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People
 In
this month’s interview, Nanotech Briefs
talks with Dr. Krishna Doraiswamy, planning manager
for corporate research and development at DuPont.
During his 20+ years with DuPont, Dr. Doraiswamy
has been engaged in the development and commercialization
of new technology in new business domains. In
addition to various assignments in marketing,
strategic planning, and business development,
Dr. Doraiswamy played a leadership role in establishing
several early-stage business ventures within DuPont,
including DuPont Photonics Technologies, Qualicon,
and DuPont Holographic Materials.
Nanotech
Briefs: Why is nanotechnology such
an important field of study?
Dr.
Krishna Doraiswamy: By understanding
how materials behave at these length scales, and
by learning how to make, control, and organize
them, we can offer new degrees of freedom in designing
and delivering innovative products. For example,
we can create new materials and enhance known
materials, develop and exploit new functional
properties, and enter new applications that are
unique, relevant to market needs, and deliver
very high value to the user. At the same time,
it is important to use good scientific methods
to study and understand the potential safety,
health, and environmental risks associated with
nanoscale materials to ensure the responsible
commercialization of new technologies that emerge
in this space.
NB:
What needs to be accomplished in order to make
nanotechnology more commercially viable?
Dr.
Doraiswamy: What we loosely call “nanotechnology” really covers an enormous and highly dissimilar
array of different technology platforms and applications,
some of which have already been commercial for
many years.
Nanoscale
science and engineering offer innovators a greatly
expanded set of tools and building blocks for
creating solutions to commercially relevant problems.
However, widespread commercial use of any particular
nanotechnology will depend on its ability to create
value in the specific context. The two ends of
the spectrum are the following:
1)
Where incorporation of a nanoscale feature is
a simple drop-in to an existing technology package,
commercialization can be relatively quick. In
most cases, the contribution of the nanocomponent
will be incremental, and the economic justification
will be tough. To be competitive with other ways
of solving the same problem, the nano-based solution
has to offer a unique advantage that makes it
the method of choice (a compelling combination
of functional performance, reliability, cost,
quality, etc.).
2)
For the most exciting applications, nanoscale
science and engineering is truly enabling in that
we can do things that couldn’t be done before.
However, in such cases, many new things typically
have to converge to create success. For example,
where new manufacturing methods need to be developed,
applications technology needs to be scaled up
and optimized, and/or regulatory approvals are
needed, it could be years to a decade or more
to take a concept from the lab to the marketplace.
NB:
What products has DuPont already developed and
commercialized utilizing nanotechnology?
Dr.
Doraiswamy: DuPont and other companies
have products on the market today that incorporate
nano-scale features, though they were generally
commercialized before nanotechnology became a
common descriptor. For example, CMP slurries routinely
incorporate colloidal silica with nanoscale particle
sizes. Ink jet inks incorporate nanoscale carbon
black and pigment dispersions.
I should emphasize that at DuPont we are not interested
in pursuing nanotechnology for its own sake, but
only in the context of how we can use what we
know to create value. We are organized in our
research by projects focused on specific customer
needs and markets, some of which will benefit
from our ability to apply nanoscale science and
engineering. Where this benefit is not clear,
we will use other tools in our integrated science
portfolio.
NB:
Do you see the fate of nanotechnolgy differing
from the rise and fall of the dot-com industry?
Dr.
Doraiswamy: As I mentioned earlier, nanotechnology
is a loose descriptor touching a multitude of
different business and technology arenas. It can,
therefore, be misleading to speak of the business
of nanotechnology. If investors lose sight of
the complexity of this space, they may not discriminate
between good ideas and bad ones. I believe this
fact is becoming more widely recognized, and I
am optimistic that we won’t see a tech bubble
driven by a nanotechnology fad.
Find
out more about DuPont’s research in nanotechnology
by contacting Dr. Doraiswamy at:
krishna.c.doraiswamy@usa.dupont.com
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