Recent Patents on Nanotechnology - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2013

One-dimensional ternary germanate nanomaterials exhibited wide application potential in the fields of magnetic devices, photocatalysis, sensors and lithium ion batteries owing to their good magnetic, photocatalytic, electrochemical and optical properties. The article reviewed the recent progress and patents on one-dimensional ternary germanate nanomaterials. The recent progress and patents on the synthesis of ternary germanate nanowires, nanorods and nanobelts synthesized by thermal evaporation, hydrothermal method and chemical vapor deposition process were demonstrated. The experimental progress and patents on the application of one-dimensional ternary germanate nanomaterials as magnetic devices, electrochemical sensors, photocatalysis and lithium ion batteries were discussed in detail. Finally, the future development direction of one-dimensional ternary germanate nanomaterials for the synthesis and application was also discussed.

Metal nanoparticles have attracted great interest particularly because of the size dependence of physical and chemical properties and its enormous technological potential. Although most pioneering advancements refers to gold and silver, more recently there is growing interest in nanoparticles of copper, mostly due to its relatively low cost, which could allow the use of these small metal objects in large-scale nanotechnology applications, for example, antiseptics materials and metallic inks. However, the manufacture of copper nanoparticles stable in air with controlled size and shape has been a major challenge because of the relatively high reactivity of this element. Great efforts in getting the basic knowledge and synthesis know-how has gone into finding better ways to produce particles protected against oxidation and selfaggregation under normal conditions. In this review article, we briefly discuss a number of selected papers and recent patents on procedures and other issues related to the fabrication of copper nanoparticles.

This paper provides a literature and patent review on the research and development work contributing to the current status of microsphere generation as an application of nanofluids for drug delivery. The polymer-based microsphere plays an important role to protect protein-based drugs and to deliver the drug to the desired sites. This review covers four microfluidic systems for microsphere generation: membrane emulsification with cross flow, T-junction, hydrodynamic flow focusing and chopper. A discussion on the current state of the arts of the microfluidic systems is addressed, and opportunities for future research are acknowledged.

Magnetic hydrogel nanocomposites and composite nanoparticles form a class of soft materials with remote controllable properties that have attracted great attention due to their potential use in diverse applications. These include medical applications such as controlled drug delivery, clinical imaging and cancer hyperthermia and ecological applications as well, such as wastewater treatment. The present review provides an overview of the patents disclosed and research work developed in the last decade on magnetic hydrogel nanocomposites and magnetic hydrogel composite nanoparticles envisaging the above mentioned applications. In this context, recent patented advances on chemical methods for the preparation of bulk hydrogel nanocomposites and composite nanoparticles will be reviewed.

In recent years, a large number of patents have been devoted to developing minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) grinding techniques that can significantly improve both environmentally conscious and energy saving and costeffective sustainable grinding fluid alternatives. Among them, one patent is about a supply system for the grinding fluid in nano-particle jet MQL, which produced MQL lubricant by adding solid nano-particles in degradable grinding fluid. The MQL supply device turns the lubricant to the pulse drops with fixed pressure, unchanged pulse frequency and the same drop diameter. The drops will be produced and injected in the grinding zone in the form of jet flow under high pressure gas and air seal. As people become increasingly demanding on our environment, minimum quantity lubrication has been widely used in the grinding and processing. Yet, it presents the defect of insufficient cooling performance, which confines its development. To improve the heat transfer efficiency of MQL, nano-particles of a certain mass fraction can be added in the minimum quantity of lubricant oil, which concomitantly will improve the lubrication effects in the processing. In this study, the grinding experiment corroborated the effect of nano-particles in surface grinding. In addition, compared with other forms of lubrication, the results presented that the grinding force, the friction coefficient and specific grinding energy of MQL grinding have been significantly weakened, while G ratio greatly rose. These are attributed to the friction oil-film with excellent anti-friction and anti-wear performance, which is generated nano-particles at the wheel/workpiece interface. In this research, the cooling performance of nano-particle jet MQL was analyzed. Based on tests and experiments, the surface temperature was assayed from different methods, including flood lubricating oil, dry grinding, MQL grinding and nano-particle jet MQL grinding. Because of the outstanding heat transfer performance of nano-particles, the ratio of heat delivered by grinding media was increased, leading to lower temperature in the grinding zone. Results demonstrate that nano-particle jet MQL has satisfactory cooling performance as well as a promising future of extensive application.