Volume 7, Issue 3

In an era of dramatic changes, enterprises tend to rely on tracking the main trends of technological evolution to maintain a competitive advantage when confronted with the impact of competing new and old technologies and disruptive innovation. This paper explores the evolution of nanotechnology via an analysis of the patent co-classification from the database at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A total of 518 patents on nanotechnology were analyzed. The trend of nanotechnology and the patents of high betweenness centrality were identified. It was found that the technical classifications of “semiconductor device manufacturing” and “chemistry of inorganic compounds” have the highest potential for future growth. These classifications have shown a stable number of filed patents and have become the mainstream in nanotechnology development since the 1980s. Furthermore, this study also showed that the patents owned by the US comprise a significant portion of the applications in the major technical classifications, which has played an important role in the evolution of nanotechnology. The results demonstrated that an analysis of the patent network can be a useful tool for both understanding and predicting the trend of an emerging technology.

We report the study of nanoporous silica-iron oxide composite generated from diatom frustules as a highly active catalyst for the photodegradation of the dye Rhodamine-6G. The unique architecture and high surface area of diatoms were utilized to immobilize iron oxide on their surface to form the composite. Photodegradation was carried out under 365-nm radiation and was observed using the absorption spectrum of the dye. The reaction was found to follow pseudo-first-order kinetics. The results were compared with commercially available granular iron oxide. The rate constant K (min −1 ) for photodegradation by the diatom composite was found to be as high as 0.0584 min −1 for diatom-FeO x composites, which is 52% higher than 0.0273 min −1 for granular FeO x at a dye concentration of 0.02 m m . The unique structural morphology and the synthetic strategy have led to the composites showing superior activity in the degradation of the dye Rhodamine-6G.

Nanotechnology is a new technology for observing and manipulating atoms and molecules in the range of 0.1–100 nm. The development of nanotechnology provides a new way for biomedicine. Based on the unique physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials, the novel biosensor based on bio-nanotechnology can be used for early diagnosis and therapy of tumors. Nowadays, the application of nanomedicine is mainly focused on the following points: tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, the accurate diagnosis and real-time monitoring of the disease, novel imaging and analysis techniques, and multifunctional drug delivery system and targeting therapy. Nanotechnology will provide effective means for accurate diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This article reviews the new progress of nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

In the field of environmental science, metal oxide nanocomposites have gained a great attention for both theoretical and experimental aspects of their upgradation because of their wide range of practical applications such as catalysts, sensors, hydrogen storages, and optoelectronics. Among all nanocomposites, Copper oxide-zinc oxide (CuO-ZnO) has attracted more research due to their excellent tunable catalytic, electrical, optical, and magnetic properties and environment-friendly nature. Coupling of one metal oxide semiconductor with another metal oxide semiconductor produces an enlarged surface area, which provide more reactive sites, promotes mass transfer, promotes electron transfer, and avoids photo-corrosion of nanocomposites, which enhances its efficiency. The CuO-ZnO nanocomposite has been prepared by various methods such as co-precipitation, sol-gel, wet impregnation, and thermal decomposition. Depending on the preparation method and conditions used, different types of CuO-ZnO nanocomposites like Cu-doped ZnO, Cu supported/impregnated on ZnO, and CuO-ZnO mixed oxides with different morphologies of CuO-ZnO nanocomposites have been obtained. This article reviews the synthesis techniques of the CuO-ZnO nanocomposite and its morphology. Various practical applications of the CuO-ZnO nanocomposites have also been discussed.