Nanoscale advantages

Experiments have been carried out to compare nanoscale catalysts composed of Fe-, Ni-, and Co-complexes of several porphyrins or cyanocobalamin (Dror et al. 2005). A cobalt-porphyrin complex and cyanocobalamin in the presence of Ti(III)citrate reduced the initial concentrations of tetrachloromethane and tetrachloroethene by —99.5%, and the porphyrin was equally effective with trichloroethene. The advantage of using heterogeneous catalysts was shown by experiments in repetitive cycling of tetrachloromethane. Zero-valent metals degrade vicinal dichlorides such as tetrachloroethene by a-elimination to produce dichloroacetylene and hnally acetylene (Roberts et al. 1996). 

UE provides an important potential advantage beyond small size. The excited states in Si-based electronics decay by phonons, and thus a huge heat dissipation problem faces nanoscale inorganic electronics at DR = 3 nm. In contrast, UE devices may be able to decay from their excited states by photon emission [15]. If the photon decay channel can be maximized, UE devices will have a great heat advantage over inorganic ones. 

In this chapter, we have attempted to describe broadly the advantages available from the use of planar nanophotonic devices as biomolecular detectors. We have reviewed the state of the art in these devices and described a few technical challenges involved in improving these devices. In the context of these challenges, we have introduced our Nanoscale Optofluidic Sensor Arrays which represents our attempt to address them. 

CNTs have recently received extensive attention due to their nanoscale dimensions and outstanding materials properties. Integration of CNTs and proteins can gain more advantages over CNTs or proteins and can reahze novel, specific functions. Therefore, functionalization of CNTs with proteins own broad application prospects. 

Bioactive-peptide-functionalized CNTs can cause strong anti-peptide immunological responses in mice, no cross-reactivity against CNTs was detected (Pantarotto et al., 2003 Salvetat et al., 2006). Employing fully the advantages of CNTs and proteins may fabricate a lot of nanomotor or nanoscale machinery with unique function. 

Synthesis of solid state materials using surfactant molecules as template has been extensively used in this decade. Among the advantages of the use of amphiphilic molecules, the self-assembling property of the surfactants can provide an effective method for synthesising ceramic and composite materials with interesting characteristics, such as nanoscale control of morphology, and nano or mesopore structure with narrow and controllable size distribution [1-5]. 

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