Funds for future of nanotechnology

The regional development agency Yorkshire Forward has announced plans to invest £5million in three university centres in the UK to develop micro- and nanotechnology.

The investment is aimed at helping projects with ‘substantial commercial potential’ to move from the development stage to the open market.

The three projects to receive funding are the Nanofactory, located at the University of Leeds and in partnership with the Universities of Bradford and Sheffield, which receives £2.1million to create a ‘nano-manufacturing’ centre focusing on consumer products; the York-JEOL Centre for Nanolithography and Analysis, which receives £1.65million to purchase equipment for an industrial research centre; and the Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre, based at the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford, which receives £1.2million to upgrade equipment for commercial development of polymers and composite materials.

The world demand for nanomaterials is set to reach $90billion by 2020, according to market research from the Freedonia Group. The five-fold increase in demand from 2008 to 2020 reflects an expected explosion in applications for nano-scale material, the report says.

Currently, commercial applications for nanotechnology are limited to tiny particles of metals and oxides, used for wafer polishing, textile treatment and sunscreens, Freedonia says. However, in the next decade, novel nanomaterials such as dendrimers and single-walled carbon nanotubes are expected to account for larger shares of the market, entering applications such as drug delivery systems, water treatment and power generation technologies.