Sappi, one of the world's 20 largest paper producers, is devoting a sizeable proportion of its US$50m/year research effort to examining the future role of nanotechnology in its industry.
Nanotechnology promises to touch almost every aspect of its business, from growing the trees to coating the paper. More significantly, Sappi believes it has the potential to reinvigorate a company operating in a mature industry challenged by high costs and a tough regulatory environment.
In the gold industry, research body Mintek and its industrial partners Harmony Gold, Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti are taking a nanogold project from the laboratory into a pilot manufacturing plant. Mintek is carrying out a feasibility study on constructing a large plant at Rand Refinery to manufacture nano products such as catalysts.
If it looks feasible, work will begin on the plant late in 2007, with completion scheduled for 2009. The plant will manufacture products that will consume 50 t of gold a year.
Such is the potential of nanotechnology that government has recently announced it will make R450m available for nanotech research, infrastructure and project development over the next three years. Focusing this effort is a national nanotechnology strategy that was crafted by industry, labour, scientists and academics in consultation with government.
Nanoscience, the building block of nanotechnology, allows for the manipulation of matter at the atomic level. Atoms are the smallest units of matter. One nanometer is a billionth of a metre, or about the length of 10 hydrogen atoms or five silicon atoms.
The breakthroughs began in 1981 when IBM scientists invented the scanning tunnelling microscope. Previously it was not possible to "see" the atomic world, because its features are smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. This microscope allowed scientists to "see" atoms and molecules for the first time and made it possible to tinker at the atomic level. A whole new world of possibility was opened.
It is the ability to exploit the strange properties found in this very small world that makes nanotechnology so exciting. At this scale ordinary metals and minerals take on radically different properties. Gold, which in bulk is an inert metal, acts as a catalyst in the nanoworld - for example, it can convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. Silver has antimicrobial properties; copper does not conduct electricity; silicon emits light.
Nanotechnology is not a futuristic science with applications 25 years in the future and beyond. In the past 15 years more than a dozen Nobel prizes have been awarded in this field, from the discovery of the scanning probe microscope to the discovery in 1985 of a new, pure form of carbon called buckyballs. Each carbon "ball" is about a billionth of a metre in diameter and extremely resilient - slammed against a steel surface at 27 000 km/h, they bounce off undisturbed. It's the most significant discovery in materials science since high-temperature superconductors.
Nanotechnology is used in paint to make coatings more durable and colour brighter; in plastics to add flexibility and strength; in clothing to create stain-repellent fabrics. Plastic nanocomposite is used in vehicle bumpers, making them 60% lighter and twice as resistant to denting and scratching. Nanocomposite coatings on tennis balls keep them bouncing twice as long as an old-style ball.
Globally, more than 600 companies are active in nanotechnology, from small start-ups backed by venture capital to global giants like IBM and Samsung, according to a report by consulting group CMP Cientifica.
"Governments and companies around the world are ploughing R600bn/year into nanotechnology in the belief that it will usher in a new era of growth and productivity," said deputy science & technology minister Derek Hanekom at the recent launch of government's nanotechnology strategy. "And I'm not just talking about the developed world. India, Brazil, China and now SA have all made commitments to the development of this technology."
SA's strategy comes at a crucial time. From industrial operations like Sasol, Eskom, Plascon and the gold houses to universities like UCT, Stellenbosch and the University of Zululand and research institutions like the CSIR, the Medical Research Council and Mintek, a groundswell of effort is beginning to deliver results.
"It is not that it's a new industry or science," says Mintek senior engineer Daven Compton. "People are simply applying their knowledge of the nanoscale to existing industries - whether it is improved disease detection mechanisms or producing nanoclay particles for the plastics industry. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology rather than an industry in its own right."
Researchers in UCT's physics department have developed a new way to print low-tech electronic circuits onto paper using nano-particles of silicon suspended in an ink. The applications are broad, extending from active packaging with animated pictures to package sensors which change colour when the contents are altered. Other uses are cellphone charging, low-power lighting and water purification.
But it is the potential for low-cost solar energy that is creating particular excitement. "We have four patents pending," says UCT physics professor Margit Harting, "and a lot of international interest. But we are not interested in partnerships. The risk of going too early into an agreement is that we could lose control of the technology."
Wits's engineering department is patenting a process to build carbon nanotubes. Assuming they can scale up their production from grams to kilograms and then tons, and can do so while controlling the type of nanotube they produce, the world becomes their oyster. Wherever strength and weight are a factor - such as in the aerospace and automobile industries - these nanotubes have the potential to make a big difference.
"The development of SA's nanotechnology strategy was a bottom-up effort, jointly driven by industry & academia," says the department of science & technology's energetic GM for frontier programmes Pontsho Maruping. "Government's role is to align these efforts to SA's national imperatives and help to make it happen more quickly."
Government, she says, has twin agendas for nanotechnology. One is social, the other industrial.
On the social front, nanotechnology could lead to improvements in water sanitation, cheaper energy, low-cost electronics and better ways to combat diseases like TB, malaria and HIV/Aids.
On the industrial front, nanotechnology could add enormous value to SA's minerals - gold, titanium, palladium, platinum - once simply exported as raw materials to be transformed by others.
For instance, the catalysis team within Mintek's project AuTek - which was established to develop novel applications for gold and, more recently, for platinum group metals - has come up with technology that could help ease the transition into the hydrogen economy.
Building on the discovery that metal oxide-supported gold catalysts can catalyse carbon monoxide (CO) into carbon dioxide (CO2), it is patenting a process to lower the CO presence within hydrogen fuel cells. "CO is adsorbed onto the platinum catalyst within the hydrogen fuel cell, which prevents it from performing optimally," says AngloGold Ashanti engineer Johan Steyn. "But we need partners skilled in fuel cell systems if we are to commercialise it."
"What we want to achieve," says Mintek GM Roger Paul, "is a fledgling industry that will manufacture products in SA using home-grown technology. We are not underestimating the size of the challenge. Developing a new product based on a new branch of science is not for the faint-hearted."
To achieve this, he says, researchers need science infrastructure and pricey hi-tech tools like high-resolution scanning electron and atomic force microscopes. "We need students who provide creative talent and we need clear market focus that takes advantage of the competitive advantages that do exist so that we can compete against bigger nations. We also need the private sector to act in enlightened self-interest."
Sappi is one company doing just that. "Ours is a mature industry whose survival depends on new products and processes for the 21st century," says Sappi senior research scientist Vinotha Bheem. "Nanotech may be the light this industry has been waiting for."
Indeed, government's support may not have come a moment too soon. Sappi is one of SA's top exporting companies, accounting for 9% of all manufactured goods exported last year. It earned SA R8,8bn in foreign income in 2003 and employs 1% of SA's workforce. But the industry is under pressure. It must address the serious environmental risks and impacts caused by liquid effluents, air emissions, solid waste, heavy resource consumption and recycling.
At the same time the industry must cope with pricing pressures from large retailers and increasing costs of raw materials and energy.
"How can we revitalise this industry?" asks Bheem.
"We started by seeking to promote healthy forests and clean water." Sappi is looking at products that use nanosensors to measure changes in the environment such as moisture levels and temperatures. Nanoparticles and polymers can reduce the cost of treating water. "We can improve recycling through better utilisation of natural resources and by reducing the amount of solid waste, without sacrificing cost and quality. This means we need to find ways to remove ink and contaminant from waste paper and develop a recyclable glue."
Paper-making processes can be improved, says Bheem, by increasing machine efficiency and decreasing energy consumption. Developments in nanosilica and in nanocoatings and additives mean that high-gloss papers can be developed more easily and efficiently. Other materials can be layered onto the underlying paper matrix, creating a product that acts very differently from other papers.
"We have many challenges to overcome," says Bheem, "but the opportunities presented by nanotechnology are too significant to ignore."
And not only for Sappi. As Hanekom puts it: "Assuming we have the correct combination of policy, economics, and research, nanotechnology could be the way to attract investment into this country."
