HOME > AIRCHIVES > PAPER AIR > (AIR 6-1) NANOPASTA
Nano-Pasta–Thin Film Realization of Ultra-Fast Cooking Pasta Using Glancing Angle Deposition
by W. M. J. Green, K. L. Westra, K. Robbie, and M. J. Brett
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
With the ever-increasing demands of urban life, individuals are ever less able to find time for their fundamental daily tasks. One of the most time consuming activities undertaken during an average day is the preparation of meals: breakfast, lunch, and supper. Our society has increasingly demanded meals that are quick to prepare, yet nutritious. As a result, we now have dishes such as instant rice, microwave dinners, and minute noodles and soups.
In this article, we present a novel addition to the "fast food" lineup. Dubbed "Nanopasta" for its small size and phenomenally rapid cooking time, this new variety of pasta can be produced with the aid of a thin film deposition technology known as glancing angle deposition1 (GLAD).
Nanopasta is made by evaporating Durum wheat in a vacuum. The vapor is then directed at glancing incidence toward a rotating substrate. The schematic in Figure 1 (not shown here) illustrates this process, which is also currently used for other materials2. Once Nanopasta has been deposited on the substrate, it may be harvested by a special etching process. Figure 2a shows a scanning electron microscope image of one shape, called Nano-fusilli. The photo illustrates the nanometer size scale of Nanopasta. Figure 2b (also not shown here) shows an image of a Nano-fusilli film immediately after deposition but before the etch harvesting process. The substrate shown in the image is a...
This special HotAIR feature is the beginning of the original research report. The full article is published in vol.6, no. 1 (the Jan/Feb 2000 issue) of The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). Subscribe to AIR and assure yourself a steady flow of equally useful reports.
(c) copyright 2000 Annals of Improbable Research
Want more? Here's a complete list of the HotAIR features.