Brazil and China plan to work together to develop new technologies in the nanotechnology sector, according to a decree published in the official Brazilian newspaper by the Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation.

Signed by the Minister for Science Technology and Innovation, Marco Antonio Raupp, the decree creates the Brazil-China Centre for Research and Innovation in Nanotechnology (CBC-Nano), which will be a cooperative research and development network.

The centre will coordinate activities involving Brazil-China cooperation in nanotechnology with a view to promoting scientific and technological progress in research and application of materials with nanostructures, consolidate and extend research in the area, and increase scientific training.

The initiative aims to explore the benefits that result from projects and set up programmes to encourage Brazilian companies to develop nano materials.

The research schedule for the centre has yet to be set but, according to Brazilian chemist Fernando Galembeck, China has shown interest in developing sensors and equipment for medical diagnostics with Brazil.

“The idea is to have portable equipment, which is cheap to manufacture, that can meet people’s needs,” said Galembeck, who is the director of the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (LNNano), in Campinas (São Paulo), and who will be the Brazilian coordinator of CBC-Nano.

Nanotechnology focuses on manipulating materials at an atomic level, from 1 to 100 nanometres, in which each nanometre is 10,000 times smaller than a hair’s breadth.

Source: macauhub