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knowing the scientific origin behind. They were able to prepare nanoparticle solution of gold and other metals. In ancient times, most of the applications of nanoparticles were mainly related to aesthetics. By combining nanoparticles with glass and
jewelry, they achieved many attractive products with magnificent colors. Sometimes,
nanoparticles, especially gold nanoparticles, also were used for medical reasons by
ingestion of nanoparticles.
As technology advances in synthesis and characterization techniques, many
kinds of nanoparticles with varied sizes, shapes, and functionalities have been produced. The main difference from the incidental particles lies in the control over the
process of production. By tuning properties of nanomaterial, the application area
becomes wider and wider, including new technical materials, batteries for energy
storage, sporting goods, catalysts, water purification, soil remediation, cosmetics,
medical bandages, car paint and waxes, food packages, toothpastes, healthcare
products, diagnosis and therapy, and many others (understandingnano).
What makes nanoparticles so salient is their unique and tunable features. Because
of the rapid technological revolution in the area of nanoparticles, it is not a distant
dream to make structures atom by atom. By achieving this, defects adversely affecting attributes of device or structure can be almost totally eliminated and structures
with flawless performance can be obtained.
Many features of nanoparticles such as physical, chemical, and electro-optical,
and magnetic properties can be tuned via controlling their size, shape, activity, and
so on. Since these properties can be modified, thanks to nanotechnology advancement, it is highly likely to produce nanoparticles with a desired quality.
In contrast to bulk materials in which energy band of electrons is continuous,
nanomaterials have discrete energy levels due to quantum size effect. Besides these
discrete energy bands, another astonishing parameter is mean free path, which is the
path taken by charge carries between two subsequent collisions. The number of collisions in bulk material is extremely high, which means relatively short mean free
path leading to loss of heat energy while mean free path for nanosystem, collisions
and in turn loss as heat energy can be extremely low. Thus, this undesirable heating
effect can be compensated by nanostructures and electrical properties on material
can be considerably enhanced. The study carried out on nanoparticle-embedded
poly-ethylene-matrix by Yurkov et al. revealed that dielectric permittivity and
absorption coefficient of matrix increase with increase in the composition ratio of
embedded nanoparticle (Yurkov et al. 2007). Another important phenomenon is surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Quite different from bulk materials whose surface
electrons have wide range of vibrating frequency, surface electrons (surface plasmon) on the nanomaterials resonate only in certain frequencies. Normally, most of
incident photons reflect back when encountering a metallic surface. However, if
light wave is in phase with the surface plasmons, resonance phenomena occurs. In
this case, most of the light absorbed by plasmons and intensity of reflected light
takes a sharp deep. Taking advantage of SPR, many surface plasmon resonancebased analysis systems have been developed in order to analyze biomolecules. They
have used glass coated with thin gold. Gold is chosen since it is chemically inert to
S. Tekmen and S. Öksüz
knowing the scientific origin behind. They were able to prepare nanoparticle solution of gold and other metals. In ancient times, most of the applications of nanoparticles were mainly related to aesthetics. By combining nanoparticles with glass and
jewelry, they achieved many attractive products with magnificent colors. Sometimes,
nanoparticles, especially gold nanoparticles, also were used for medical reasons by
ingestion of nanoparticles.
As technology advances in synthesis and characterization techniques, many
kinds of nanoparticles with varied sizes, shapes, and functionalities have been produced. The main difference from the incidental particles lies in the control over the
process of production. By tuning properties of nanomaterial, the application area
becomes wider and wider, including new technical materials, batteries for energy
storage, sporting goods, catalysts, water purification, soil remediation, cosmetics,
medical bandages, car paint and waxes, food packages, toothpastes, healthcare
products, diagnosis and therapy, and many others (understandingnano).
What makes nanoparticles so salient is their unique and tunable features. Because
of the rapid technological revolution in the area of nanoparticles, it is not a distant
dream to make structures atom by atom. By achieving this, defects adversely affecting attributes of device or structure can be almost totally eliminated and structures
with flawless performance can be obtained.
Many features of nanoparticles such as physical, chemical, and electro-optical,
and magnetic properties can be tuned via controlling their size, shape, activity, and
so on. Since these properties can be modified, thanks to nanotechnology advancement, it is highly likely to produce nanoparticles with a desired quality.
In contrast to bulk materials in which energy band of electrons is continuous,
nanomaterials have discrete energy levels due to quantum size effect. Besides these
discrete energy bands, another astonishing parameter is mean free path, which is the
path taken by charge carries between two subsequent collisions. The number of collisions in bulk material is extremely high, which means relatively short mean free
path leading to loss of heat energy while mean free path for nanosystem, collisions
and in turn loss as heat energy can be extremely low. Thus, this undesirable heating
effect can be compensated by nanostructures and electrical properties on material
can be considerably enhanced. The study carried out on nanoparticle-embedded
poly-ethylene-matrix by Yurkov et al. revealed that dielectric permittivity and
absorption coefficient of matrix increase with increase in the composition ratio of
embedded nanoparticle (Yurkov et al. 2007). Another important phenomenon is surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Quite different from bulk materials whose surface
electrons have wide range of vibrating frequency, surface electrons (surface plasmon) on the nanomaterials resonate only in certain frequencies. Normally, most of
incident photons reflect back when encountering a metallic surface. However, if
light wave is in phase with the surface plasmons, resonance phenomena occurs. In
this case, most of the light absorbed by plasmons and intensity of reflected light
takes a sharp deep. Taking advantage of SPR, many surface plasmon resonancebased analysis systems have been developed in order to analyze biomolecules. They
have used glass coated with thin gold. Gold is chosen since it is chemically inert to
S. Tekmen and S. Öksüz