Properties

This module is aimed at year 9-10 students and can be used as a broad introduction to nanotechnology. In it, the bulk properties (classical effects) of materials are compared with the properties at the nanoscale (quantum effects). This comparison highlights the way in which materials acquire new, improved and/or different properties at the nanoscale and how these new properties are leading to the creation of new products and applications.

Module Overview

Students will be led through a number of activities and experiments, which will expose them to the idea that the same material as a nanoscale particle acquires new/better properties. Most of the experiments are traditional ones, however they have been carefully chosen to highlight “cool nanoscience”

• Module Guide Word (96kb)

• Module Presentation Powerpoint (3.1mb)

Activity 1: Bulk Properties

In order to appreciate what happens to the properties of materials at the nanoscale, students need to have an understanding of bulk properties. In the first activity they will research 10 elements that are used extensively in nanotechnology. Most of these are key players in science research and have been introduced in the AccessNano modules.

• Activity Guide Word (292kb)

• Activity Word (128kb)

Students also watch a teacher demonstration (Experiment 1) of burning a nail versus burning steel wool to provide them with a visual comparison of how size effects the properties of a material.

Activity 2: Surface area of cubes

The behaviour of nanoparticles is related to their small size. To help students realise how and why properties change dramatically at the nanometre scale, they look at how a reduction in size is related to an increase in surface area through a mathematical Excel activity.

• Activity Guide Word (56kb)

• Activity Word (52kb)

• Excel Work Sheet Excel (44kb)

Experiment 2: Effect of Surface Area

This is followed by an experiment where students dissolve a sugar cube and the equivalent mass of sugar crystals to see what happens to the rate of dissolution.

• Experiment Guide Word (60kb)

• Experiment Word (56kb)

Experiment 3: Making Gold Nanoparticles

How properties change a the nanoscale is again highlighted in the third experiment, where students make gold nanoparticles and experience first hand that gold is not in fact yellow, but changes colour depending on its size.

• Experiment Guide Word (64kb)

• Experiment Word (60kb)

Experiment 4: Making Ferrofluid

In a final experiment, students make “ferrofluid”, a colloidal suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles. Ferrofluids respond to an external magnetic field, enabling the solution's location to be controlled through the application of a magnetic field. This again highlights to students a change in properties at the nanoscale.

• Experiment Guide Word (68kb)

• Experiment Word (56kb)