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FROM THE EDITOR: NANOSENSORS TARGETED AT THE RIGHT MARKETS COULD GENERATE BIG BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES.

Article Excerpt
SBD notes that, in assessing the real market possibilities for nanotechnology-based sensors and related devices, it is vital to focus on key, specific advantages that nanosensors would offer for specific, significant markets and applications. Sensors made of nanomaterials have keen promise for offering an enhanced generation sensing devices that are smaller, consume less power, higher-performing, and less expensive that conventional sensors.

However, we should be careful not to over-dramatize potential near-term impact of this new, potentially powerful technology, and realize that the real-world opportunities for sensors employing advanced nanotechnology materials (e.g., carbon nanotubes) will not fully emerge and unfold overnight, although significant progress is being made in nanosensor fabrication. Further efforts will be required to develop nanosensors based on advanced materials (e.g., carbon nanotubes) that can be readily manufactured in high volume with uniform and repeatable characteristics.

Nanotechnology is enabled by a new generation of microscopes with atomic resolution that allow for exploring the domain of atoms and molecules. Nanotechnology deals with exploiting novel properties (e.g., electrical, physical, chemical) that occur at the nanoscale level to create structures (e.g., functional materials, devices, or systems), atom by atom, with a new molecular organization. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or about 1/80,000th the diameter of a human hair or ten times the diameter of hydrogen atom. Nanotechnology has potential to allow enhanced applications across diverse industries, such as computing, materials and manufacturing, electronics, medical/health care, national security, energy, transportation, and space exploration.

The President's FY 2004 budget provides $847 million for the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a 9.5% increase over the $774 million in funding for FY '03. Significant increases are proposed for the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation (NSF) budgets for NNI activities. NSF continues to have the largest share of U.S. federal nanotechnology funding. Circa 2001, NSF projected that the total market for nanotechnology products and services will reach $1 trillion by 2015.

Sensors represent a most plausible and exciting application area for nanotechnology; and nanosensors based on advanced nanomaterials are expected to emerge in the marketplace in significant volumes over circa the next ten years. Sensors constructed at the molecular scale have promise for being extremely sensitive, selective, and responsive. For example, the U.S. Defense Department has been interested in such sensors for rapidly and accurately detecting small amounts of chemical or biological agents to allow soldiers to defend against chemical or biological attacks. In the medical diagnostics arena, nanotechnology-based sensors could be used,...

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