中国立志成为纳米技术的全球领先者 – 拉尼.亚卡斯 (Rani Jarkas)

中国的经济在过去三十多年无论在速度上还是在规模上都经历了十分显著的快速转型。然而，中国却并不以先进的科技技术而著称。斯坦福大学的美国亚洲技术管理中心的创新创业方面的专家Richard Dasher博士曾经说过这样的话：“很多围绕亚太地区发展的创业活动都有很大的市场需求，可是那里的人却没有研发出更多先进的技术以确保更大的成功。”

 

可喜的是，中国依靠低技能的模式正在改变。由于中国对纳米技术研究的大量投资以及在纳米技术上公私合营的逐步强化，我估计在未来五到十年内，中国将在该行业的各方面具有极强的竞争力。自1999年以来，中国对纳米技术的投资已经在继美国之后，超越了其他任何国家。中国在纳米技术的研究和开发（R＆D）上的支出每年都上涨大约20％以上。

 

毫无疑问，想要成为纳米科学和纳米技术的全球领导者，一定少不了一场龙虎斗，而中国现大有争霸之势。当前的科技发展状况以及许多相应表征指标的变化都预示着，中国正在迅速远离低附加值的经济活动，在不久的将来，中国会在许多指标上超越其他国家，成为纳米科技领域里的超级大国。

Rani Jarkas, the Chairman of Cedrus Investments.

Rani Jarkas is a highly experienced financial services executive, with over 20 years of international banking experience. Currently, Mr. Jarkas is the Chairman of Cedrus Investments, a global boutique investment firm. Cedrus’ domain expertise is in life sciences, natural resources, energy, cleantech and nanotechnology. – Rani Jarkas

China’s Ambition to Become a Global Leader in Nanotechnology by Rani Jarkas

China’s rapid economic transformation over the last 3 decades has been remarkable both in terms of its speed and scale. However, China is not known for its highly advanced technology manufacturing. “A lot of the entrepreneurial activities around the Asia-Pacific have been great market-needs kinds of things, where people haven’t had to develop a lot of advanced technologies to be successful,” says Dr. Richard Dasher of the US-Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford University.

 

However, this model is slowly shifting. Thanks to heavy investments in nanotech research, public-private partnerships and developments in nanotechnology, I will say within five to ten years China will compete in every part of the industry. China’s investment has already surpassed that of any other country after the US. Since 1999, China’s spending on research and development (R&D) has gone up by more than 20% each year.

 

Hardly surprisingly, there is a race to become the global leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology. China is rapidly moving to reposition itself away from low value adding economic activity, announcing its ambition to become a global leader in nanoscience and technology.

Rani Jarkas, the Chairman of Cedrus Investments.

Rani Jarkas is a highly experienced financial services executive, with over 20 years of international banking experience. Currently, Mr. Jarkas is the Chairman of Cedrus Investments, a global boutique investment firm. Cedrus’ domain expertise is in life sciences, natural resources, energy, cleantech and nanotechnology. – Rani Jarkas

BREIFINGWIRE: Green Nanotechnology in Solar cells by Rani Jarkas

BRIEFINGWIRE: Green Nanotechnology in Solar cells by Rani Jarkas

Rani Jarkas, the Chairman of Cedrus Investments.

Rani Jarkas is a highly experienced financial services executive, with over 20 years of international banking experience. Currently, Mr. Jarkas is the Chairman of Cedrus Investments, a global boutique investment firm. Cedrus’ domain expertise is in life sciences, natural resources, energy, cleantech and nanotechnology. – Rani Jarkas

Green Nanotechnology in Solar cells by Rani Jarkas

Green nanotechnology is the development of clean technologies, “to minimize potential environmental and human health risks associated with the manufacture and use of nanotechnology products, and to encourage replacement of existing products with new nano-products that are more environmentally friendly throughout their lifecycle” As the growing needs to protect our environment are increasing, many scientists are looking into ways to develop clean, affordable, and renewable energy sources, with a smaller environmental footprint and minimise pollution.

Solar Panels

One major project that is being worked on is the development of nanotechnology in solar cells. Solar cells are more efficient as they get tinier and solar energy is a renewable resource. A group of researchers are making solar power significantly more efficient by scooping up more of that wasted energy.

Researchers at Stanford University have found a way to trap light in organic solar cells. The idea is that the longer light is in the solar cell the more electrons will be generated. The researchers found that by making the organic layer much thinner than the wavelength of light and sandwiching the organic layer between a mirror layer and a rough layer the light stayed in the solar cell longer and excited more electrons.

Researchers at Michigan Technological University have developed a honeycomb like structure of graphene in which the graphene sheets are held apart by lithium carbonate. They have used this “3D graphene” to replace the platinum in a dye sensitized solar cell and achieved 7.8 percent conversion of sunlight to electricity.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Lab have demonstrated a solar cell that uses a copper indium selenide sulfide quantum dots. Unlike quantum dots containing lead or cadmium the copper based quantum dot is non-toxic as well as low cost.

A field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) image of 3D honeycomb-structured graphene. [ranijarkas.wordpress.com]

MIT researchers have made major strides toward developing solar cells that are inexpensive, efficient, flexible, and transparent using a design that combines two special components: nanowires and graphene. Tests with assembled solar cells showed that incorporating the nanowires pushed up device efficiency and that there was no performance penalty for replacing a conventional high-cost, brittle electrode with their version made of abundant, inexpensive carbon.

Rani Jarkas, the Chairman of Cedrus Investments.

Rani Jarkas is a highly experienced financial services executive, with over 20 years of international banking experience. Currently, Mr. Jarkas is the Chairman of Cedrus Investments, a global boutique investment firm. Cedrus’ domain expertise is in life sciences, natural resources, energy, cleantech and nanotechnology. – Rani Jarkas