchers could see at this level, they could start to manipulate what they saw.

''You want to mimic nature to some degree to get what you want," Barry explained.

Massachusetts is at the forefront of this work, with prominent universities and private companies supporting research and development in nanotechnology. Harvard University has, in collaboration with others, its Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has its US Army-funded Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

On the business side, Nantero Inc., a Woburn company using carbon nanotubes for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices, and Triton Systems Inc., a Chelmsford company aimed at creating products and processes for the US government and commercial markets, have signed on as industrial partners for the Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing at UMass-Lowell.

The impact of all this research is significant: The National Science Foundation estimates that 2 million workers worldwide will be employed in positions related to nanotechnology within the next 10 years, with some 800,000 in the United States. The foundation also estimates that the global market for nano-scale devices and nano-engineered materials could reach as much as $1 trillion by 2015.

Massachusetts already has a significant number of companies tapping this technology: More than 40 companies identify themselves as ''nanotechnology companies," according to a count by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

UMass-Lowell could bring nanotechnology to even more of the state's businesses.

''UMass-Lowell faculty are helping Massachusetts become a leader in nanotechnology and positioning the state as a force in advanced manufacturing," UMass President Jack M. Wilson wrote in the current UMass newsletter on economic development. It ''is focused on building a bridge between research and manufacturing. Its aim is to develop methods for scaling up the fabrication of nanoscale products from the minute amounts produced in university labs to the massive volumes of consistent product required for commercial use."

Dozens of faculty members and graduate students from various departments work together to make this happen. Students and faculty work in conventional labs, testing materials and conducting experiments in large industrial rooms. The idea is to develop the industrial processes, equipment, and instrumentation as well as the workforce training and public education needed for more companies to adopt nanotechnology as part of their manufacturing processes.

''Our challenge is to solve the problems of mass-producing with this technology," Mead said in a press release.

The work falls under the direction of Mead, the Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing's deputy director, and Barry, the center's associate director. Mead and Barry also serve as associate directors of the Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence; Julie Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering, is director for the NCOE.

These three women, like other experts in the field, said nanotechnology is an ''enabling technology," not necessarily its own industry, because it can improve existing as well as new products.

''The end product is not nano," Chen said. ''But the product can contain things that are nano that give them interesting properties."

Consider, for example, fabrics made with Nano-Dry. According to promotional material, the technology bonds to synthetic fibers to make the fabric wick moisture away from the body and evaporate more quickly. L.L. Bean and other retailers now market pants with Nano-Dry, promoting its high-tech ability to keep wearers comfortable.

Researchers at UMass-Lowell envision products much more monumental than high-tech pants. They talk about using nanotechnology to develop drugs that can, for example, attack breast cancer cells without damaging surrounding tissue. It would be a revolutionary improvement in how doctors deliver chemotherapy.

Leaders in both the public and private sectors believe research like that at UMass-Lowell is crucial for advancing economic development in the state.

''The governor is strongly behind efforts to commercialize emerging technologies such as nanotechnology," said Joseph Donovan, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Economic Development. He pointed to Governor Mitt Romney's economic stimulus bill that seeks $100 million for technology research projects at universities in Massachusetts.

The Romney administration also has committed to funding a new building for nanomanufacturing research at the Lawrence Mills site, using money set aside for the site's redevelopment.

Not everyone sees significant, or at least near-term, promise in nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing, however.

''I haven't seen anybody looking at this as a second coming," said Jack Healy, director of operations with the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nonprofit group working with the state's manufacturers to help them become competitive globally.

''Any new application in business, it takes awhile before it's accepted," he added. ''Whatever new technology it is, there's a long gestation period."

In the meantime, work continues at UMass-Lowell. The Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing has about 10 faculty members and 20 graduate students from a half-dozen departments, including plastics engineering, chemistry, biology, and mechanical engineering, developing commercial processes involving nanotechnology.

The Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence is even more diverse, with professors from physics as well as the social sciences and humanities considering the future of nanotechnology. Chen said the university in the next two years plans to hire 10 new faculty members for the center. She said such moves are designed to stimulate more funding to expand the center's research.

For now, though, the researchers are getting the word out in as many ways as they can. They're teaming up with the Museum of Science in Boston to develop displays and presentations to explain nanotechnology. They're putting together lessons to educate schoolteachers on the topic. And they're sponsoring with Northeastern and UNH the third New England International Nanomanufacturing Workshop in June for researchers in private companies as well as academic settings.

They don't want anyone left out of this scientific revolution.