Nanofair® 2002

175 participants from 14 countries gathered on 25th -26th November in Strasbourg for “NanoFair® 2002“. The aim of the conference, which was accompanied with an exhibition and poster presentation, was to bring together researchers and representatives of industry and medium sized businesses in order to support application orientated cooperation and to develop the exploitation of the economic potential of the rapidly growing nanotechnology.

This first symposium in the series was organised by the network of competence for materials of nanotechnology (NanoMat) with headquarters at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), the Dresden based competence network for ultrathin functional layers, the VDI and the Agencies for Economic Development of the cities Karlsruhe and Dresden. Further support was from the “Association de développement du Bas-Rhin“ and the Universities of Strasbourg and Mulhouse.

The main focus of the event lay in the 18 lectures which spanned the current status of research, the possibilities already apparent and applications in use. It was a priority at NanoFair® to introduce small and medium sized enterprises to the wide variety of applications of nanotechnology some of which are available now and many more can be expected in the future.

The theme of current and future applications wove like a red thread through the event: from the current use of superhard carbon layers for raser blades to prospective novel storage media on the basis of molecular switches.

Dr. Ralf Anselmann of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, reported on applications in the area of life science. Cosmetic products based on nanoparticles make wrinkles on skin invisible. They fill the folds and so reduce the reflection of light, they must also however correspond to the natural reflection and colour of the skin. This is achieved by the use of silicon particles which are coated with titanium dioxide and iron oxide. Conventional silicon pigments would be visible by the human eye as a white film. Nanoparticles of silica or zinc oxide are an effective ingredient of sun creams.

Degussa AG works closely in its research projects with universities. Dr. Andreas Gutsch gave an overview of the many and varied methods for the synthesis of nanomaterials. These have a wide range of applications from paper coating for brilliant inkjet-printouts to tumour treatments.

In the exhibition Dr. Stefan Walheim (FZK, Institute for Nanotechnology) presented, on the NanoMat Stand, an anti-reflection coating for synthetic and glass surfaces which by the simplest of hand made processes reduces the reflection off surfaces by a factor of eight. A process for the future low cost but highly useful which could be developed for use for example in solar cell technology.

After its successful launch NanoFair® will now take place annually. This year it will take place 23rd -24th November in the Karlsruhe Congress Centre.