Introduction

During the past decade, nanotechnology has globally become a core technology, projecting the future direction of science and engineering as well as the industry (Serrano et al. 2009). Since 2001, when U.S. Government announced “National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI),” the Korean Government has strategically supported development with their own “Nanotechnology Development Plan (NDP) (July, 2001)” to actively lead research and development in nanotechnology (Table 1) (Eighth National Science and Technology Commission 2001), in addition to establishing various roadmaps including “Nanotechnology Strategy for the Industry” and “Plan for the Training System in the Nanotechnology.” The “Legislation on Nanotechnology Development” established in December 2002 expedites the progress of this development by providing the systemic legal foundation. The direction of NDP is regularly adjusted every 5 years (Second Phase NDP in 2005 and Third Phase in 2011). Unique from the programs in other countries, NDP provides the direction for the nanotechnology research and development as well as the infrastructure for the human resources. Since the initial investment from the Korean Government in constructing the framework, the National Nano-Fab Center and the Korea Advanced Nano-Fab Center were established in 2002 and 2003 for fundamental research, while the Nano Integration Center was established in 2004 for investigating the applications of nanotechnology. The Government has invested $ 693 million into these nanotechnology centers. To sustain the support of the Government, the Committee of Nanotechnology Experts was founded, which is affiliated with the National Science and Technology Commission.

Table 1 NDP of Korea
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The nanotechnology program strives to encourage collaborations between affiliated organizations, and to promote the safety aspect of nanotechnology. The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) suggested the roadmap for nanotechnology development by establishing “Strategy for the Nanotechnology Convergence (2008),” and also announced “Mid-term Strategy for the Original Nanotechnology.” The Ministry of Environment presented “Mid to Long-term Plan (2010–2014) for Safety Control of the Nanomaterials” and the Government recently announced “Safety Control in Nanotechnology (October, 2011)”. The central Government initiated the evaluation and correspondence of the societal impact of nanotechnology, which has gained increasing attention as developments in nanotechnology occur as given in the report on the effect of nanotechnology evaluated in 2006. As a result of these governmental programs, Lux Research projected Korea to become one of the most competitive leading countries in nanotechnology along with the U.S., Japan, and Germany (Nordan 2008).

In April 2011, the Korean Government evaluated the nanotechnology policies which have been enacted by the Government so far, and established “Third Phase NDP” reflecting the global trend and confirming the directions for the next decade (Korean Government 2011). This program illustrates the vision of the leading country in the nanotechnology emphasizing the creation of the new industrial area, the infrastructure for the human resources, and the criteria for the ethical and societal responsibilities. For these purposes, the Government selected 30 future technologies in five major categories (Table 2), with investments up to $720 million by 2020. These major categories include the nanotechnology of energy and the environment for sustainable growth, and the development of the solar cell, secondary battery, fuel cell, membrane, thermo-electric, and piezo-electric systems with nanostructured materials were selected as the technologies primarily investigated.

Table 2 30 technologies in five major categories
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The recent nanotechnology policy in Korea can be compared to the establishment of NANO2 policy in the U.S. for this decade (2011–2020) (Roco et al. 2011), which selected “safe and sustainable development of nanotechnology” as one of the primary objectives. Diallo et al. illustrated that a clean environment, water resources, food supply, mineral resources, green manufacturing, habitat, transportation, climate change and biodiversity especially including nanotechnology-based energy solutions are key technologies in this area. They defined the sustainability to be a technology satisfying societal, environmental, and economic aspects. In this paper, we provide the NDP outcomes on the research, education, and industries during the past decade, and a mid- and long-term nanotechnology plan for energy and environmental areas with sustainable growth and the details of major technological progress based on the “Third Phase NDP.”

Nanotechnology development plan

Here, we provide the Korean national evaluation of the past investments on nanotechnology, including examples of research outcomes. The projects on establishing infrastructure are discussed along with the industrial and educational impacts, and future directions, which are the current projection by the Korean Government.

National investment and research outcomes

Since the Korean Government initiated NDP in 2001, $1,905 million had been invested in the research and development of the nanotechnology. Among the national institutions, MEST and Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) have invested over 75 % of overall national investment on nanotechnology (Fig. 1), implying that fundamental research and educational activities were emphasized during the past decade.

Fig. 1
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Investment of the Korean Government on nanotechnology since 2001

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The amount of the investment in nanotechnology has been drastically increased from $94 million in 2001 to $ 227 million in 2009 after NDP was established (Fig. 2a). The investment during the First Phase (2001–2005) NDP was $ 959 million with $ 674 million for research and development (R&D), $ 238 million for the infrastructure, and $ 47 million for the human resources (HR) in the nanotechnology area. During the Second Phase (2006–2010) NDP, $1,174 million was increased with $ 922 million for R&D, $ 186 million for the infrastructure, and $ 64 million for HR (Fig. 2b). This indicates that the investment for the R&D steadily increased, which represents the active R&D projects on nanotechnology were successfully achieved based on the infrastructure established during the First Phase NDP.

Fig. 2
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a Annual investments and b the investment during the First and Second Phases NDP

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As a result, Korea has made a new leap forward to be in the top four countries in the nanotechnology area, and the NDP strategy and the governmental investment have led to fruitful success in nanotechnology with drastic advances in the practical applications. The selected highlight of scientific achievements at the academic institution is given below. The novel methodology for large-scale pattern growth of graphene films for stretchable transparent electrodes, which enables an up to 30 inch transparent electrode by the roll-to-roll method, was developed by Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), thereby breaking through the barrier to the practical application of graphene (Kim et al. 2009). In collaboration with MIT, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed high-power lithium-ion batteries using multiple virus genes having affinity for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), which increase the electric conductivity by using the characteristics of nano-sized electrode materials (Lee et al. 2009a). Nano satellites, which communicate the information of the chemicals including proteins, and heavy metals within the cell, were investigated by Sogang University (Choi et al. 2009). The world’s first nano-sized lens was invented by Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), which enables near-field focusing and magnification through self-assembled nanoscale spherical lenses (Lee et al. 2009b). Flexible memory, which enables achievement of highly integrable organic memory devices and other organic-based electronics with greatly increased cell density, was developed by Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) (Song et al. 2010). In addition to these achievements, the number of the scientific publications in SCI journals has drastically increased from 196 in 2,000 to over 2,500 (China: 8,297, U.S.: 8,061, and Japan: 2,820) in 2008 with a citation per article of 9.9 (U.S.: 22.0, Germany: 16.6, UK: 16.1, France: 15.4, Japan, 12.7, and Italy: 12.5). Total share of the U.S. patents increased from 187 in 2001 to 2940 in 2009 (Fig. 3). Particularly, the number of the U.S. patents shared by Korea has increased by 50 % since 2005, when the Second Phase NDP was initiated.

Fig. 3
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Korean share of U.S. patents: (blue) annual number, (red) cumulative number, and (black) ranking

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Infrastructure, industries, and educations

From the Second Phase NDP, the Korean Government established six major nanotechnology infrastructures (Table 3), which supports the network between academia and industries, provide the special facilities and equipment for nanotechnology, and devise the nanotechnology R&D frames preventing overlapping investments and encouraging organized development plans. These infrastructures were evaluated to be highly impactive on the Korean economy with 7.28 benefit-cost ratio (BCR). Since the plan for these infrastructure projects will be terminated in a few years, the Korean Government is currently establishing alternative plans for organized collaborations among these six major infrastructures for synergetic development and securing steady investments with the replacement measure for old facilities and equipment. For the commercialization of nanotechnology in the next phase projects, the Government plans to establish research institutes or organizations, which investigate the toxicity of the nanomaterials on the human and the environment, which will be one of the most critical issues in the nanotechnology applications.

Table 3 Infrastructures of Nano-Fab Center and National Center for Nanomaterials Technology (NCNT) in Korea
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The share of nanotechnology in the world market is expected to reach $2.6 trillion within the next few years. In addition to the development of the nanomaterials, nano-devices recently became the major subject since nanotechnology made a transition from the fundamental to application-driven development (Table 4). In Korea, the industries have applied the nanotechnology to produce semiconductors, vehicles, display, and household devices and items. The industries including the small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly involved in the nanotechnology area (154 companies in 2005 and 184 in 2009 with 35.1 % of entire industries engaged in developing the applications of nanomaterials, 12.6 % in the nano-bio, and 8.7 % in the nano-device areas). As the Korean Government encouraged the collaboration between the industries and academia with the NDP strategy, the number of core researchers working in this area increased five times more than in 2000. In the education sector, 43 universities established the nanotechnology department with 7,385 students (B.S.: 6,084, M.S.: 887, and Ph.D.: 404) graduating in 2015, which will form the core R&D resources for the growing market of the nanotechnology.

Table 4 Prospect of Nanotechnology in the World Market: billion $ (in  %)
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Although broad scientific achievements with enormous investments have been made during the past decade, nanotechnology barely generated significant profitable returns. Therefore, the Korean government is attempting to shift the investment from the fundamental R&D to commercialization by reinforcing the collaboration between the industries and academia. The government encourages supporting the technology transfer from academia to the industry as well as the foundation of small business directly operated by the universities similar to programs such as SBIR/STTR in the U.S..

Nanotechnology Development Plan on Energy and Sustainability

Innovative progress in nanotechnology has tremendously contributed to the area of sustainable energy including energy production/conversion/storage as well as improvement in the environment by utilizing novel nano materials. This trend has become a core technology, which breaks through the technical barriers in sustainable energy systems with ultra-high efficiency and low cost for commercialization. For the power generation and conversion systems, nanostructured materials are investigated to increase the efficiency for the gas/liquid fuel separations, the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), thin film fuel cell (TFFC), organic solar cell (OSC), and bio fuels (Khan et al. 2011; Ermete 2011; Natalia and Alessandro 2011; Alvarez and Cervantes 2011). Research on the high density energy storage has also been advancing for lithium-ion and lithium polymer secondary batteries, super capacitor, and materials for hydrogen storage. Nanotechnology controls the environmental effects of current and future technologies by using nanoscale adsorption and separation phenomena for toxic chemicals and inventing nano sensor for contamination detection.

Trends in the Nanotechnology

Most of the countries including the U.S., E.U., and Japan have focused on developing novel nano materials for electrolyte in fuel cells, which reduce the cost and provide enhanced stability and durability for commercialization. Consequently, new nano material alloys have been extensively investigated to reduce the usage of platinum catalyst in low temperature fuel cells through the interdisciplinary research activities in the U.S. national laboratories (e.g., Army Research Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and universities (e.g., Brown, Georgia Tech). The nanostructured thin film solid oxide electrolytes and new materials and processes by using nano bionics for high temperature fuel cell have been developed especially by the E.U., Japan, U.S., and China. The E.U. has the most number of core patents in nano materials for the photoelectric transformation efficiency in solar cells (EPFL in Switzerland). For the DSSC, the nano material electrodes, dye synthesis, electrolytes, high performance conductors, and technologies for modulations are investigated to obtain high energy efficiency. For the OSC, various research activities have been performed to obtain the energy efficiency for commercialization via techniques for system design and orientation of materials, deterioration control, cell inosculation, and module processing.

The area of energy storage has significantly advanced by utilizing novel nanoscale materials and engineering for high energy efficiency. The U.S. is focusing on obtaining original technologies such as nanoscale design by computational methods and new types of electrodes, while Japan is intensively developing the process engineering for coating and surface modification. These technologies are further investigated for the energy storage systems with high speed charging and stability.

BASF in Germany and Engelhard in the U.S. have intensively investigated nano-sized pore catalysts for environmental technologies, and M. Haruta (Okumura et al. 2002) in Japan and D.W. Goodman (Choudhary and Goodman, 2005) in the U.S. lead the research on nano dispersed catalysts. The carrier, which harvests and purifies the resources from the contaminated environment, is also being developed, and the membrane coated by the nano-sized pore materials will enable resource separation with high efficiency.

Future directions

The global regulations of CO2 demands the development and application of nanotechnology in the area of energy and sustainability technologies including energy production/conversion/storage with high efficiency, zero emission energy systems, and environmental devices, which detect, improve, and purify the contaminated resources. Also, the nanotechnological innovations converge to the existing technologies, where the development has been stunted due to insufficient performance. Nanotechnology convergence in the energy and sustainability will enable scientists to resolve the concerns of energy shortages and environmental issues via systems with zero emission and purification as well as high performance energy production and storage systems (e.g., high performance solar cell, fuel cell, and secondary battery).

Societal demand on the energy and environment

The global concern on energy comes from the shortage of the fossil energy resources, which is also the cause of pollution when the resources are combusted for energy. Therefore, the paradigm for the future energy system is focusing on developing clean energy systems such as fuel cells in motor vehicles and portable electronic devices, as well as the OSC and DSSC, so that the load on the nation wide power grid is reduced. Table 5 shows the societal demand on nanotechnology predicted for the next decade. The novel nano energy storage systems can also reduce the energy loss since society adopts ubiquitous frameworks, which demand small yet reliable power sources. In addition, the nanotechnology convergence systems (e.g., the power generator combining solar and thermoelectric powers) will maximize the efficiency of the energy conversion providing societal benefits in the aspects of energy cost as well as environment. Nanomaterials for the catalysts and membrane will be utilized for purification (e.g., micro/ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, nano adsorbent) (Matsumoto et al. 2004; Zaidi et al. 1992; Vrijenhoek et al. 2001), and simultaneously for energy resource production (e.g., hydrogen separation for the fuel cell) (Sircar and Golden, 2000). Nano sensors will be invented for the inspection of the environment for the post-production stage.

Table 5 The societal demand on nanotechnology
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Strategy for the nanotechnology for sustainability in Korea

The Korean government is striving to keep pace with the rapid changes in the nanotechnology area by establishing the long-term strategy for nanotechnology integration with the information, energy, and environmental sectors. Major research subjects on nanotechnology convergence selected by this strategy will expedite the commercialization of evolutionary technologies for energy and the environment, thereby increasing the market share of sustainable energy area to 15 % (Fig. 4) (Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 2011; Rockstrom et al. 2009). This national plan results in breakthroughs in energy production/conversion/storage promising high efficiency as well as water management. For instance, thermoelectric generation and energy harvesting in the submicron scale are being intensively investigated along with molecular recognition, which enables detection of the contaminant materials after production. Table 6 shows selected research subjects based on the current societal demand. The major technologies in energy/environmental areas are selected and evaluated to understand the current status of the subjects and find the direction for high efficiency energy systems with no environmental impact. Solar cells and secondary batteries are being evaluated as the stable stage in research bringing the impact on the industry to the near future, while the fuel cell system is still being developed, possibly contributing enormously to the energy production. Nanostructured solar cell systems are currently investigated through multiple exciton generation (MEG), organic/inorganic materials, and biomimetrics. Due to the high cost of fuel cell materials, alternative nano catalysts for platinum and new types of fuel cell systems are being developed. The applications of nanostructured membrane for purification, thermo-electric, and piezo-electric materials are identified motivating the fundamental research and application-driven development. This area emphasizes the research on nanostructured porous materials, which control the molecular scale separation and adsorption by modifying the membrane architecture. Figure 5 shows the plan for the selected research areas during the next decade.

Fig. 4
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Strategies for nanotechnology convergence in energy and environmental areas in Korea (Alvarez and Cervantes 2011)

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Table 6 Future research areas based on societal demand
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Fig. 5
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Plan for the selected research areas in Korea during this decade

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Conclusions

From July 2001, as the Korean government established the strategy for nanotechnology, NDP and seven Korean governmental ministries including the MEST have invested about $ 1.9 billion in this program during the last decade. As a result, Korea is considered one of the top four countries in the area of nanotechnology with significant research outcomes. The Korean government found that the past investment on nanotechnology during the First and Second NDPs successfully led to research projects and the establishment of the infrastructure, which impacted the industrial and educational improvement of nanotechnology. Currently, the government has extended the program to “Third Phase (2011–2020)” to achieve the original technologies, which have enormous impacts on the industry and economy, and lead the growth with clean nanotechnology convergence information technology (IT), energy technology (ET), and biotechnology (BT), which produce the new paradigm in the industry. Furthermore, the program contributes by resolving the shortage in resources secured by nanomaterial-based systems for energy production/conversion/storage, and the use of nanoscale devices will enable medical treatment. For the energy and environmental areas, the evolutionary benefits from the nanotechnology such as high efficiency and low production cost will solve the issues of the societal and industrial demand (e.g., water management via nanostructured membrane) by focusing on the application-driven development. The Korean government is attempting to shift the investment from fundamental R&D to commercialization by reinforcing the collaboration between industries and academia. The Government encourages supporting the technology transfer from academia to industry as well as the foundation of small businesses directly operated by the universities, similar to programs such as SBIR/STTR in the U.S. The R&D on identifying and controlling the toxicity of nanomaterials is to be focused first, which is a globally discussed critical problem for commercialization. For these purposes, the government should provide the next generation nanotechnology policy, which encourages balanced investments from the Korean governmental ministries with active collaboration.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the support of the MEST, and related research contributed to this manuscript, which is based on the “Research on the Third Phase NDP.” This study was also supported by the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation through the WCU Project.