The scientific community generally believes that nanotechnology is the main engine of economic growth in 2 1 century, and its role can dwarf the impact of microelectronics technology on the world in the second half of the 20th century. Nanotechnology will bring revolutionary changes to medical treatment, manufacturing, materials and information and communication industries. Therefore, in recent years, nanotechnology has been greatly favored by all countries in the world, especially developed countries, and has triggered increasingly fierce competition.
First of all, countries are competing to launch strategies and plans for the development of nanotechnology.
Because nanotechnology is of great significance to the country's future economic and social development and national defense security, all countries (regions) in the world took the research and development of nanotechnology as the main driving force of technological innovation in 2 1 century, and successively formulated development strategies and plans to guide and promote the development of nanotechnology in their own countries. At present, more than 50 countries in the world have formulated national nanotechnology plans. Although some countries do not have a special nanotechnology plan, other plans usually include nanotechnology-related research and development.
(A) the developed countries and regions are ambitious
As we all know, in order to seize the opportunity of nanotechnology, the United States took the lead in formulating the national nanotechnology plan (NNI) as early as 2000, aiming at integrating the strength of federal agencies and strengthening their coordination in developing nano-scale science, engineering and technology. In June 2003, 165438+ 10, the US Congress passed the 2 1 century nanotechnology research and development bill, which indicates that nanotechnology has become a major federal research and development plan, from basic research and applied research to research centers, infrastructure establishment and personnel training.
The Japanese government regards nanotechnology as the key to Japan's economic revival. The Second Basic Plan for Science and Technology regards life science, information and communication, environmental technology and nanotechnology as four key research and development fields, and has formulated a number of measures to ensure the implementation of strategic resources (talents, funds and equipment) needed in these fields. Later, Japanese scientific and technological circles thoroughly implemented this policy, actively promoted research and development from basic to practical, and focused on promoting research and development that can effectively promote economic development and strengthen international competitiveness.
The sixth framework plan implemented by the European Union from 2002 to 2007 also paid unprecedented attention to nanotechnology. The plan regards nanotechnology as the top priority, and 654.38+0.3 billion euros is devoted to the research of nanotechnology and nanotechnology, knowledge-based multifunctional materials, new production technologies and equipment. The European Commission is also trying to formulate a European nanotechnology strategy, and has identified five key measures to promote the development of nanotechnology in Europe: increasing R&D investment and forming momentum; Strengthen research and development infrastructure; Expand talent resources in terms of quality and quantity; Attach importance to industrial innovation and transform knowledge into products and services; Consider social factors, seek advantages and avoid risks. In addition, most EU countries, including Germany, France, Ireland and Britain, have also made their own nanotechnology research and development plans.
(b) The newly industrialized economies are targeting opportunities.
Realizing that nanotechnology will bring great influence to human society, South Korea, China, Taiwan Province Province and other newly industrialized economies have also formulated nanotechnology development strategies in order to maintain their competitive advantages. In 20001year, the Korean government formulated the nanotechnology promotion plan 10, and in 2002, it promulgated a new law to promote the development of nanotechnology, followed by the implementation rules for the development of nanotechnology in 2003. The policy goal of the Korean government is to integrate the three main technical fields of information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology in order to improve the level of cutting-edge technology and basic technology; By the end of the 20 10 plan, South Korea's nanotechnology research and development will reach the level of leading countries such as the United States and Japan and enter the top five in the world.
Since 1999, Taiwan Province Province of China has successively formulated advanced research plans for nanomaterials and research plans for nanotechnology. These plans are based on the construction of talents and core facilities, aiming at "academic excellence" and "industrialization of nanotechnology", aiming at leading the development of knowledge economy in Taiwan Province Province and establishing industrial competitive advantages.
(3) Developing countries strive to catch up.
In order to catch up with the development momentum of nanotechnology in developed countries, developing countries with strong comprehensive national strength and scientific and technological strength have also formulated their own nanotechnology development strategies. In July, 20001,the government of China issued the National Outline of Nanotechnology Development, and successively established the National Nanotechnology Guidance and Coordination Committee, the National Nanoscience Center and the Nanotechnology Professional Committee. At present, the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan being formulated will clarify the development roadmap of nanotechnology in China and determine the current and medium-and long-term R&D tasks in China, so as to guide and coordinate at the national level, concentrate our efforts, give play to our advantages, and strive for important breakthroughs in several aspects. In view of the fact that the most likely technological wave in the future is nanotechnology, South Africa's Ministry of Science and Technology is formulating a national nanotechnology strategy, which is expected to be implemented in 2005. India has also strengthened the research and development of nanotechnology with broad application prospects in the field of materials science by increasing support for scientific research institutions and projects engaged in materials science research.
Second, the investment in nanotechnology research and development has been rising all the way.
Nanotechnology has formed an international R&D craze. At present, both rich industrialized countries and wealth-hungry industrialized countries are investing huge amounts of money in the fields of nano-science, technology and engineering, and the investment is still increasing rapidly. According to a report of the European Union in May 2004, in the past 10 years, the world public investment increased from about 400 million euros in 1997 to more than 3 billion euros at present. Private funds for nanotechnology research are estimated at 2 billion euros. This shows that the global investment in nanotechnology research and development has reached 5 billion euros every year.
The United States has invested the most in nanotechnology. In the past four years, the federal government's research and development funds for nanotechnology increased from $220 million in 2000 to $750 million in 2003, and will increase to $982 million in 2005. More importantly, according to the "2 1 Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Law", the federal government will invest $3.7 billion in the nanotechnology plan in fiscal year 2005-2008, and this does not include the funds that the Ministry of National Defense and other departments will use for nanotechnology research and development.
Japan is now the second largest investor in nanotechnology, after the United States. Japan began to support nanotechnology research as early as 1980s. In recent years, the investment in nanotechnology has increased rapidly, from $400 million in 200/kloc-0 to nearly $800 million in 2003, and will increase by 20% in 2004.
In Europe, according to the Sixth Framework Plan, the EU's annual funding for nanotechnology is about 750 million US dollars, and it is estimated that it can reach 9150,000 US dollars. It is also estimated that the total investment of EU countries and the EU in nanotechnology research may be twice or even higher than that of the United States.
China predicts that the central government's expenditure on nanotechnology research will reach about $240 million in the next five years; In addition, local governments will also spend 240 million to 360 million US dollars. Taiwan Province Province of China plans to invest 600 million US dollars in nanotechnology-related fields from 2002 to 2007, with a steady growth every year, reaching an average of 654.38 billion US dollars per year. South Korea's annual investment in nanotechnology is estimated to be about $6,543.8+$450 million, while Singapore's is about $370 million.
In terms of per capita public expenditure on nanotechnology, EU-25 countries are 2.4 euros, the United States is 3.7 euros, and Japan is 6.2 euros. According to the plan, the public investment in nanotechnology research and development in the United States increased to 5 euros per capita in 2006 and 8 euros per capita in Japan in 2004, so the gap between the EU, the United States and Japan tends to increase. The proportion of public * * * nano-investment in GDP is: 0.0 1% in EU, 0.0 1% in USA and 0.02% in Japan.
In addition, according to an annual report devoted to the research of nanotechnology industry released by Lux Information Company in 2004, many private enterprises have also rapidly increased their investment in nanotechnology. The investment of American companies in this field is about $654.38+0.7 billion, accounting for 46% of the global private sector's $3.8 billion investment in nanotechnology. Enterprises in Asia will invest US$ 654.38+04 billion, accounting for 36%. European private institutions will invest 650 million US dollars, accounting for 17%. Because of this level of investment, innovation based on nanotechnology is bound to come.
Third, all countries in the world have their own advantages in developing nanotechnology.
Compared with other nanotechnology powers, although the United States has certain advantages, it has not yet decided the outcome.
(1) Japan, Germany and China are on a par in nanotechnology papers.
According to the statistical results of China Institute of Science and Technology Information on nano-papers, from 2000 to 2002, 40,370 nano-research papers were included in Science Citation Index (SCI). The number of nano-research papers has increased year by year, reaching 30.22% of 200 1 and 8.26% of 20021respectively.
From 2000 to 2002, the United States was ahead of other countries by a large margin, and the cumulative number of papers in three years exceeded 10000, accounting for almost 30% of all papers. Japanese edition (12.76%), Germany (1 1.28%), China (10.64%) and France (7.89%) followed closely, with the total number of papers exceeding 3,000. Moreover, from 2000 to 2002, the annual output of nano-papers in the above five countries mostly exceeded 1000, making them the countries with the most active nano-research and the strongest nano-research strength. China's growth rate is the most prominent. In 2000, the proportion of nano-papers in China was more than 2 percentage points behind that in Germany. By 2002, it had surpassed Germany and ranked third in the world, close to Japan.
After the above five countries, Britain, Russia, Italy, South Korea and Spain published more papers. In three years, the total number of papers in each country exceeded 1000, and the number of papers ranked first in 10 every year. These five countries can be listed as active countries in nano-research.
In addition, if the EU countries as a whole, the number of papers will exceed 36%, higher than the United States (29.46%).
(b) The United States leads in applying for patents for nanotechnology inventions.
According to statistics, from 2000 to 2002, the US Patent and Trademark Office accepted 2,236 nanotechnology patents. The country with the largest number is the United States (1454), followed by Japan (368) and Germany (1 18). Because the patent data comes from the US Patent and Trademark Office, the number of patents in the United States is very large, accounting for more than 60%. Japan and Germany ranked second and third with 16.46% and 5.28% respectively. The number of patents in Britain, South Korea, Canada, France, China and Taiwan Province Province of China is also large, accounting for more than 1%.
Patents reflect the practical ability of research results. The number of nano-papers and patents in most countries is quite different. Among the 20 countries and regions with the largest number of papers, only the United States, Japan and Taiwan Province Province of China have more patents than papers. This shows that many countries and regions have certain strength in nanotechnology research, but they focus on basic research and have weak practical ability.
(3) On the whole, big countries in nanotechnology have their own strengths.
The application research of nanotechnology in the United States has developed rapidly in the fields of semiconductor chips, cancer diagnosis, new optical materials and biomolecule tracking. With the application of nanotechnology in cancer diagnosis and biomolecular tracking, the focus of nanotechnology research in the United States has gradually shifted to the medical field. Medical nanotechnology has been listed as a priority scientific research plan in the United States. In the field of nano-medicine, nano-sensors can make early diagnosis of various cancers under laboratory conditions, and have been able to make early diagnosis of prostate cancer, rectal cancer and other cancers under laboratory conditions. In 2004, the Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health released the "Cancer Nanotechnology Program" to combine nanotechnology, cancer research and molecular biomedicine to achieve the goal of eliminating cancer death and pain in 20 15 years; Using nanoparticles to track the activity of active substances in organisms is also a research hotspot, which is very useful for studying the activity of HIV and cancer cells in humans, and can also be used to detect the effect of drugs on viruses. The research of nanoparticles tracking virus has also achieved results, which is expected to be commercialized in the next 5~ 10 years.
Although medical nanotechnology is becoming a new hotspot of nanotechnology, the application of nanotechnology in the field of semiconductor chips still attracts people's attention. American researchers are stepping up the application research of nano-scale semiconductor material transistors, hoping to break through the traditional limits and make chips smaller and faster. The self-assembly technology of nanoparticles is the most concerned place in this field. Many scientists try to synthesize nanoparticles through chemical reactions and arrange these particles according to certain rules, thus making chips with small volume and fast operation speed. This technology is expected to replace the traditional lithography technology in the future. In terms of new optical materials, there are nanowires with controllable diameters, ranging from 5 nanometers to hundreds of nanometers, and controllable lengths reaching hundreds of micrometers.
Japan's nanotechnology research and development strength is strong, and it is at the world's leading level in some aspects, but it has not left the basic and applied research stage, and there is still a long way to go before it can be put into practical use. In the research and development of nanotechnology, Japan attaches great importance to applied research, especially the research of nano-new materials. In addition to carbon nanotubes, Japan has also developed a variety of nano-materials with different structures, such as nano-chains, hollow particles, multi-layer spiral structures, fuller-coated fuller structures, nanotube-coated fuller structures, glass stacked glass structures and so on.
In terms of manufacturing methods, Japan has continuously improved the existing methods such as arc discharge, chemical vapor synthesis and laser ablation, and actively developed new manufacturing technologies, especially mass production technologies. The low-temperature continuous sintering equipment exhibited by Hosokawa Morihiro Company attracts people's attention. It can produce single and composite ultrafine materials with a particle size of tens of nanometers at a speed of several kilograms per hour. By applying the new technology developed by the university, Toray and Mitsubishi Chemical Company can reduce the cost of manufacturing carbon nanomaterials to110, and they can enter the mass production stage within two or three years.
Japan attaches great importance to the development of testing and processing technology. At present, the performance of scanning tunneling microscope, atomic force microscope and near-field optical microscope, which are widely used, is constantly improving, and new products such as digital microscope, built-in advanced camera microscope and ultra-high vacuum scanning atomic force microscope are constantly emerging. Scientist Hiroshi Murata has successfully developed a submicron inkjet printing device, which can be used in the nano field to print fine circuits on the substrate made of silicon, glass, metal and organic polymers, which is the highest level in the world.
Japanese enterprises, universities and research institutions are actively looking for the application of nanotechnology in the fields of information technology and biotechnology, such as manufacturing finer and higher-performance components, such as single-electron transistors and molecular electronic components and quantum computers, and analyzing the structures of molecules, protein and genes. However, most of these studies are in the exploratory stage, with few results.
EU has considerable strength in nanotechnology, especially in optics and optoelectronic materials, organic electronics and optoelectronics, magnetic materials, bionic materials, nano-biomaterials, superconductors, composite materials, medical materials and intelligent materials.
China has done a lot of research on nano-materials and their applications, scanning tunneling microscope analysis and single atom manipulation, mainly metal and inorganic non-metallic nano-materials, accounting for about 80%. Polymers and chemically synthesized materials are also important aspects, but there are obvious gaps with developed countries in nanoelectronics, nanodevices and nanobiomedicine.
Fourth, the pace of industrialization of nanotechnology has accelerated.
At present, the industrialization of nanotechnology is still in its infancy, but it shows great commercial prospects. According to statistics, in 2004, the global annual output value of nanotechnology has reached 50 billion US dollars, and it will reach144 billion US dollars in 20 10. Therefore, in order to realize the industrialization of nanotechnology as soon as possible, various nanotechnology powers are stepping up measures to promote the industrialization process.
The managers of the national scientific research project management department in the United States believe that the lack of basic research on nanotechnology by large American companies leads to the lack of motivation for the development and application of nanotechnology in the United States, so they try to establish a research center composed of many universities and large enterprises, hoping to closely combine the basic research and application development of nanotechnology. The federal government of the United States and the government of California jointly invested a huge sum of money to establish a "nanotechnology achievement transformation center" in Los Angeles, so as to apply the basic research achievements in the field of nanotechnology to industry in a timely and effective manner. The center has two main tasks: one is to carry out basic research on nanotechnology, and the other is to cooperate with large enterprises to realize the industrialization of the latest basic research results as soon as possible. Its research fields involve nano-computing, nano-communication, nano-machinery, nano-circuits and many other aspects, and many research results will be first applied to the US defense industry.
Some big companies in the United States are also seriously exploring the potential of using nanotechnology to improve products and processes. Some IT companies, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Intel, may make a breakthrough in the medium term and produce commercial products. A network composed of professional, commercial and academic organizations is rapidly expanding, with the purpose of enjoying information, promoting contacts and accelerating the application of nanotechnology.
Japanese enterprises have also increased their investment in nanotechnology. Nearly 100 enterprises in Kansai region have joined forces with 16 universities and state-level scientific research institutions, and recently established the Kansai Nanotechnology Promotion Association to vigorously promote the research and development and industrialization of nanotechnology in this region. Toray, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and other big companies have invested heavily in establishing nanotechnology research institutes, trying to integrate nanotechnology into their respective industries.
In 2003, the EU established a nanotechnology industry platform to promote the application of nanotechnology in EU member states. The European Commission pointed out that the purpose of establishing a nanotechnology industry platform is to make engineers, materials scientists, medical researchers, biologists, physicists and chemists work together to apply nanotechnology to the fields of information technology, cosmetics, chemical products and transportation, and to produce cleaner, safer, more durable and smarter products, while reducing energy consumption and garbage. The EU hopes to build an industrial platform for nanotechnology, increase investment in nanotechnology research, and catch up with the United States in nanotechnology as soon as possible.
In order to promote the transformation of nanotechnology R&D achievements, the first national nanotechnology industrialization base was established in China in February 2000. The base has gathered domestic first-class nanotechnology research institutions and experts, and is preparing to build a world-class national nanotechnology research institute. The development goal of the base is to become a world-class nanotechnology science city, incubate a group of world-class high-tech enterprises, train a group of world-class nanotechnology experts and modern entrepreneurs, and build the base into a comprehensive, cross-cutting, market-oriented, open and mobile modern "nano-industry cluster". In August 2003, China Academy of Sciences announced the establishment of the nanotechnology industrialization base. The base is composed of China Academy of Sciences and a number of nanotechnology enterprises. It will focus on industrial development, give consideration to applied research and promote basic research.
In its "innovation column", the American magazine Technology Review pointed out that while countries around the world are accelerating the pace of commercialization of nanotechnology, some Asian countries have obviously taken the lead. The governments of China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore have invested heavily in developing nanotechnology, aiming at developing many products including ultra-sensitive diagnostic technology and supercomputers. Tomanak, a nanotechnology expert at Michigan State University, said that countries such as China, Japan and South Korea will become world leaders in nanotechnology in the next few years. In some fields of nanotechnology, these three countries are in a leading position.