Student Zhijun Jiang works in the lab last week on a group project to detect and manipulate DNA.

>

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE –– Imagine wearing a shirt whose fibers are coated with a special material that, when set into motion, generate electricity.

Thus, a simple stroll down the street might generate enough power to run a portable music player, for example.

This is one of many possible results from the study of tiny particles –– “nano” particles –– at Brown University and other locations.

The field has such potential that Brown has established a new research center –– the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation.

And yesterday, Brown opened a three-day nanoscience forum which serves as the institute’s formal launch.

At the heart of the institute’s work is the study of particles so small they can be viewed only with an electron microscope, said Robert Hurt, the institute’s director and a professor in Brown’s division of engineering.

The careful analysis, manipulation and control of the tiny particles can have practical results. For example, most sunscreen lotions used to be white, like cream, to block the sun’s rays.

But many of the lotions are now available in a clear application, made possible largely through the use of nano materials, or nano particles, to block the sun, Hurt said.

In addition, many stain-resistant fabrics now use nano materials and nano fibers to improve water repellency, he said.

The institute serves as the umbrella organization for three centers at Brown:

•The Center for Advanced Materials Research, whose work includes designing light-weight materials for cars.

•The Center for Nanoscience and Soft Matter, which uses advanced scientific tools to develop “next-generation” devices such as advanced sensors and computers.

•The NanoHealth Working Group, which focuses on the application –– and implications –– of using nano materials for human health, such as nano particles that detect and kill cancer cells.

Faculty and students across a number of disciplines at Brown are collaborating in the process of synthesizing new nano materials, and are also coming up with new applications –– assembling nano materials into devices and structures, he said.

Hurt also said he hopes that Brown’s work can spawn more businesses –– and jobs –– in Rhode Island.

One such firm, Solaris Nanosciences, of Providence, is a Brown University spin-off, he said.

“We would like to engage more with the state” to promote the study of nano particles and the development of nano-related businesses in Rhode Island, he said.

The institute, at the corner of Waterman and Thayer streets on the city’s East Side, has 55 Brown faculty members affiliated with it, representing nine departments throughout the university, Hurt said.

In any given semester, hundreds of Brown students are enrolled in nano-related courses, he said.

Brown now offers nano technology courses across various disciplines, including chemistry, physics and engineering, he said.

“A lot of nano technology has practical application,” Hurt said. Other efforts are still in the planning stage, but making progress. “It’s exciting stuff.... It captures the imagination,” he said.

In one of yesterday’s seminars, for example, Z.L. Wang, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, talked about using zinc oxide systems to generate electricity.

In essence, a shirt –– what he called a “power shirt” –– could be coated with zinc oxide particles. When the shirt’s wearer starts walking, the particles would be set in motion, generating electricity.

He said his group is looking at the use of zinc oxide particles to power such items as pacemakers, personal electronics and other devices. The work is “a long way from practical application, but [we] have made progress,” Wang said.

That progress is enough for Teng-Fang Kuo, 32, a native of Taiwan, who is a graduate student in electrical engineering at Brown and who attended Wang’s presentation.

“Those things are new and not in textbooks yet,” he said. That is one of the reasons he is interested in nano technology –– the chance to study not just things that are already known, but also things that are just emerging.

The study of nano technology at Brown represents “a pretty good opportunity for students,” he said.

The forum continues today and includes a keynote address by Mihail Roco, director of the National Nanotechnology Initiative at the National Science Foundation. More information about Brown’s new institute is available at:

www.brown.edu/IMNI

ndowning@projo.com