ThinkQuest Questionnaire

Tell us some general information about yourself/your job.

(President: CG2 NanoCoatings Inc., Canada)

We are a research and development company, focused on advanced coatings that use nanotechnology. We also have a few other related technologies that we are developing. I am the President of the company and my roles are, together with my colleagues, to develop and implement the overall strategic direction of the company, and to identify new markets for our technologies.

How would you define nanotechnology?

The utilization of chemistry. physics and biology methods at the scale of nanometers, which is the smallest size at which matter preserves its identity.

Is there anything that you can tell us about your work in the field of nanotechnology?

We are focused on developing coatings for a wide variety of applications, based on nanotechnology, which includes not only the use of nanoparticles, but also the handling of chemical groups at the nanoscale level.

If you only had a few sentences to explain the usefulness and importance of nanotechnology to the general public, what would you say?

The use of nanotechnology will be at the core of many different types of technologies and will result in new products and improvements on existing products.

What reasonable advances do you think we (the world) will make in the field of nanotechnology in the next 10 years? 20 years? 50?

In 10 years: the development of commercially-available, at a large scale, of products and/or technologies, based on nanoscale phenomena. Right now, there are many, but relatively few that are commercially successful.

In 20 years: the development of medicines and chemicals for health purposes, based on nanotechnology.

In 50 years: the development of bio-nanotechnological devices, that is, systems that combine synthetic nanosystems with bacteria, viruses, fungi and other natural nanoscale organisms.

What are some of the top challenges in the field of nanotechnology right now?

Developing the necessary raw materials (e.g. chemicals and nanoparticles) with the variety and prices needed by researchers and engineers to support commercially successful end products. Currently, most of these raw materials are still scarce, hard to obtain and expensive.

What are some research projects (and applications) that your department is currently working on?

We are working on various types of coatings such as for easy removal of dried paint, anti-icing, anti-stain, etc. We are also working on a technology to make polymers stronger using a renewable source of the reinforcement material.

Our web site [http://www.cg2nanocoatings.com] contains more information on our technologies.

What areas of science should people study if they want to go into nanotechnology?

Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Applied Mathematics.

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