Dr. Bing Zhou, the New Face of Nanotechnology

Sometimes revolutions come quietly; sometimes they begin small. Bing Zhou is at the forefront of a very small — atom-sized — yet huge revolution that promises to change your daily life. He is the creative genius behind a radically new process of chemical production at the nano-scale that will advance the making of everything from cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to rocket fuel and military security devices. Dr. Zhou (pronounced “jo”) and his team of researchers are building the bridge between the theory and promise of molecular nanotechnology and its practical, commercial applications on a mass scale.

There are stirrings of recognition that Dr. Zhou’s work (he and his colleagues have twelve patents protecting their innovation, and numerous pending) promises to become to manufacturing what Amazon.com is to electronic book sales — the wellspring of a revolution. We will come to look upon the current mode of industrial chemical production (for plastics, fuel, medicine, and fertilizers, for example), the way we now look at, say, the early fax machine versus instant messaging. The means of production are clumsy, inefficient, downright wasteful and bad for the environment. Imagine a production system in which masses of large particles are thrown at one another with the hope that a great number will stick together (with the result of a great deal of toxic leftover), versus a molecular assembly line in which all the pieces are put together individually for an exact fit, and you’ll get the idea. Zhou’s process of controlling nano-particles results in “green chemistry,” that is, more pure, efficient, with little to no chemical waste, less expensive and therefore commercially viable. It will allow us to make products for daily use that are lighter, stronger, and in some cases, even able to repair themselves.

Dr. Zhou, an energetic, forty-something, with a quick sense of humor, speaks of his work with excitement. He expresses delight and some wonder at finding himself at the forefront of the future of nanotechnology. “When I began researching in this field in the early 1990s, there wasn’t even really a name for it. Anyone working with molecules was by definition working at the nano-scale [one nanometer is about one-millionth the size of the head of a pin]. … People like me working at the atomic level were becoming promoters and champions of nanotechnology, though no one exactly recognized it at the time.”

“Nanotechnology” to most of us, has meant microscopic-level technology, mainly with reference to computers and other transistor-run and electronic goods. It promised to pack more power and memory into ever-smaller devices for portability and convenience. In addition to this relatively recent micro-sizing, there have been some other advancements over the past century in micro-technology, particularly in photolithography, which has produced increasingly clearer images for still and moving pictures and computer screens.

But the real “wow” factor of nanotechnology now lies in its application to other fields — biotechnology and chemistry. Imagine a car made from material that is stronger but lighter than steel, and able to remember its shape and repair itself after a minor collision. Imagine a personal, medical device that can be worn like a wristwatch and can instantly read out your vital statistics (blood pressure, blood sugar levels, body temperature) and offer early detection of cancer and heart disease. (A DNA carrying vital messages from your body links to a nano-transistor, and transmits the data to a digital display device.) Zhou envisions a flat-screened television that is paper-flat (a few millimeters). Unlike today’s expensive plasma TVs, it will be affordable to average people — and unlike today’s televisions, you will be able to roll it up and take it with you. These are not far-out, far-off pipe dreams to Dr. Zhou. He knows they are just around the corner because he is already thinking about how to realize them.

Scientists have acknowledged for many decades the theoretical potential for major advances in medicine and chemistry through atomic-level synthesis. But it is only quite recently that researchers such as Dr. Zhou have begun to discover how to make it commercially viable.

Dr. Zhou has won growing scientific recognition for his work, beginning with his invention of a new way to create hydrogen peroxide (a fundamental ingredient in manufacturing everything from textiles, detergents, and teeth whiteners, to paper, cosmetics and rocket fuel). He received the Innovative Research Award from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. In 2003 he was selected by the Chinese Academy of Science to receive the “Outstanding Overseas Scholar Award,” which included the award of a lab and research team at a renowned chemical institute (the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics) in China. Zhou’s home base, Headwaters NanoKinetix, recently partnered with the multinational chemical company Degussa, the world’s second largest producer of hydrogen peroxide, to scale up and refine production using Zhou’s technology.

Dr. Zhou’s process is unique and his original template impossible for ‘nano-wanna-bes’ to replicate and make commercially practical. But the template can be tailored for commercial use on a large-scale. “It’s really about controlling the particles even more than the size. Smallest is not always best. Size matters, but long-term performance matters even more.” Other existing methods of applying nanotechnology are very expensive. “You are talking about $1,000 per gram [of product],” says Zhou, “but my process, applied on a mass-production-scale would bring the cost down to more like 1 cent per gram.”

Dr. Zhou’s interest in the behavior and manipulation of very small particles goes back to his days as a graduate student at the prestigious Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he earned his doctorate in 1988. His mentor there was Professor Bernard Delmon, a prominent Belgian chemist, devoted to research and development, and the most influential figure in his intellectual development and career.

But Zhou’s determination to learn and to find creative, practical uses for knowledge goes back even earlier to his childhood in China. He was born in Changchun, a city in the northeastern province of Jilin, in what was once Manchuria. His parents, provincial officials, found themselves, like so many other educated people, at the wrong end of politics during the Cultural Revolution, and were forced to do agricultural work in the fields. Zhou remembers hard days as a schoolboy in rural China, harvesting corn and soybean roots with his bare hands until they were raw, and then hauling the roots to school to burn for heat. He credits this experience for his tendency to take nothing for granted and to grab every opportunity to learn. “I knew that education was the way out of a narrow life of impoverishment,” he recalls.

Getting to college from rural China was an “eye-of-the-needle” proposition, but Bing Zhou was undaunted. When new, national college entrance qualification exams were first offered in 1977, Zhou jumped at the chance to take the test. He was one of only twenty high school students in his city (out of thousands) to qualify. He entered Jilin University, one of China’s top ten universities, as one of China’s best and brightest (and on top of that, a year ahead of his class). The ultra-competitive climate for education in China produced an elite, new generation of students destined to become the professional class that has produced today’s leaders (in politics, business, medicine, and science) working within China and around the world.

While Dr. Zhou’s research interests have always been in chemical interactions at the atomic level, he points to a pivotal moment in his early career. After studying under the wings of a Professor Delmon, a die-hard applied science man, Zhou dreamed of working in the rarified world of theoretical science. He applied to study further with Professor Gabor A. Somorjai, a world-renowned molecular theorist, who is considered the father of modern-day catalysis (the science of chemical agents and reactions) and, in particular, surface chemistry (the study of the catalytic reactions between the surfaces of two materials at the atomic level).

“Because my background was in applied rather than theoretical science, my application was turned down. It was so disappointing to me at the time, but over the years I learned from him the theoretical fundamentals of engineering and design in nanoscale. This ultimately led to his exciting journey into uncharted territory and a firm place among science innovators. With more than fifteen years of experience in research and design in molecular nanotechnology, Zhou is now recognized as a world authority. He is editor and author of a series of books called “Nanotechnology in Catalysis.” The American Chemical Society has appointed him three times to chair panels on Nanotechnology. Zhou felt he had come full circle, he says, the first time he was invited to co-chair with Professor Somorjai, with whom he had once hoped to study about fifteen years earlier. It was gratifying confirmation, not only of his arrival as a scientist, but also of the field of applied molecular nanotechnology itself as a critical new branch of scientific research.

Zhou and his team of scientists are working away now on the products in your future. They are developing and testing a superior sunscreen that has both cosmetic and medical advantages over all those currently available. It will allow people who need heavy protection (those prone to skin cancers, and burns, and people with albinism, for example), to wear a clear and light, but fully effective protection against U.V. rays. (No more unsightly white pastes of zinc oxide.) They have developed and are testing the means to produce high-grade, high-performance gasoline at regular grade price. They are poised to make a big push in applications for pharmaceuticals, a natural match for molecular nanotechnology. Expect to see drugs with purer properties, fewer side effects, and faster, more efficient and direct delivery within the body.

So one day in the not-too-distant future, when you are wearing clear, but powerful sunscreen, sitting in your car (of ultra-light, yet tough-as-steel substance, which is running on high-grade, super-clean fuel, equipped with a flexible, roll-up television) and checking your medical monitor for your white blood cell count, remember that the revolution that made it all possible, and which you now take for granted, began very small, and that you will have Bing Zhou to thank for the technology.