What is Nano-Scale and How Does it Differ from Traditional Products?
Nano refers to the metric prefix for 10^-9 and means one-billionth of something. Nanoscience is the study of structures made small enough to take on new properties. For example, nano-particles of gold appear red in color and melt at significantly lower temperatures than normal gold slabs (~300 °C as compared to 1064 °C)[1].
Traditional products contain either:
- Coarse particles with a diameter of 2,500 to 10,000 nanometers
- Fine particles with a diameter of 100 to 2,500 nanometers.
Nualgi particles are 5 to 50 nanometers in diameter (1 millimeter = 1,000,000 nanometers).
Nano particles are known to have different properties than larger sized particles of the same element [2]. These tiny particles have a larger active surface area and can suspend themselves in liquid and are therefore more efficient by being bioavailable.
Scale of Nano-Technology
Bioavailability is a measurement of the rate and extent to which a drug or nutrient reaches the systemic circulation. For example a drug injected intravenously is much more bioavailable as compared to a drug ingested orally.
For plants and organisms, it is a significant scientific challenge to provide nutrients in bioavailable form. Nualgi is the only product of its kind that effectively addresses this challenge in a water body. It’s nutrient particles are small enough to suspend themselves in the water column and are therefore more available for diatom algae to bloom.
Sources:
[1] http://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.13.2287
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoparticle#Properties
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