Nanoscience and nanotechnology are the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering. In his talk, Feynman described a process in which scientists would be able to manipulate and control individual atoms and molecules. Over a decade later, in his explorations of ultraprecision machining, Professor Norio Taniguchi coined the term nanotechnology. It wasn't until , with the development of the scanning tunneling microscope that could "see" individual atoms, that modern nanotechnology began.
One nanometer is a billionth of a meter, or 10 -9 of a meter. Like the Romans before them, medieval artisans knew that by putting varying, small amounts of gold and silver in glass, they could produce bright reds and yellows. Many government s, scientists, and engineers are researching the potential of nanotechnology to bring affordable, high-tech, and energy-efficient products to millions of people around the world.
Nanotechnology has improved the design of products such as light bulbs, paints, computer screens, and fuels. Nanotechnology is helping inform the development of alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
Solar cells, for instance, turn sunlight into electric current s. Nanotechnology could change the way solar cells are used, making them more efficient and affordable. Solar cells, also called photovoltaic cells, are usually assembled as a series of large, flat panels.
These solar panels are big and bulky. They are also expensive and often difficult to install. Using nanotechnology, scientists and engineers have been able to experiment with print-like development processes, which reduces manufacturing costs. Some experimental solar panels have been made in flexible rolls rather than rigid panels.
In the future, panels might even be "painted" with photovoltaic technology. The bulky, heavy blades on wind turbine s may also benefit from nanotech. An epoxy containing carbon nanotubes is being used to make turbine blades that are longer, stronger, and lighter. Other nanotech innovations may include a coating to reduce ice build-up.
Nanotech is already helping increase the energy-efficiency of products. One of the United Kingdom's biggest bus operators, for instance, has been using a nano-fuel additive for close to a decade. Engineers mix a tiny amount of the additive with diesel fuel, and the cerium-oxide nanoparticles help the fuel burn more cleanly and efficiently.
Access to clean water has become a problem in many parts of the world. Nanomaterials may be a tiny solution to this large problem. Nanomaterials can strip water of toxic metals and organic molecules.
For example, researchers have discovered that nanometer-scale specks of rust are magnetic, which can help remove dangerous chemicals from water. Other engineers are developing nanostructured filter s that can remove virus cells from water. Researchers are also experimenting with using nanotechnology to safely, affordably, and efficiently turn saltwater into freshwater, a process called desalination. In one experiment, nano-sized electrode s are being used to reduce the cost and energy requirements of removing salts from water.
Scientists and engineers are experimenting with nanotechnology to help isolate and remove oil spilled from offshore oil platform s and container ships. One method uses nanoparticles' unique magnetic properties to help isolate oil. Oil itself is not magnetic, but when mixed with water-resistant iron nanoparticles, it can be magnetically separated from seawater. The nanoparticles can later be removed so the oil can be used. Another method involves the use of a nanofabric "towel" woven from nanowires.
These towels can absorb 20 times their weight in oil. Hundreds of consumer products are already benefiting from nanotechnology. You may be wearing, eating, or breathing nanoparticles right now! Scientists and engineers are using nanotechnology to enhance clothing. By coating fabrics with a thin layer of zinc oxide nanoparticles, for instance, manufacturers can create clothes that give better protection from ultraviolet radiation , like that from the sun.
Some clothes have nanoparticles in the form of little hairs or whiskers that help repel water and other materials, making fabric more stain-resistant. Some researchers are experimenting with nanotechnology for "personal climate control.
Many cosmetic products contain nanoparticles. Nanometer-scale materials in these products provide greater clarity , coverage, cleansing, or absorption.
For instance, the nanoparticles used in sunscreen titanium dioxide and zinc oxide provide reliable, extensive protection from harmful UV radiation. These nanomaterials offer better light reflection for a longer time period.
Nanotechnology may also provide better "delivery systems" for cosmetic ingredients. Nanotech is revolutionizing the sports world. Nanometer-scale additives can make sporting equipment lightweight, stiff, and durable.
Carbon nanotubes, for example, are used to make bicycle frames and tennis rackets lighter, thinner, and more resilient. Nanotubes give golf clubs and hockey sticks a more powerful and accurate drive. Carbon nanotubes embedded in epoxy coatings make kayaks faster and more stable in the water. A similar epoxy keeps tennis balls bouncy. The food industry is using nanomaterials in both the packaging and agricultural sectors.
Clay nanocomposites provide an impenetrable barrier to gases such as oxygen or carbon dioxide in lightweight bottles, cartons, and packaging films. Silver nanoparticles, embedded in the plastic of storage containers, kill bacteria.
Engineers and chemists use nanotechnology to adapt the texture and flavor of foods. Nanotech engineers have isolated and studied the way our taste bud s perceive flavor. By targeting individual cells on a taste bud, nanomaterials can enhance the sweetness or saltiness of a particular food. A chemical nicknamed "bitter blocker," for instance, can trick the tongue into not tasting the naturally bitter taste of many foods.
Nanotechnology has revolutionized the realm of electronics. It provides faster and more portable systems that can manage and store larger and larger amounts of data. Nanotech has improved display screens on electronic devices. This involves reducing power consumption while decreasing the weight and thickness of the screens.
Nanotechnology has allowed glass to be more consumer-friendly. One glass uses nanomaterials to clean itself, for example. As ultraviolet light hits the glass, nanoparticles become energized and begin to break down and loosen organic molecules—dirt—on the glass. Rain cleanly washes the dirt away. Similar technology could be applied to touch-screen devices to resist sweat.
Nanotechnology can help medical tools and procedures be more personalized, portable, cheaper, safer, and easier to administer. The tunneling current can be used to selectively break or induce chemical bonds. Reproduced with permission from reference [ 23 ]. This invention led to the development of the atomic force microscope AFM and scanning probe microscopes SPM , which are the instruments of choice for nanotechnology researchers today [ 24 , 25 ].
At the same time, in , Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, and Richard Smalley discovered that carbon can also exist in the form of very stable spheres, the fullerenes or buckyballs [ 26 ].
The carbon balls with chemical formula C60 or C70 are formed when graphite is evaporated in an inert atmosphere. A new carbon chemistry has been now developed, and it is possible to enclose metal atoms and create new organic compounds.
A few years later, in , Iijima et al. The strength and flexibility of carbon nanotubes make them potentially useful in many nanotechnological applications. Currently, Carbon nanotubes are used as composite fibers in polymers and beton to improve the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of the bulk product.
They also have potential applications as field emitters, energy storage materials, catalysis, and molecular electronic components. Schematic of a C60 buckyball Fullerene A and carbon nanotube B. In , a new class of carbon nanomaterials called carbon dots C-dots with size below 10 nm was discovered accidentally by Xu et al. C-dots with interesting properties have gradually become a rising star as a new nanocarbon member due to their benign, abundant and inexpensive nature [ 29 ].
Possessing such superior properties as low toxicity and good biocompatibility renders C-dots favorable materials for applications in bioimaging, biosensor and drug delivery [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Based on their excellent optical and electronic properties, C-dots can also offer exciting opportunities for catalysis, energy conversion, photovoltaic devices and nanoprobes for sensitive ion detection [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ].
In the meantime, nanoscience progressed in other fields of science like in computer science, bio and engineering.
Nanoscience and technology progressed in computer science to decrease the size of a normal computer from a room size to highly efficient moveable laptops. Electrical engineers progressed to design the complex electrical circuits down to nanoscale level. Also, many advances are noticed in smart phone technology and other modern electronic devices for daily uses. At the beginning of 21st century, there was an increased interest in the nanoscience and nanotechnology fields.
During a speech at Caltech on 21 January , President Bill Clinton advocated for the funding of research in the field of nanotechnology. Three years later, President George W. Bush signed into law the 21st century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act.
Recently, a number of studies highlighted the huge potential that nanotechnologies play in biomedicine for the diagnosis and therapy of many human diseases [ 40 ]. In this regard, bio-nanotechnology is considered by many experts as one of the most intriguing field of application of nanoscience. During recent decades, the applications of nanotechnology in many biology related areas such as diagnosis, drug delivery, and molecular imaging are being intensively researched and offered excellent results.
Remarkably, a plethora of medical-related products containing nanomaterials are currently on the market in the USA. One of the most important applications of nanotechnology to molecular biology has been related to nucleic acids. DNA nanotechnology has already become an interdisciplinary research area, with researchers from physics, chemistry, materials science, computer science, and medicine coming together to find solutions for future challenges in nanotechnology [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].
Notably, years of extensive studied made possible to use DNA and other biopolymers directly in array technologies for sensing and diagnostic applications. Remarkable progresses have been made also in the field of nano-oncology by improving the efficacy of traditional chemotherapy drugs for a plethora of aggressive human cancers [ 48 , 49 ].
These advances have been achieved by targeting the tumour site with several functional molecules including nanoparticles, antibodies and cytotoxic agents.
In this context, many studies showed that nanomaterials can be employed itself or to deliver therapeutic molecules to modulate essential biological processes, like autophagy, metabolism or oxidative stress, exerting anticancer activity [ 50 ]. Hence, nano-oncology is a very attractive application of nanoscience and allows for the improvement of tumour response rates in addition to a significant reduction of the systemic toxicity associated with current chemotherapy treatments.
Nanotechnology has been used to improve the environment and to produce more efficient and cost-effective energy, such as generating less pollution during the manufacture of materials, producing solar cells that generate electricity at a competitive cost, cleaning up organic chemicals polluting groundwater, and cleaning volatile organic compounds VOCs from air.
However, the application of computational approaches to nanomedicine is yet underdeveloped and is an exigent area of research. The need for computational applications at the nano scale has given rise to the field of nanoinformatics. Powerful machine-learning algorithms and predictive analytics can considerably facilitate the design of more efficient nanocarriers. Such algorithms provide predictive knowledge on future data, have been mainly applied for predicting cellular uptake, activity, and cytotoxicity of nanoparticles.
Data mining, network analysis, quantitative structure-property relationship QSPR , quantitative structure—activity relationship QSAR , and ADMET absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity predictors are some of the other prominent property evaluations being carried out in nanoinformatics.
Nanoinformatics has provided a major supplementary platform for nanoparticle design and analysis to overcome such in vitro barriers. Nanoinformatics exclusively deals with the assembling, sharing, envisaging, modeling, and evaluation of significant nanoscale level data and information.
Nanoinformatics also facilitates chemotherapy by improving the nano-modeling of the tumor cells and aids detection of the drug-resistant tumors easily. Hyperthermia-based targeted drug delivery and gene therapy approaches are the latest nanoinformatics techniques proven to treat cancer with least side effects [ 51 ].
All these progressions in different fields of science have been generally overviewed and summarized in Figure 9. In only a few decades, nanotechnology and nanoscience have become of fundamental importance to industrial applications and medical devices, such as diagnostic biosensors, drug delivery systems, and imaging probes.
For example, in the food industry, nanomaterials have been exploited to increase drastically the production, packaging, shelf life, and bioavailability of nutrients. In contrast, zinc oxide nanostructures display antimicrobial activity against food-borne bacteria, and a plethora of different nanomaterials are nowadays used for diagnostic purposes as food sensors to detect food quality and safety [ 52 ].
Nanomaterials are being used to build a new generation of solar cells, hydrogen fuel cells, and novel hydrogen storage systems capable of delivering clean energy to countries still reliant on traditional, non-renewable contaminating fuels.
However, the most significant advances in nanotechnology fall in the broad field of biomedicine and especially in cancer therapeutics because of their great potential to offer innovative solutions to overcome the limitations deriving by traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy approaches.
Recent advances made in the fields of physic, chemistry and material sciences have provided a number of nanomaterials with unique properties, which are expected to improve the treatment of many tumors otherwise resistant to current therapies.
These innovative biomedical applications are currently exploited in a variety of clinical trials and, in the near future, may support major development in the therapy of cancer. In , the budget for NNI was 1. Still, scientists are working for new breakthroughs in nanoscience and nanotechnology in order to make human life easier and more comfortable.
In this context, Table 1 presents the historical development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Conceptualization, S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Molecules v. Published online Dec Alejandro Baeza, Academic Editor. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.
Received Nov 7; Accepted Dec This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Nanoscience breakthroughs in almost every field of science and nanotechnologies make life easier in this era. Keywords: nanoscience, nanotechnology, nanomaterials, nanoparticles, nanomedicine. Open in a separate window.
Figure 1. Figure 2. History of Nanotechnology Nanoparticles and structures have been used by humans in fourth century AD, by the Roman, which demonstrated one of the most interesting examples of nanotechnology in the ancient world. Figure 3. Figure 4. Figure 5. Figure 6. Figure 7. Figure 8. Figure 9. Progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology in different fields of science. Table 1 Evolution Timeline of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Ratner and Arieh Aviram Molecular electronics.
Kresge Discovery of mesoporous silica MCM Discovery of Fluorescent Carbon dots. Fraser Stoddart artificial molecular machines: pH-triggered muscle-like. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the design and synthesis of molecular machines.
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