The stone and solid surface industry is starting to be bombarded with what manufactures claim is a breakthrough in chemistry. This breakthrough is nanotechnology, or is it? With a background in chemistry, I decided to delve head first into these claims and see if these products are for real, or is it just another marketing gimmick. This article will explore both the pros and cons, as well as present the facts about nano products.
Before we can discuss the pros and cons we must first define what nanotechnology is.
Nanotechnology is the science of working with atoms and molecules on a nano scale. OK, so what is a nano, or more correctly a nanometer? A nano is extremely small, so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. One nano is one billionth of a meter. This is so small it is kind of hard to visualize, but here are some examples that might help.
– There are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch.
– A sheet of newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers
– If a marble were a nanometer than one meter would be the size of the earth.
So, in other words, very, very, very, very small. Products made with true nanotechnology involve manipulating these atoms and molecule to improve products.
Is nanotechnology new? The concept behind nanotechnology was first introduced in a talk in 1959 titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at the California Institute of Technology. However, the term “nanotechnology” was coined by Professor Norio Taniguchi. It was impossible to see individual atoms under a microscope until 1981 with the invention of the Scanning Tunnel microscope. An interesting fact is that nanotechnology was used in the making of stained glass in medieval times. Although they had no idea they were using nanotechnology, they were trapping gold and silver into the stained glass to give it some of its colors. What make nanotechnology new is the way atoms can be manipulated with today’s emerging technologies.
So, are these so called products in the industry really using nanotechnology? The answer is simple. It is hard to tell. I could not find any government regulation, law etc. that requires certification or proof that there products are made using nanotechnology techniques. Does it really matter? If the product works and does what it is advertised to do, then I guess it doesn’t matter.With that said, there are some pros and cons of nanotechnology in general.
Pros
In addition to things like creating jobs and economic improvement, the main pro, or benefit to the stone and solid surface industry, is improved sealers and cleaners that work more efficiently.
Cons
The main concern among the experts is the fact that these nano particles can be toxic. Since this technology is new, there are a lot of unknowns.
Nano technology may also be used to manufacture engineered stone, solid surface, etc. To my knowledge, I am not sure this is being done yet. But it is possible.
So, are nanotechnology products for our industry hype, or for real? I’ll let you be the judge.