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Friday, 16th January 2009 (1745 views)

This weekend, Northwestern University is inviting members of the public to visit its nanotechnology laboratories to witness the science in action.

Anyone can attend the Science of Small event, which will feature a range of demonstrations on the wonders of tiny nanoparticles, including that of gold.

Chad Mirkin, a professor of chemistry, told the university's Medill Reports publication that gold displays different properties to what people are used to when it is in nanoparticle form.

"You take gold and miniaturise it to a 20-nanometre particle, it's no longer gold in colour, it's blood red in colour," he explained.

He noted that gold nanoparticles were used in the Middle Ages to stain glass windows with a reddish colour, adding that this was a useful process as unlike dye, "gold doesn't fade".

Scientists from Queensland University of Technology have discovered that stained-glass windows adorned with gold purify the air around them when heated up by the sun.

 

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