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Lansdale, Pennsylvania—December 7, 2007—Students in the
North Penn High School Engineering Academy
program named
The Future is N.E.A.R. (Nanotechnology
Education And Research)
recently began conducting experiments in
nanotechnology by researching, designing and
performing experiments utilizing a process
called electrospinning where their ultimate
goal is to produce polymer fibers that are
in the nanometer diameter range. 
A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10-9
meters). The average human hair is 100,000 nanometers wide. The fibers the students are
electrospinning are less than 250 nanometers wide. The picture to the right shows a
human hair over polymer nanofibers.
Electrospinning is a process by which a high
voltage electrical charge (1,000 – 30,000
Volts) is applied to a viscous polymer
solution. The resulting fiber stream or jet
creates fibers that are so small they can
not be seen individually without the aid of
a high magnification instrument such as a scanning electron
microscope.
 The students are currently working in
research teams that focus upon changing the
variables within the electrospinning process
such as the polymeric properties (weight
percentage, molecular weight), field
strength (voltage [1000 to 30,000 Volts] and
distance of the charged solution and the
grounded collection plate), station
apparatus (polymer syringe angle, collection
plate material),
environmental factors (temperature,
humidity, etc.) and many other factors. The
students are now becoming familiar with many
of the parameters in their informal
experiments before they begin designing
their own experiments.
With the aid of a recently awarded grant
from the North Penn Education Foundation,
the students will now have the ability to
assess the affects that polymer viscosity
will have on their experiments.
When the students complete much of their
electrospinning experiments this year, they
will begin to formulate conclusions to their
research by working with
Dee Breger, Director
of Microscopy in the
Drexel Nanotechnology Institute (DRI) at
Drexel University in Philadelphia,
to utilize their Scanning Electron
Microscopes. The students, under the
direction of Dee Breger, will be taking
control of the scanning electron microscopes
to take highly magnified views of their
fibers (20,000x and higher) to identify
surface characteristics and diameter
measurements of their electrospun
nanofibers.
The Future is N.E.A.R. program began during
the 2005-2006 school year from several
grants awarded to the program from Toyota,
ING Financial, Dominion and Toshiba.
About The Future is N.E.A.R.
The Future is N.E.A.R. program
(Nanotechnology Education And Research) is
the only high school program of its kind in
the world to teach engineering and
nanotechnology research through a polymer
nanofiber production process known as
electrospinning to high school students.
The program offers the students of
North Penn High School’s Engineering Academy
an opportunity to gain 21st century skills
that will help prepare them to become
successful and highly marketable leaders in
the new, technological global society. The
program
introduces the fundamentals of
nanotechnology, engineering research, and
higher level thinking and application of
knowledge to high school students while
cultivating their interest in engineering,
problem solving and life-long learning.
To read more about nanotechnology, the
research the students are performing or if
you have any questions, please visit the
website at:
http://www.thefutureisnear.org
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