NANOTECHNOLOGY
WHAT IS NANOTECHNOLOGY?
"Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields" (1). These materials that scientists make are made at nanoscale and is measured with nanometers. Nanotech is built at the atomic and molecular level.
Nanotech is applied into most of the science fields including chemistry, biology, engineering and several others.
Still a little confused? Here is a helpful video that goes more in depth about what nanotech is.
FUN FACTS
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The head of a hairpin is approximately 1,000,000 nm across.
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The page of a book is about 100,000 nm thick.
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A human hair is 40,000 nm thick.
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THE NANOSCALE
The nanoscale is the scale of molecules and atoms. It is important to know what is in nanoscale to determine how these things act at this level. This is where Quantum Mechanics plays it's role in the nanoscale. It is very different from physics where a substances behavior may change from what it usually does to something totally diffrent when reduced down to nanoscale. "As it turns out, some elements exhibit unusual properties when reduced to the nanoscale" (4). Something at the nanoscale might have different properties than the same thing at a bigger size. Materials in the nanoscale can be used to make tools that can then be incorperated into different sciences; for example, in biology tools can be used to make medicinces or vaccines.
This nanoscale material is "zinc-infused tin oxide 'nanoflowers,' tranquil beach dunes that are actually 'electron microscope images of a carbonized silicon nanowire array,' and Organic nanowires with a 'nanoparticle frost coating' that resemble frosty pine needles" (6).
NANOPARTICLES
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A collections of nickel phosphide nanoparticles taken by a transmission-electron microscope.
A nanoparticle has several different names including: nanocluster, nanopowder, or nanocrystal. A nanoparticle is a "nanosized structure and [or] device sare smaller than human cells which are around 10,000 nm in diameter and similar in size to biomolecules such as enzymes, proteins" (8). Working wtih nanoparticles allows scientists to see the original properties of the substance since it may be different at the nanoscale than it would be at it's normal size. A common example of nanoparticles are quantum dots.
WANT TO KNOW MOR ABOUT THE HISTORY OF NANOTECHNOLOGY?
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