Photo by Trust “Tru” Katsande on Unsplash
From chemistry to engineering, nanotechnology continues to enhance our daily lives.
Nanotechnology is the study and application of matter on a molecular and atomic scale – a nanoscale.
It might be difficult for you to imagine such a minute size. Why? One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. To illustrate, a typical sheet of a newspaper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
The applications of nanotechnology have increased dramatically from food safety and medicine to information technology to transportation.
Scientists learned atoms and molecules behave differently at the nanoscale. With their superior surface area and mass transfer capabilities, nanoparticles can result in increased chemical and biological activity, penetrability, enzymatic reactivity, catalytic behavior, and quantum properties when compared to larger particles.
This is known as the quantum effect.
What does this mean?
Engineers are using these enhanced physiochemical characteristics to change the properties of materials. Through manipulation, these materials can gain strength, reduce weight, increase electrical conductivity and chemical reactivity, etc. Such improved materials are already utilized today via nanoparticles and nanofibers.
How it started
Nanotechnology concepts originated with a talk, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” by physicist Richard Feynman. It was at an American Physical Society meeting at the California Institute of Technology December 29, 1959.
In becoming known as the father of nanotechnology, he explained how scientists would be able to control and manipulate and atoms and molecules.
A decade or so later, while exploring ultraprecision machining, Professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term nanotechnology.
Then in 1981, modern nanotechnology began with the development of the scanning tunneling microscope that enabled scientists to look at individual atoms.
The global technology market is forecast to grow 9.2 percent a year.
For more information on nanotechnology and additional roles it plays, please see the accompanying resource:
Uses of Nanotechnology from NTS Innovations
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“Nanotechnology in medicine is going to have a major impact on the survival of the human race.”
-Bernard Marcus
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