Nanoparticles


Nanoparticles are extremely tiny pieces of a substance. Even though they may be tiny, they actually have far more effects to their surrounding than the normal substance. While a chunk of silver is a great bacteria cleaner and used in most infection medicines, a pinch of nanosilver is a ruthless bacteria killer that is used in urgent hospital infections and can clear up all bacteria from an injury in a few seconds.

You are most likely confused now, as it doesn’t exactly make sense that a powder of a substance is better than a chunk of it. The reason has to do with the very large surface area. If you have a 2 cm x 2 cm cube, it will have 24cm² of surface area. If you divide that cube into 8 - 1 cm x 1 cm cubes, it will have 48cm² of surface area. Following this logic, 1kg of silver powder would have much more surface area than a chunk of silver weighing 1kg.

The surface area increase is critical, as when you have a large chunk, the center won’t get used. However, extremely tiny pieces will get used up rather quickly, but all of it will be used. This is the power of nanoparticles; they do things quickly and efficiently. They can do more than the normal substance even with less of it.

Now that you’ve read about the power of nanoparticles, you may be confused as nanoparticles are so rare despite being more effective. The reason is because of the cost of making them. Silver used in hospitals are mashed into tiny bits, but not as effective as nanosilver. Nanoparticles are extremely difficult to create, as it is very difficult to handle such tiny bits of matter.

If an efficient way of creating nanoparticles is found, then it could spark a great leap in medical science. Nanoparticles are amazing, and I want to find out more about them. I will update this blog according to my new knowledge, so keep checking for new info!

Thanks for reading! ~Nat

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