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What is the current state of nanoscience and
nanotechnology?Current knowledge in nanoscience comes from developments in
chemistry, physics, life sciences, medicine, and engineering. Nanotechnology is
under active development or already in practical use in several areas:In materials science, nanoparticles allow for the making of
products with new mechanical properties, including surface friction, wear
resistance, and adhesion.The smallest components of a computer chip are on a
nanoscale.The smallest components of a computer chip are on a
nanoscale.Credit: NanoPrism Technologies, Inc.In biology and medicine, nanomaterials are used to improve
drug design and targeting. Others are being developed for analytical and
instrumental applications.Consumer products such as cosmetics, sunscreens, fibres,
textiles, dyes, and paints already contain nanoparticles.In electronic engineering, nanotechnologies are used for
instance to design smaller, faster, and less consuming data storage devices.Optical devices such as microscopes have also benefited from
nanotechnology.
Current knowledge of science at the nanoscale comes from
developments in disciplines such as chemistry, physics, life sciences, medicine
and engineering. There are several areas in which nanoscale structures are
under active development or already in practical use:In materials science, nanoparticles allow for the making of
products with mechanical properties very different from those of conventional
materials and can also improve surfaces by adding new friction, wear or
adhesion properties.In biology and medicine, a greater understanding of the
functioning of molecules and of the origin of diseases on the nanometre scale
has lead to improvements in drug design and targeting. Nanomaterials are also
being developed for analytical and instrumental applications, including tissue
engineering and imaging.A wide variety of nanoscale materials and coatings are
already in use in consumer products such as cosmetics and sunscreens, fibres
and textiles, dyes, and paints.The smallest components of a computer chip are on a
nanoscale.The smallest components of a computer chip are on a
nanoscale.Credit: NanoPrism Technologies, Inc.The constant drive towards miniaturization in electronic
engineering has led to devices that are well within the nanometre range. Data
storage devices based on nanostructures provide smaller, faster, and lower
consumption systems.Optical devices have also benefited from this trend and new
types of microscopes have been invented, that can produce images of atomic and
molecular processes at surfaces. More... 3.3 Nanoscience
and Nanotechnology 3.3.1 Introduction Current knowledge
of science at the nanometre scale is derived from many disciplines, originating
with the atomic and molecular concepts in chemistry and physics, and then
incorporating molecular life sciences, medicine and engineering. The
observation and understanding of atomic and molecular behaviour from first
principles was followed by the increasing ability to control and selectively
modify properties of ever smaller pieces of matter in a functional way. Early
examples here are the discoveries in self assembly (Bain et al 1989) which
culminated in current synthetic and supra-molecular chemistry (Lehn 1988, Gomez
–Lopez et al 1996), the increasing knowledge about life’s replication processes
and the co-evolution of physical (Perutz et al 1960, Aue et al 1976, Wuthrich
1995) and chemical methodologies. These have resulted in the portfolio of
current molecular life sciences such as molecular motors and other functional
entities (Mavroidis et al 2004, Clark et al 2004), including biomolecular and
medical engineering and the emerging area of systems biology. On the other
hand, man made micro and nanoscale sensing devices originate from other domains
in microscopy and device engineering but relate to biomedical applications
(Ziegler 2004, Emerich and Thanos 2003). The deviation of
surface and interface properties from the bulk properties of larger amounts of
materials led to the sometimes unexpected significance of surface effects,
including catalytic activity and wetting behaviour in material composed of
nanosized entities, such as nanoparticles, composites and colloids (Kamat 2002,
Schwerdtfeger 2003). Quantum mechanical principles manifest themselves in the
properties of surfaces of clusters of very small particles, especially those of
the order of 1000 atoms or molecules and less. Composite materials (Komarneni
1992, Schmidt 2000, Hadjipanayis 1999), with increasingly smaller
characteristic sizes of the domains or phases, allowed for the design of
materials with new and optimised physical and / or chemical properties. In
electronic engineering, the miniaturization of devices has progressed well into
the nanometre range with gate oxides in devices being routinely 25 nm thick.
The recently increased public awareness of nanoscience is closely related to
the availability of first real space images of atomic and molecular processes
at surfaces through the invention of Scanning Probe Microscopies (Binnig and
Rohrer 1985). With the
continuous development of nanotechnology, the possibility for the bottom-up
production of nanoscale materials may result in some kind of self assembly of
structures similar to the self assembly of phospholipid bilayers that resembles
cellular membranes. On the basis of
current knowledge however, the spontaneous formation of artificial living
systems through self assembly and related processes, suggested by some
prominent commentators, is considered highly improbable. The combination of
self replication with self perpetuation in an engineered nanosystem is
extremely difficult to realize on the basis of current scientific knowledge. 3.3.2 Examples of
Engineered Nanostructures and Materials and Their Applications There are several
areas of science and technology in which nanoscale structures are under active
development or already in practical use.