“I want to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing simultaneously… The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle, that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are too big.”
— Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize Physicist
When Feyman conceptualized the earliest origins of nanotechnology, he meant building things from the tiniest or atomic level and up. The technology grew with the passage of time and left the realms of fiction. Today, nanotechnology is a reality with many applications.
The advancement in nanotechnology covers the protective coatings industry. Last year, an Italian paint manufacturer bagged the prize for their nanotechnology work on protective coatings. Their development of superpolymers and coatings based on a nanotechnology patent resulted to anti-corrosive fire-resistant paints. Their products are based on nano-clay composites with excellent barrier properties. Nano-clay is one area of nanotechnology that promises cost-effective applications. The products are in production and will hit the market this 2010.
The nanotechnology-developed anti-corrosion formulations are expected to be heavily used in the construction and marine industries, where heavy machinery painting applications require the highest performance in protective coatings. Another nano-clay-based range of products will be used in the oil and energy industries, in the form of protective coatings resistant to thermal fluctuations.
