Zat kimia yang dikenal dengan nama nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) dahulu kala hanya digunakan dalam pembuatan microchip, dengan kuantitas yang kecil dan tidak berbahaya. Akan tetapi pada tahun ini, NF3 dibuat besar-besaran karena dan digunakan pada indutri pembuatan LCD (Liquid Crystal Displays) pada telvisi layar datar dan monitor komputer. Diperkirakan, pada tahun 2010 produksi NF3 mencapai 8.000 ton per tahun, efek pemanasan global yang ditimbulkan dari NF3 sebanyak itu setara dengan 130 juta meter kubik CO2.

“Seiring dengan permintaan akan monitor layar datar, pasar NH3 akan semakin membesar,” tulis Michael J. Prathrt dan Juno Hsu, peneliti yang menyebut NH3 sebagai “missing greenhouse gas”.

NF3 pada mulanya diperkenalkan dalam pembuatan microchip sebagai bagian dari gerakan penanggulangan pemanasan global. Pada tahun 1997, pembuatan microchip masih menggunakan Perflorocarbons (PFCs) kemudian penggunaan PFCs dilarang setelah draft perjanjian internasional Protocol Kyoto ditandatangani. Perjajian tersebut berisi kesepakatan internasional untuk mengurangi produksi 6 gas penyebab utama pemanasan global yakni Carbon dioxide, Methane, PFCs, Nitrous oxide, Hydrofluorocarbons dan Sulfur hexafluoride. Karena pada masa itu produksi NF3 masih dalam kuantitas kecil, NF3 dianggap tidak terlalu penting untuk dituliskan didalam Protocol Kyoto.

Setelah keluar larangan penggunaan PFCs, industri pembuatan semikonduktor memutuskan untuk menggunakan NF3 sebagai pengganti PFCs walaupun telah diketahui bahwa NF3 memberikan efek pemanasan global yang jauh lebih berbahaya. Akan tetapi berita baik yang mereka kemukakan adalah apabila pada masa pembuatan PFCs dua pertiganya lepas ke atmosfer sebagai gas rumah kaca sedangkan pada pembuatan NF3 hanya 2 persen saja dari proses pembuatannya gas tersebut terlepas ke atmosfer.

Peneliti lain menambahkan, walaupun dalam proses pembuatan hanya sebagian kecil saja NF3 yang terlepas, masih ada kemungkinan lain NF3 terbebas ke udara misalnya pada proses trasportasi, penggunaan atau pembuangan. “Kita tidak tahu apakah 1 persen atau 20 persen gas NF3 yang terbebas keudara, tapi sekali kita melepaskannya, kita tidak akan pernah bisa mengurungnya kembali.”

Sumber:
LA times
Natural News

Metamaterial hasil penelitian tim metamaterial UC Berkeley pimpinan Zhang

Masih ingat dengan jubah gaib Harry Potter? Jubah warisan ayah penyihir asal Inggris tersebut menjadi ajaib karena kemampuannya menjadikan si pemakai jubah tidak keliatan. Sekarang, jubah gaib tidak lagi hanya ada dalam khayalan. Para peneliti telah mengembangkan metamaterial, bahan yang dapat membelokkan cahaya sehingga memungkinkan pemakai jubah ‘menghilang’ dalam udara.

Untuk pertama kalinya, tim peneliti University of California, Berkeley membuat metamaterial tersebut dalam struktur tiga dimensi. Material sejenis yang dikembangkan sebelum ini baru sanggup dibuat dalam struktur dua dimensi yang sangat tipis dan hanya dapat dibuktikan melalui pada riset laboratorium.

Metamaterial adalah material-material buatan yang tidak tersedia dalam alam. David Stubbe dalam artikelnya pada Berkeley Science Review menganalogikan material biasa sebagai bongkahan semen seukuran Manhattan, yang terbuat dari substansi-substansi yang kurang lebih sama. Lalu ia membandingkan dengan Manhattan yang sebenarnya sebagai metamaterial, di mana bongkaan semen tersebut disusun kembali menjadi bangunan dengan stuktur tata kota tertentu. Walaupun sama-sama terdiri dari semen, sebuah kota dengan gedung pencakar langit memiliki substruktur yang lebih kompleks dari bongkahan semen. Sebagai hasilnya, karakteristik keduanya juga berbeda.

Dengan mengganti semen dengan tembaga dan bangunan dengan kumparan dan kawat, kemudian menyusutkannya menjadi sekitar sepermilyar, itulah dasar dari metamaterial. Substruktur dari metamaterial (pengaturan dan ukutan kumparan dan kawat) itulah yang krusial. Ketika gelombang cahaya atau gelombang suara melalui struktur tersusun yang jauh lebih kecil daripada panjang gelombangnya (jarak antara satu gelombang dengan yang lainnya), gelombangg melewati stuktur tersebut seolah-olah struktur tersebut sama, tetapi dengan properties yang berbeda dari material konstituen. Pada akhirnya, gelombang tidak mengetahui adanya substruktur yang terpisah dan ‘melihat’ material yang sama sekali baru.

Metamaterial yang dikembangkan dalam komando Prof. Xiang Zhang ini membiarkan gelombang radio dan cahaya yang mengenainya untuk terus mengalir, bukannya dipantulkan. Seperti aliran air di sekitar batuan yang menonjol di permukaan sungai. Cahaya yang jatuh di atasnya selalu dibelokkan sehingga tak pernah memantul. Oleh karena itu, bayangan si pemakai jubah berbahan metamaterial ini seperti tidak terlihat oleh mata. Sesuai hukum fisika, benda hanya terlihat oleh mata jika terdapat cahaya yang dipantulkan benda dan jatuh ke retina mata.

Jika dikonstruksikan dengan benar, metamaterial dapat mencapai indeks refraksi negatif. Saat gelombang elektromagnetik seperti cahaya bergerak dari indeks medium yang rendah ke indeks medium yang lebih tinggi, gelombang tersebut belok menuju garis perpendikuler ke permukaan. Namun, juka cahaya memasuki material berindeks negatif, gelombang berbelok ke arah yang berlawanan, seolah-olah dipantulkan diluat garis perpendikuler.

Dalam studi yang telah dipublikasikan pada majalah Nature, tim ini membelokkan sinar merah menggunakan stack yang terdiri dari 21 layer yang terbuat dari perak dan magnesium florida yang berbentuk jaring ikan. Masing-masing layer memiliki ketebalan sekitar 10 nanometer.

Sumber:
http://www.kompas.com/read/xml/2008/08/11/22463024/jubah.menghilang.segera.menjadi.kenyataan
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/08/11_light.shtml
http://sciencereview.berkeley.edu/articles.php?issue=11&article=briefs_5

Tennis racquet. Nanotechnology now has its own position in tennis racquets. The carbon nanotubes racquets are five times more rigid than current carbon racquets.

Racquets

The earliest racquets used in tennis were made of wood which caused a number of inconsistency problems such as the wood warping and the use of different woods in racquets making a different feel when striking the ball. Early designs used metals in their new designs many companies experimented with metals such as aluminum, magnesium and titanium. Then many companies experimented with materials such as boron, ceramics, graphite and composites. Each material had its own desirable qualities but ceramics and graphite were the best picks for being very stiff as well as being very good with vibration reduction. And now nanotechnology now has its own position in tennis racquets. The carbon nanotubes racquets are five times more rigid than current carbon racquets and enhance the performance for the stabilizers between the sweetspot and racquet handle.

Strings

The earliest tennis strings were made from cow intestines – which is now called natural gut – a very reliable string but very expensive. With time and increasing technology manufacturers have been trying to duplicate the natural gut feel with synthetic materials. Also, manufacturers are creating strings that are designed to produce more spin and power as well as making the string more durable.

Tennis balls.

Balls

Originally the ball consisted of crude cloth strips tightly bound together. Eventually the cloth strips became the core, wrapped in twine and covered by a finer cloth or felt hand-stitched around it. In 1972 the tennis ball was manufactured with the optic yellow felt. Now tennis balls are mass produced for high performance at minimal costs.

Apparels

Even though tennis does not really require a high-technology apparels as it doesn’t really concern the human body’s aerodynamics, tennis shirts and skirts are quite important for the sake of comfort. Today’s tennis shirts and tennis skirts are made of polymers such as polyester, polyvinyl chloride, nylon, elastane, and some other synthetic materials. Those materials are marketed with a brand of Lycra(r), Nylon(r), and some other famous sport wear material brands.

Amazing, huh? It is very impressive how chemical and material engineering influence the development of sports. Boron, ceramics, graphite, composites, polymers, optics, and nanotechnology! Well, we guess those terms are now not as scientific as it seems.

Reference: Wikipedia, TennisPlaza, Tennis Warehouse

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Natural gas rig: While the natural gas exploration and production industry seems to be not very innovative, nanotechnology might be applied to improve the efficiency of extraction of a wide variety of hydrocarbon fuel compounds and chemical feedstocks.

In a wake-up call for the natural gas industry, Saeid Mokhatab and Brian Towler of the University of Wyoming warn that ignoring the potential of nanotechnology to revolutionize the business could be an enormous missed opportunity.

First, let we discuss about nanotechnology itself.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Nanotechnology is the science of the very small, of the properties of structures and materials at the molecular level. Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range. It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science, device physics, supramolecular chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering.

How could nanotechnology revolutionize the natural gas industry?

Nanotechnology could revolutionize the natural gas industry across the whole lifecycle from extraction to pollution reduction or be an enormous missed opportunity, claim two industry experts writing in nanotechnology could revolutionize the natural gas industry. They suggest that nanotechnology could help us extract more fuel and feedstock hydrocarbons from dwindling resources. However, they recognize that the oil and gas exploration and production industry is not very innovative. If the sector doesn’t accept the idea that nanotechnologies can help them to face their increasing technical challenges, this could represent a missed opportunity to improve the industry, both for exploration and production.

Carbon nanotube: This animation of a rotating carbon nanotube shows its 3D structure. [Wikipedia]

They said that the industry had been slow to understand the potential benefits offered by the wide range of nanostructured materials developed over the past decade. In their study, the researchers complain the industry’s lack of innovation in exploration and production coupled with a perception of high costs, new risks and a general lack of awareness of the benefits of nanotechnology.

So what would be the benefits of using nanotechnologies during the exploration process?

They point out that nanomaterials, such as nanotubes or engineered porous minerals, might be used in gas fields or other sources to improve the efficiency of extraction of a wide variety of hydrocarbon fuel compounds and chemical feedstocks. Nanomaterials could be used to develop new absorbents and membranes to assist in the separation and capture of carbon dioxide and other contaminants such as hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen from natural gas. Sensors based on certain nanomaterials could be used to detect leaks in natural gas plant, while adding another kind of nanomaterials to mud would help to maintain the stability of well bores during drilling for gas.

What about the production of natural gas?

Similarly, related nanomaterials might be used to improve purification and storage of hydrocarbons, while yet other nanomaterials might be used in environmental remediation, allowing contaminated sites to be cleaned up of harmful pollutants. Nanomaterials might even be developed as corrosion inhibitors for equipment and at the same time, more sophisticated nanotechnology could be developed as solid-state gas sensors for air pollution monitoring.

Imagine this! With 15,342 atoms, this parallel-shaft speed reducer gear is one of the largest nanomechanical devices ever modeled in atomic detail. [Nanorex Inc.]

How about the future use of nanotechnology by the natural gas industry?

Yeah,, the researchers are quite enthusiastic about that. Why? Because, the past decade has seen explosive growth worldwide in the synthesis and study of a wide range of nanostructured materials, the building blocks of nanotechnology. Investigations of mechanical, chemical, electrical, magnetic, and optical behavior of nanostructured materials have demonstrated the possibilities to engineer the properties of these new materials for a wide range of applications.

Well,, it’s a challenge for us as a chemical engineer.. Hope that nanotechnology really could revolutionize the natural gas industry..

Anyway, since we are talking about nanotechnology, let’s get into the main idea of nanotechnology. Do you believe that nanomachinery will be exist in the future? Imagine tools and equipments within nanometer sizes.. and even the whole chemical plant will be in nanometer.. a nanoplant?

Reference(s): Wikipedia, Nanorex Inc., crnano.org