What is Nanotechnology?

So what is nanoscience and technology?

Nanoscience involves research to discover new behaviors and properties of materials with dimensions at the nanoscale which ranges roughly from 1 to 100 nanometers(nm). Nanotechnology is the way discoveries made at the nanoscale are put to work. Nanotechnology is more than throwing together a batch of nanoscale materials—it requires the ability to manipulate and control those materials in a useful way.

What is special about the nanoscale?

In short, materials can have different properties at the nanoscale— some are better at conducting electricity or heat, some are stronger, some have different magnetic properties, and some reflect light better or change colors as their size is changed.

Surface area

Nanoscale materials also have far larger surface areas than similar volumes of larger scale materials, meaning that more surface is available for interactions with other materials around them.

Why is surface area important?

Compare a piece of gum chewed into a wad with stretching that gum into as thin a sheet as possible. The surface, or area visible on the outside, is much greater for the stretched out gum than for the wad of gum. The stretched out gum will likely dry out and become brittle faster than the wad since the sheet has more contact at the surface with the air moving around it.

How small is a nanometer?

It's defined as one billionth of a meter. How small is that? Some ways to think about just how small a nanometer is:

See The Scale of Things and Three Examples at the Nanoscale

Where are nanoscale materials found?

If scientists can create artificial spider silk economically, the superstrong, lightweight materials could be used in sports helmets, armor, tethers and other products. Nanoscale materials and effects are found in nature all around us. Nature's secrets for building from the nanoscale create processes and machinery that scientists hope to imitate. Researchers already have copied the nanostructure of lotus leaves to create water repellent surfaces used today to make stain-proof clothing, other fabrics, and materials. Others are trying to imitate the strength and flexibility of spider silk, which is naturally reinforced by nanoscale crystals.

Many important functions of living organisms take place at the nanoscale. Our bodies and those of all animals use natural nanoscale materials, such as proteins and other molecules, to control our bodies’ many systems and processes. A typical protein such as hemoglobin, which carries oxygen through the bloodstream, is 5 nanometers, or 5 billionths of a meter, in diameter.

Nanoscale materials are all around us, in smoke from fire, volcanic ash, sea spray, as well as products resulting from burning or combustion processes. Some have been put to use for centuries. One material, nanoscale gold, was used in stained glass and ceramics as far back as the 10th Century. But it took 10 more centuries before high-powered microscopes and precision equipment were developed to allow nanoscale materials to be imaged and moved around.

What is nanoscale behavior?

At the nanoscale, objects behave quite differently from those at larger scales. Gold at the bulk scale, for instance, is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, but not of light. Properly structured gold nanoparticles, however, start absorbing light and can turn that light into heat, enough heat, in fact, to act like miniature thermal scalpels that can kill unwanted cells in the body, such as cancer cells.

Other materials can become remarkably strong when built at the nanoscale. For example, nanoscale tubes of carbon, 1/100,000 the diameter of a human hair, are incredibly strong. They are already being used to make bicycles, baseball bats, and some car parts today. Some scientists think they can combine carbon nanotubes with plastics to make composites that are far lighter, yet stronger than steel. Imagine the fuel savings if such a material could replace all the metal in a car! Carbon nanotubes also conduct both heat and electricity better than any metal, so they could be used to protect airplanes from lightning strikes and to cool computer circuits.