Argonne Scientists Reveal Nanofilter and Nanofabrication Process for High Porosity Polymer Nanofilters

Argonne National Laboratory Nanofilter

Image Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Collaborative users from Creatv MicroTech, Inc. and Los Alamos National Laboratory, working with Argonne National Laboratory Center for Nanoscale Materials' (CNM) Nanofabrication & Devices Group, have demonstrated a novel fabrication process that produces high-porosity polymer nanofilters with smooth, uniform and straight pores and high aspect ratios.

The goal of nanopatterning research at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) is to provide nanofabrication support to all CNM scientific groups and to develop new nanofabrication techniques. The tool set includes state-of-the-art electron-beam nanopatterning, focused-ion-beam nanopatterning, nanoimprint, optical lithography, and advanced pattern transfer and thin-film deposition and synthesis capabilities.

Nanofilters have a wide range of applications for various size-exclusion-based separations in bioseparation and nanomedicine, such as laboratory assays, removing bacteria and viruses, drug delivery devices, implants, and sieving of nanoscale materials.

The manufacturing process uses electron-beam lithography and energetic neutral atom beam lithography and epitaxy (ENABLE) techniques. This technique allows for the fabrication of ordered hole arrays of a predetermined size and shape with high density. The method has the potential to produce a new generation of high-precision, high-porosity, bio-compatible filters with pore sizes down to 100 nanometers.

Further information:
O.V. Makarova, C-M. Tang, P. Amstutz, R. Divan, A. Imre, D.C. Mancini, M. Hoffbauer, and T. Williamson, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 27, 2585-2587 (2009)

University of Wisconsin-Madison Researchers Receive $10.1 Million Grant to Develop Aluminum and Magnesium Nanocomposites

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded a $10.1 million, five-year grant to an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineering professor Xiaochun Li. The researchers are working to implement nanotechnology into the traditional casting industry, which could yield high-quality aluminum and magnesium nanocomposites in the next five years.

The grant is from the NIST Technology Innovation Program, which has announced support for 20 innovative projects in new technologies that address critical national needs.

The UW-Madison project, titled "Transformational Casting Technology for Fabrication of Ultra-High Performance Lightweight Aluminum and Magnesium Nanocomposites," will yield a new casting technology for commercial-scale production of aluminum and magnesium matrix nanocomposites.

Writing in support of the project, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle noted the potential benefit of Li's work for manufacturers.

"Wisconsin is one of the most important manufacturing states in the United States and is an historical leader in the metal casting industry for a diverse range of applications," Doyle writes. "Nanotechnology, a field where UW-Madison is a recognized leader, provides opportunities to develop new materials and processes that will help our metal-casting industry remain competitive in existing markets and allow us to develop new global markets where the strength and weight advantages of nanocomposites will be advantageous."

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to lightweight aluminum and magnesium alloys, which have better performance and energy efficiency than iron and steel. The lighter alloys can be reinforced with nanoparticles, usually ceramic, which significantly enhances the material properties. However, because nanoparticles are difficult to disperse evenly in materials, their use in the casting industry is not widespread.

It is especially challenging for researchers to disperse and stabilize nanoparticles in molten metals (or melts) because most melts have a large surface-to-volume ratio and are unable to maintain contact with the solid nanoparticle surfaces (a quality known as poor wettability). The result is the nanoparticles clump together.

In the last six years, Li's lab has developed an experimental technique that uses high-intensity ultrasonic waves to disperse the nanoparticles through the melts. The waves cause the formation, growth and collapse of microbubbles within the material. The collapse of the microbubbles produces microscopic "hot spots" that can reach temperatures above 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing micro-shock waves. Li and his team have shown that the violent micro-shock waves effectively disperse the nanoparticles evenly through the molten metals.

"If successful, the commercial-scale production of these metal nanocomposites will enable transformative changes in multiple industries and directly address the critical national needs of reducing oil dependency, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and maintaining U.S. leadership in manufacturing," says Li.

The NIST grant will allow Li and his collaborators to continue building a fundamental knowledge base and scale up the process. Li anticipates widespread use of his technique will produce high-quality aluminum and magnesium nanocomposites in the next five years. He also predicts that a new metal-metrix nanocomposites industry will rise along with the use of nanotechnology in casting.

Li's collaborators at UW-Madison include Tim Osswald, Kuo K. and Cindy F. Wang Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Shiyu Zhou, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering. The team also is partnering with Wisconsin-based Eck Industries Inc., the Oshkosh Corp., and Houston-based Nanostructured & Amorphous Materials Inc., as well as the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Li and his collaborators plan to establish an industrial consortium to disseminate and implement their research results.

HTS-CSP Nanotechnology Provides Cost-Effective Superconducting Ceramic Wire Production Method

Anatoly E. Rokhvarger (Brooklyn, NY) and Lubov A Chigirinsky (Brooklyn, NY) reveal a cost effective method to produce sintered ceramic composite leads with superconductive nano-architecture by ceramic-silicone processing (CSP) in U.S. Patent 7,632,784.

A sintered high temperature superconducting (HTS) ceramic electric lead formed as three-dimensional (3D) HTS macro-ceramic solid product with honeycomb-like superconductive nano-architecture is comprised of substantially uniformly aligned nano-size HTS ceramic crystal grains, silicate glass nano-thick films, and nano-size silver and/or inorganic dots that locate in nano-thick boundary areas of the superconductor ceramic crystal grains, and the nano-size films or dots provide honeycomb-like 3D nano-size network within the 3D HTS macro-ceramic solid product or HTS ceramic lead, and the electric lead is superconducting at liquid nitrogen cooling temperature. The superconductive nano-architecture facilitates or controls substantially the higher electro-magnetic and consumable mechanical properties, reliability and durability of the HTS ceramic electric leads.

High temperature superconductor (HTS) macro material and electrical current leads from this material can be produced employing recently invented ceramic-silicone processing method (CSP)1-6. HTS-CSP nanotechnology provides cost-effective production of superconducting ceramic wire and various electric current leads for everyday industrial application at inexpensive liquid nitrogen temperature using off-the-shelf-available superconductor ceramic fine powder particles, such as YBCO ceramics, and standard chemicals including an inexpensive silicone polymer additive and toluene solvent with a small percentage of silver powder dope.

Rokhvarger and Chigirinsky have determined that superconductive behavior, mechanical, durability and JA/cm2 characteristics of HTS-CSP macro leads can be controlled and improved by controlling and improving nano-scale architecture of the ceramic macro products. The nano-architecture is the result of the chemically controlled self-assembling of the three dimensional nano-structure, which meets a set of suggestions of controversial and incomplete Nobel Prize winning physical superconducting theories that considered the collective behavior of the solid and integral compacted mixture comprised of two pluralities--superconductor and non-superconductor nano-size components.

Rokhvarger and Chigirinsky have developed the sintered ceramic composite lead with 3D superconductive nano-architecture and a method of production of the lead, comprising the silicone additive tailored thermo-chemical nanofabrication of the 3D superconductive nano-architecture comprising:

(A) a physical-chemical phase composition consisting of: nano-size superconductor ceramic grains composed of crystals and forming a basic phase elements; additional phase elements constituting nano-thick multi-oxide silicate glass films distributed within grain boundary areas between said grains; further phase elements selected from at least one group consisting of nano-size dope particle, modifier particle, and impurities particle groups, and a combination thereof and said further phase elements are distributed within said grain boundary areas between said grains; and

(B) a three dimensional grain-cell nanostructure comprising 3D setting network and consisting of: said crystals with c-axes oriented substantially perpendicular to a direction of an electric current flux in said lead; said crystal grains substantially uniformly aligned in a-b crystallographic planes; and said additional phase elements and said further phase elements caging and framing said nano-size superconductor ceramic grains and forming nano-size cells comprising said grains surrounding by said additional and further phase elements and providing settings of said grains.

In 1986 two IBM scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics for synthesizing copper-content-multi-oxide ceramic crystals that have vast electric current carrying capability/capacity (JA/cm.sup.2) at a significantly increased and therefore easily achievable cooling temperature, for example, at inexpensive liquid nitrogen (LN) coolant ambience. Indeed, higher electrical current density results in proportionally decreased cross-section and consequently cost, size and weight of the advanced current lead and appliances using this lead. Therefore, since 1986, many scientists and engineers have tried to utilize High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) ceramics in HTS electric wire and other macro leads for the electrical energy transmission and application industries.

When electric current passes through regular (copper) wire the act of overcoming the "normal" resistance has two negative effects--one is that power is consumed as it is needed to overcome the resistance and, in doing that, the other is that heat is generated. Superconductivity of metal alloys (at expensive liquid helium temperature) and single ceramic crystals (at inexpensive liquid nitrogen temperature) means that at certain low temperature electricity can pass through wire or another lead meeting only insignificant (near zero) resistance and heat generation.

While homogeneous metal alloy superconductors can easily scale-up with the same superconductivity, shaped masses of superconductor ceramic nano-crystal pluralities or granular superconductors do not keep superconductivity of the single crystals.

Therefore, to have certain current carrying capability, HTS granular ceramic lead has to be sintered with certain superconductive nano-architecture of the ceramic composite body.

Rokhvarger's and Chigirinsky's practical goal is, using off-the-shelf available HTS ceramic powder particles, to nanofabricate and use an advanced, inexpensive, durable and reliable HTS ceramic composite lead, which achieves much higher electric current carrying capability than current carrying capability of the ordinary copper lead at room temperature J=200-500 A/cm2 (copper and silver are equally the best known and most used leads).

Additionally, material superconductivity should realize three unique phenomena that allow magnetic propulsion (levitation of heavy objects), increased precision of electrical current measurements (much higher sensitivity and precision of electrical and electronic systems and devices), and electrical energy collection and long-term storage using superconductor magnetic energy storage systems.

HTS ceramics are very chemically active, brittle and degrade under environmental influences. These scientific and engineering problems are overcome in their U.S. patented and partly published ceramic-silicone processing (CSP) method and HTS-CSP composite material, which is suitable for cost-effective fabrication of HTS-CSP strands and surface coated and three-dimensional HTS-CSP leads.sup.1-6. Meanwhile, these inventions and publications did not consider nano-structure and nano-architecture of the HTS-CSP material and an influence of said nano-structure and nano-architecture on material quality.

Rokhvarger and Chigirinsky say the  newly invented specific superconductive nano-architecture HTS-CSP material and macro leads is "very important," by controlling this superconductive nano-architecture, they can control and improve quality of the HTS-CSP material and leads.

Graphene Membranes for Nanometer-scale Lithography and Single Atom Resolution TEM Imaging

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Alex Zettl and his team have developed a simple and efficient way to obtain freestanding graphene membranes that can be used to generate etch masks and doping patterns for microelectronic devices.  The researchers have used electron-beam induced deposition (EBID) to deposit amorphous carbon on these membranes to obtain arbitrary patterns with a nanometer-scale resolution.  In the case of a periodic grating, they have obtained a half-pitch of 2.5 nm.   The technology is available for licensing under the title, "Graphene Membranes for Nanometer-scale Lithography and Single Atom Resolution TEM Imaging."

On a bulk substrate, the spatial resolution of EBID and conventional lithography is limited by scattered and secondary electrons, with a minimum half pitch of around 20 nm.  Although good resolution has been achieved by EBID on ultrathin amorphous carbon and silicon nitride membranes, for many applications graphene is a preferable material; it has interesting electronic properties that can be altered by doping, shaping, or defect generation.  By using graphene membranes, Berkeley Lab researchers directly pattern the material that is likely to be used in a host of next generation electronic devices.

The single-atom thickness Berkeley Lab membranes also can be used in a TEM to visualize defects, vacancies, carbon chains, individual carbon adatoms and their dynamics. In addition, they are promising as TEM support structures for imaging other materials because they provide a highly transparent, crystalline background. (See the publication below for a detailed description of imaging achievements using these membranes.)

The contiguous size of one of the Berkeley Lab sheets is on the order of 50 microns. These could be made into a mosaic of a larger size but large contiguous sheets are not necessary, as one 50 micron sheet covers several grid holes. The Berkeley Lab foil is exceptionally robust. One can prepare and store it in air, and it withstands mechanical shock and is fairly immune to electrostatic discharge. It is also easy to clean and no special handling precautions are needed.

APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:

• Using electron-beam induced deposition (EBID) on graphene membranes to create nano-scale



• doping patterns for electronic circuits


• lithography etch masks


• diffraction gratings (for monochromators, spectrometers, wavelength division multiplexing devices, optical pulse compressing devices and other optical devices)




• Investigating the properties of graphene and the dynamics or structure of adsorbed molecules


• Support structures for TEM imaging to investigating the properties of other materials


• Chemical Detection

ADVANTAGES:

• Direct-write deposition of arbitrary patterns with a demonstrated resolution of 2.5 nm


• Two orders of magnitude thinner than previously studied membranes, reducing the effect of secondary and scattered electrons (no deposits outside intended structures)


• Membranes are robust, air and shock tolerant, fairly immune to electrostatic discharge, and easy to clean


• A wide range of materials other than carbon can be deposited


• Single-atom resolution can be achieved for imaging applications


• Uses commercially available TEM grids

STATUS:

• Patents pending. Available for licensing.

To learn more about licensing a technology from LBNL see http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/licensing/index.html.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Meyer, J. C., Kisielowski, C., Erni, R., Rossell, M.D., Crommie, M.F., Zettl, A, "Direct Imaging of Lattice Atoms and Topographical Defects in Graphene Membranes," Nano Letters, 2008.

Meyer, J. C., Girit, C. O., Crommie, M. F., Zettl, A., "Hydrocarbon lithography on graphene membranes," Applied Physics Letters, 92, 2008.

REFERENCE NUMBER: IB-2501, 2502

SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:

• Non-contact Nanoscale Imaging of Liquids and Weakly Bound Material, IB-1047


• Nanomachining of High Aspect Ratio Structures, IB-1498

New Jersey Institute of Technology Reveals Microwave Synthesis of Metal-Carbon Nanotube Composites in Ten Minutes

Figure 1 from U.S. Patent Application 20090304923 shows various types of functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes manufactured in ten to twenty minutes via microwave radiation by scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

In U.S. Patent Application 20090304923, New Jersey Institute Of Technology (Newark, NJ) scientists Somenath Mitra (Bridgewater, NJ) and  Yuhong Chen (Frederick, MD) reveal a fast method to make improved soluble carbon nanotube (CNT) composites  in minutes that are at least partially coated with a metal material.

Mitra and Chen developed improved methods for the synthesis, generation or formation of substantially soluble carbon nanotube composites via microwave reactions.  Their methods provide for the rapid, controllable, environmentally-friendly formation of substantially soluble carbon nanotube composites via in-situ microwave-assisted reactions in a process than can be completed in ten minutes to an hour.  The carbon nanotube composites are at least partially coated with nanometal particles (e.g., nanoplatinum particles or other metals), and are substantially soluble in water or in organic solvents (e.g., o-dichlorobenzene (ODCB), chloroform, tetrahydrofuran (THF), ethanol, toluene, hexane and DMF).

The microwave technique produces some carbon nanotubes in 10-20 minutes at temperatures of 120 degrees C to 190 degrees C. The complete product process for other MWNT products can be completed in one hour. The process does not work as well for single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT).

Figure 4 depicts a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of original MWNTs (mag=400.00 K X, SEM scale bar is 20 nm) made with microwaves in minutes. 

Current practice provides that conventional approaches to solubilize CNTs are complex, time-consuming, tedious and involve multiple steps. As such, current practice also provides that attempting to incorporate metal materials (e.g., nanometal particles) on and/or in CNTs is very challenging. In addition, the conventional approach to graft ODA on raw CNTs is via thermal treatment. However, not only is this a very time consuming process, which often requires several days to complete, this method also leads to damage to the CNTs in the process.

Mitra and Chen say CNTs are at least partially coated with a metal, and  the effective microwave energy of the process shortens the formation process to about one hour, thereby dramatically improving the performance of the whole formation process  compared to conventional thermal methods in which  just  the solubilizing  process for CNTs can take several days to complete.

Furthermore, in exemplary embodiments, the selected reaction solvent (e.g., ethanol) may help to facilitate the nanometal particle coating portion of the process in just several minutes. Additionally, the advantageous, faster microwave systems and methods of the  disclosure do not alter and/or damage the CNTs during processing, thereby providing a significant commercial and manufacturing advantage as a result. Microwave processing can also reduce the need for solvents, thus it is eco-friendly.

Functionalization allows the chemical structure of the nanotubes to be modified, and other functional groups, polymers, ceramics, biological molecules such as enzymes and other appropriate chemical moieties can be attached. For example, treating with acid generates --COOH groups to which other functionalities can be attached by a variety of chemical reactions. Some functionalization reactions may be, for example, carboxylation, sulfonation, esterification, thiolation, carbine addition, nitration, nucleophylic cyclopropanation, bromination, fluorination, diels alder reaction, amidation, cycloaddition, polymerization, adsorption of polymers, addition of biological molecules and enzymes, etc.

The functionalization may be covalent bonding to the nanotube, or noncovalent adsorption or wrapping. By synthesizing the appropriate functionality, the nanotubes may be rendered soluble in aqueous, organic, polar, nonpolar, hydrogen bonding, ionic liquids, and other solvents so that they can be processed easily.

In general, say the inventors,  during microwave-assisted reactions, the smaller diameter and higher curvature of SWNTs generates more stress in the SWNTs than in the MWNTs. However, it is to be noted that the additional layers in MWNTs may result in more adsorption of microwave radiation by the MWNTs in the disclosed systems and methods. As such, the MWNTs may be easier to handle compared to the SWNTs under the microwave methods  Additionally, the chemical activation parameters may be modified due to further polarization of the dipoles under microwave radiation. 

EU Commission Commits $4.5 Billion for Nanoelectronics Research from 2009-2013

On 29 October 2009, the European Commission adopted the Communication "Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies: an Action Plan for Europe 2005-2009.”  The report outlines the key developments during 2007-2009 in each policy area of the Action Plan, identifies current challenges, and draws conclusions relevant to the future European nanotechnology policy. Where appropriate, for the sake of completeness and continuity, developments in preceding years are included. Detailed supporting information can be found in the accompanying Staff Working Document.

The plan commits $4.5 billion from 2009 to 2013 for nanoelectronics research and development under ENIAC. ENIAC was established in 2004 as the Technology Platform for Nanoelectronics. Its main goal was to define common research and innovation priorities to ensure a truly competitive nanoelectronics industry in Europe. To attain such an objective, ENIAC invested intensive efforts to bring together the key players in nanoelectronics research by gathering within the Platform the main European industrial groups and research organizations, setting up the ENIAC Scientific Community Council to ensure representation of Universities, and encouraging the participation inENIAC of Small and Medium enterprises through national platforms.

Nanoelectronics refer to the application of nanotechnology to semiconductor components and highly miniaturized electronic sub-systems, and their integration in larger products and systems. Semiconductors have enabled the digital revolution that has brought huge productivity gains to our economy and improvements in our quality of life. Constant innovation in the area, together with a strong industrial competition, have given rise to affordable, ever more powerful and energy-efficient computers and other digital devices, for the everyday use of all businesses and virtually all types of consumer. The pace of this digital revolution is still accelerating, enabling new applications in nearly every segment of the world economy, such as medical devices, photovoltaic energy generation, traffic management, and so on.

Current devices are manufactured using 65 nm or 45 nm processes (this dimension being the average half-pitch of a memory cell). In this sense, nanoelectronics is merely the consequence of the evolutionary path of microelectronics into the nanoscale domain. Current transistors still do not fall under the category of nanomaterials, which are produced by manipulating matter at the atomic scale. On the other hand, the properties of future devices may well be defined by interatomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties.

Microwave Manufactures Semiconductor Nanoparticles in 15 Minutes

A microwave nanofabrication process can produce a wide range of semiconductor and other nanoparticles in a matter of minutes that would days to achieve the same quality and quantity using conventional processes. 

The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA) have patented a method for the synthesis of high quality colloidal nanoparticles in fifteen minutes using microwaves in a high heating rate process. Irradiation of single mode, high power, microwave is a particularly well suited technique to produce high quality semiconductor nanoparticles. The use of microwave radiation effectively automates the synthesis, and more importantly, permits the use of a continuous flow microwave reactor for commercial preparation of high quality colloidal nanoparticles, according to U.S. Patent 7,615,169.  Colloidal nanoparticles can be rapidly synthesized under high power microwave radiation and provide industrial scalability with no sacrifice to structural integrity or optical quality.

The microwave method provides for large-scale, safe, convenient, reproducible, energy-conserving synthesis of highly-dispersive inorganic nanoparticles with narrow size distribution, according to inventors Geoffrey Fielding Strouse (Tallahassee, FL), Jeffrey A. Gerbec (Goleta, CA), and Donny Magana (Tallahassee, FL). The system produces mainly inorganic materials, and their diameters are on the order of nanometers (nm). The main crystal may be single crystal, polycrystal, alloys with or without phase separation due to stoichiometric variations, or core-shell structures or doped nanostructures.  

Over the past decade, numerous advances have been made in the synthetic procedures for formation and isolation of high quality inorganic nanoparticles. These materials are finding applications in a wide range of disciplines, including optoelectronic devices, biological tagging, optical switching, solid-state lighting, and solar cell applications.

One of the major hurdles for industrialization of these materials has been the development of a reproducible, high quantity synthetic methodology that is adaptable to high throughput automation for preparation of quantities of >100's of grams of single size (<5% RMS) crystalline quantum dots of various composition to be isolated.T

he general synthetic approach for preparation of colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles employs a bulky reaction flask under continuous argon flow with a heating mantle operating in excess of 240.degree. C. The reaction is initiated by rapid injection of the precursors, which are the source materials for the nanoparticles, at high temperatures and growth is controlled by the addition of a strongly coordinating ligands to control kinetics. And to a more limited extent, domestic microwave ovens have been used to synthesize nanoparticles. The high temperature method imposes a limiting factor for industrial scalability and rapid nanomaterial discovery for several reasons: (1) random batch-to-batch irregularities such as temperature ramping rates and thermal instability; (2) time and cost required for preparation for each individual reaction; and (3) low product yield for device applications.

While recent advances in the field have developed better reactants, including inorganic single source precursors, metal salts, and oxides; better passivants, such as amines and non-coordinating solvents; and better reaction technologies, such as thermal flow reactors; the reactions are still limited by reproducibility. Coupled to this problem is the lack of control over reaction times, which require continuous monitoring. In the case of III-V compound semiconductors, the synthetic pathways have rates of growth on the order of days, while in the case of II-VI's, size control is very difficult and depends on the ability to rapidly cool the reaction. In these cases, the reaction depends on heating rate, heat uniformity over the reaction vessel, stirring and rapid and uniform cool-down. These problems and others have been solved according to the inventors.

The duration of nanoparticle reactions have been optimized to 15 minutes at a maximum temperature of 280.degree. C. It has been shown that under the influence of microwave radiation, the crystallinity becomes dependant on the power of the radiation in concert with the temperature of the reaction. The microwave reactor allows the precursors to be prepared at or near room temperature (RT) and loaded into a reaction vessel prior to its introduction into an RT chamber of the microwave reactor. The reaction vessel is then heated to temperatures between 200.degree. C. and 300.degree. C. with active cooling. The microwave reactor operates at 2.45 GHz and can be adapted to a continuous flow or autosampler system. Incorporation of integrated absorption and fluorescent detectors allow the reaction stream to be continuously monitored for applications where high throughput, high volume preparation of colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles is desired. 

The figure is a flowchart that illustrates the processing steps for synthesizing nanoparticles used in the preferred embodiment of the present invention. These steps are typically performed using  single reaction vessel, continuous flow reactor or stopped flow reactor. When the nanoparticles synthesized by the method are semiconductor nanoparticles,  there is no limitation in their composition, but typical examples are single substances of Group 14 elements, such as C, Si, Ge, or Sn, single substances of Group 15 elements, such as P (black phosphorus), single substances of Group 16 elements, such as Se or Te, and group compounds. 

 Block 38 represents the step of preparing one or more constituent elements at or near room temperature, wherein the room temperature is below 100.degree. C. Preferably, a dielectric constant of a main one of the constituent elements is 20 or higher.

Block 40 represents the step of heating the prepared constituent elements to an elevated temperature using high-rate heating, in order to create a reaction mixture. Preferably, the heating step is performed using microwave irradiation, and the high heating rate comprises a rate of 30.degree. C./min or higher.

Block 42 represents the step of stabilizing the reaction mixture at the elevated temperature. Preferably, the elevated temperature is greater than 240.degree. C.

Block 44 represents the step of cooling the stabilized reaction mixture to a reduced temperature using high-rate cooling. Preferably, the high cooling rate comprises a rate of 125.degree. C./min or higher.

Equipment for the nanofabrication market is a $55 billion annual enterprise according to an upcoming report Nanofabrication Equipment For IT And Electronics – A Technology, Industry And Global Market Analysis from Innovative Research and Products, Inc (iRAP, Inc).