If you are looking for a class with Professor Gretchen Anderson this semester, then you will have to wait. Anderson is taking a break from teaching this semester to design a new freshman level course: N190 Introduction to Nanochemistry. This survey course will have a laboratory component and will be based on a highly successful course developed by Professor George Lisensky at Beloit College. While surveying the remarkable applications of nanochemistry in industry and medical research, students will synthesize their own solar cells (partially from raspberry juice and titanium dioxide), conductive thin films, gold and silver nanoparticles, and a variety of semiconductors. This course will be one of a trio of courses to constitute a Nanoscience concentration as part of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology BS degrees:
Introduction to Nanochemistry (under development - an N190 course)
Nanotechnology (offered Fall 2016 for the first time - an N390 course)
Nanobiomedicine (under development by the Biological Sciences)
Nanobiomedicine (under development by the Biological Sciences)
The nanoscience concentrations in various departments are expected to better serve the campus by introducing current students to this relatively new field - but are also expected to help grow the university by attracting students that otherwise might leave the local area in search of instruction in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Two of the three courses are designated "Natural World" courses to satisfy general education requirements.
Pictured at the top of this post is an artist's rendition of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Each is essentially a sheet of graphene (one-atom thick version of graphite) rolled into a tube. The image is taken from the front page of the Journal Nanomaterial Chemistry and Technology. These nanotubes are remarkable in many ways: stronger than steel and excellent conductors of heat - some of them are even excellent electrical conductors.
