CHAPTER 1
A Brief Introduction
to Nanoscience
1.1 THE SCOPE OF NANOSCIENCE
Nanoscience—the study of systems with components on the scale of a
billionth of a meter—is full of possibilities and presents us with the
potential for significant technological breakthroughs in the near future.
Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman realized the importance of this field
almost six decades ago. In his legendary speech, “There’s Plenty of Room
at the Bottom,” he stated:
This field is not quite the same as others in that it will not tell us much
of fundamental physics in the sense of, ‘What are the strange particles?’ But it is more like solid state physics in the sense that it might
tell us much of great interest about strange phenomena that occur in
complex situations. Furthermore, a point that is most important is
that it would have an enormous number of technical applications.
(Full text available at http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html)
Nanotechnology, the application of nanoscience toward developing new
technologies, is defined as the engineering or manipulation of functional
systems at the molecular scale. A functional system is used to describe a
material, or interface between materials, that has a well-defined responsibility and performs that responsibility efficiently and while minimizing
undesired consequences. Although the term nanotechnology was popularized in the 1980s, scientists have been studying nanostructures for well
over a century. As early as the mid-1800s, Michael Faraday investigated
the properties that a ruby-colored solution forms when an aqueous
solution of NaAuCl 4 is treated with a reducing agent. Faraday concluded
that fluid contained very finely divided metallic gold dispersed in the
aqueous solution. A century later, electron microscopy showed that these
A Brief Introduction
to Nanoscience
1.1 THE SCOPE OF NANOSCIENCE
Nanoscience—the study of systems with components on the scale of a
billionth of a meter—is full of possibilities and presents us with the
potential for significant technological breakthroughs in the near future.
Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman realized the importance of this field
almost six decades ago. In his legendary speech, “There’s Plenty of Room
at the Bottom,” he stated:
This field is not quite the same as others in that it will not tell us much
of fundamental physics in the sense of, ‘What are the strange particles?’ But it is more like solid state physics in the sense that it might
tell us much of great interest about strange phenomena that occur in
complex situations. Furthermore, a point that is most important is
that it would have an enormous number of technical applications.
(Full text available at http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html)
Nanotechnology, the application of nanoscience toward developing new
technologies, is defined as the engineering or manipulation of functional
systems at the molecular scale. A functional system is used to describe a
material, or interface between materials, that has a well-defined responsibility and performs that responsibility efficiently and while minimizing
undesired consequences. Although the term nanotechnology was popularized in the 1980s, scientists have been studying nanostructures for well
over a century. As early as the mid-1800s, Michael Faraday investigated
the properties that a ruby-colored solution forms when an aqueous
solution of NaAuCl 4 is treated with a reducing agent. Faraday concluded
that fluid contained very finely divided metallic gold dispersed in the
aqueous solution. A century later, electron microscopy showed that these