In this day in age, our technology has evolved so much that we have the ability to study even the smallest of atoms. This is when nanotechnology comes in, which is the science of manipulating something on the molecular or atomic level. Here is a guide of nanotechnology for beginners.
This area of study first came to be in 1959 when physicists were trying to find out a way to manipulate atoms, as a way to identify the small components that make up an item. This method can be used all across multiple fields of technology, including chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering.
One of the components of this technology is the particle size analysis principle, which measures the different particle size via angular variation within the intensity of the light that was scattered. As the light goes through an object, light is scattered, then the size is measured based on the pattern the laser leaves behind. Laser diffraction analysis is incredibly important because these atoms are incredibly small. For perspective, there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch, with one sheet of a newspaper being 10,000 nanometers thick. With the ability to sort these items, scientists have the ability to fully understand complex subjects and how each specific atom is important for the functioning of the entire object.
Generally speaking, there are two different approaches in nanotechnology. This includes:
- The bottom up approach: materials are composed when molecular components assemble themselves chemically via molecular recognition.
- The top down approach: when these small objects are constructed from entities that don’t have the same level of control like in molecular recognition.
Despite the fact that this technology wasn’t fully discovered and developed until the 1980s, there is still a long way to go with understanding the true ability scientists have with sorting atoms. Right now, there is a lot of current research being completed that hopefully will allow multiple sectors gain more clarity. Some of the multiple sectors include nanomaterials, DNA, the multiple uses of this technology in functional components, pharmaceuticals, and biomimetic approaches.
So with this in mind, one can only guess what will come to be in science field in the future.
