Chapter 1
Introduction
Human imagination and dreams often give rise to novel science and technology.
As a frontier of twenty-first century, nanotechnology was born out of such dreams
(Manoharan 2008). Nanotechnology is one of the critical technologies covering
various fields including physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, biology,
and even medicine (Jain and Jain 2017; Catherine and Olivier 2017). This technology
utilizes the unique electronic, optical, or mechanical properties of nanomaterials
which cannot be achieved in their bulk counterparts (Choi et al. 2016; Zhang 2015;
Tanaka and Chujo 2015). Nanomaterials are the core components of nanotechnology
which are defined as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between
1 and 100 nm in principle (Murphy 2002).
Although human exposure to nanoparticles has taken place throughout human
history, the concept of “nanometer” was first proposed by Nobel Laureate Richard
Feynman in his visionary lecture “There is plenty of room at the bottom inspiring
the concepts for the rapidly exploding research topic of nanotechnology”, in which
he introduced the concept of manipulating matter at the atomic level. Since the term
“nanotechnology” had not appeared on the horizon, Feynman said: “What I want to
talk about is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale…
What I have demonstrated is that there is room—that you can decrease the size of
things in a practical way… I will not discuss how we are going to do it, but only
what is possible in principle… We are not doing it simply because we haven’t yet
gotten around to it” (Feynman 2018). Decades later, scientists have realized that
the manipulation atoms, molecules, and clusters on the surface are feasible, while
new fundamental physics governs the properties of nano-objects. There are significant differences in the definition of nanomaterials between agencies (Boverhof et al.
2015). According to ISO/TS 80,004, nanomaterials are defined as a “material with
any external dimension in the nanoscale or having internal structure or surface structure in the nanoscale”, while nanoscale is defined as the “length range approximately
from 1 to 100 nm” (Hatto 2011). The European Commission adopted the following
definition of nanomaterials: “natural, incidental or manufactured material containing
particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and for 50% or
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
H. Pang et al., Synthesis of Functional Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Storage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7372-5_1
1
Introduction
Human imagination and dreams often give rise to novel science and technology.
As a frontier of twenty-first century, nanotechnology was born out of such dreams
(Manoharan 2008). Nanotechnology is one of the critical technologies covering
various fields including physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, biology,
and even medicine (Jain and Jain 2017; Catherine and Olivier 2017). This technology
utilizes the unique electronic, optical, or mechanical properties of nanomaterials
which cannot be achieved in their bulk counterparts (Choi et al. 2016; Zhang 2015;
Tanaka and Chujo 2015). Nanomaterials are the core components of nanotechnology
which are defined as the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between
1 and 100 nm in principle (Murphy 2002).
Although human exposure to nanoparticles has taken place throughout human
history, the concept of “nanometer” was first proposed by Nobel Laureate Richard
Feynman in his visionary lecture “There is plenty of room at the bottom inspiring
the concepts for the rapidly exploding research topic of nanotechnology”, in which
he introduced the concept of manipulating matter at the atomic level. Since the term
“nanotechnology” had not appeared on the horizon, Feynman said: “What I want to
talk about is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale…
What I have demonstrated is that there is room—that you can decrease the size of
things in a practical way… I will not discuss how we are going to do it, but only
what is possible in principle… We are not doing it simply because we haven’t yet
gotten around to it” (Feynman 2018). Decades later, scientists have realized that
the manipulation atoms, molecules, and clusters on the surface are feasible, while
new fundamental physics governs the properties of nano-objects. There are significant differences in the definition of nanomaterials between agencies (Boverhof et al.
2015). According to ISO/TS 80,004, nanomaterials are defined as a “material with
any external dimension in the nanoscale or having internal structure or surface structure in the nanoscale”, while nanoscale is defined as the “length range approximately
from 1 to 100 nm” (Hatto 2011). The European Commission adopted the following
definition of nanomaterials: “natural, incidental or manufactured material containing
particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and for 50% or
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
H. Pang et al., Synthesis of Functional Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Storage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7372-5_1
1