By Diane Heldt
Staff Writer

An Iowa State University professor has received a $257,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop technologies for making incredibly specialized machines that are smaller than a piece of dust.

Joshua Otaigbe, an assistant professor of materials science engineering and chemical engineering, has begun preliminary work on the project with the three-year NSF grant. Otaigbe's research grew out of a collaboration between Otaigbe and scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

With the NSF grant, Otaigbe will attempt to produce, characterize and model the structures and properties of polymer nanoparticles - very, very small particles that are made from plastic. Polymer nanotechnology

is the science of developing tools and machines that arc no larger than a single molecule.

"The implications of highly specialized machines smaller than a piece of dust is astounding" be said. "They will have as big an impact on our lives as transistors did 40 years ago."

Otaigbe has been working on a method for using micro-droplets of an evaporating polymer solution that dries to form the nanoparticles. A scientist could put chemicals or machines on the inside or the outside of the particles to use in different applications, he said.

"It's a very exciting area of research that is new and evolving:' he said. "There is a need to constantly reduce the size of products and engineering materials out there. The smaller the size, the easier it is to engineer and use, the easier it is to control."

The technology could have broad applications in many areas, including the medical field, Otaigbe said.

"We feel that the first major application could be for medical treatments:' he said. "You could use a very, very small particle containing the actual medical treatment that you need and put it into the body to perform its role."

Otaigbe has filed a patent application on the micro-droplet technique. He is hoping the NSF funding will allow him to improve on that technique and get a fundamental understanding of the nature and behavior of the particles.

"Only by having that understanding can we use it for useful applications," he said. "Mere is a lot of interest in trying to make nanoparticles useful, because they are not commercially available right now."