Gigantic Fuss Over a Teensy Topic: Nanotechnology is the Focus of Attention at a Penn Science Fair.

Oct 25, 03:37 AM

Current Headlines: By Dan Hardy, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Oct. 25--Until 25 years ago, when a new kind of microscope allowed scientists to see molecule-size objects more clearly, nanotechnology -- which deals with particles a billionth of a meter or smaller -- was more the stuff of science fiction than of science.

Now it is the subject of high school science projects.

Yesterday, at the University of Pennsylvania's NanoDay@Penn 2007, designed to promote the university's work in nanotechnology and encourage the next generation of scientists, 20 students from 14 Pennsylvania and New Jersey high schools showed off award-winning science projects.

To the delight of organizers, two involved nanotechnology.

"Three years ago, when we started this, nobody had nanoscale in their projects," said James McGonigle, the programs coordinator for the university's three-year-old Nano/Bio Interface Center, a National Science Foundation-sponsored interdisciplinary program. To get an idea of how small nano-size particles are, he said, it helps to know that a human hair is 50,000 to 80,000 nanometers wide.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.

Nanotechnology is important, McGonigle said, because whatever field of science today's high school students enter, "they're going to bump up against nanotechnology somewhere. It will be a huge economic driver for the future. . . . This is an exciting area. It can invigorate science education today the way space exploration did in the 1960s."

Certainly the experiments by Pavel Gogotsi, 17, a senior at Council Rock High School North in Bucks County, hold that kind of promise -- if they ever prove to be commercially feasible.

Gogotsi used nanometer-size carbon particles in his experiments with supercapacitors -- electronic components that can hold and release a relatively large electrical charge. There are hopes, he said, that supercapacitors, which can be recharged indefinitely without wearing out, can replace batteries. The process he worked on is being patented, he said, and "once we get a really good method of creating them, we want to get a manufacturer involved."

All the students work with college advisers. Gogotsi worked with John Chmiola, a Drexel University graduate student. His father, Yury Gogotsi, directs the college's nanotechnology program.

Franz Sauer, 17, a senior at High Technology High School, a math, science and technology public school in Monmouth County, N.J., developed a theoretical model for a device that would help focus ion-beam microscopes. The microscopes are used to work with nano-size objects.

Sauer said he enjoyed "physics at nano scale. It's a lot more interesting, more challenging" than other fields.

He said he hoped to patent his device if it worked. So far, he said, his experiments have been only computer models because "a focused ion-beam microscope costs about $1.5 million, and they wouldn't let me take one apart."

Contact staff writer Dan Hardy

at 610-701-7638 or dhardy@phillynews.com.

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