This article begins with a definition of nanotechnology and its etymology, and explains how technologies that require manipulation at the nanometer level are impacting modern science and technology. It explores how nanotechnology is being utilized in a variety of industries, including electronics, healthcare, and the environment, and what innovations it may bring in the future.
The word nano comes from the Greek word “nanos,” meaning dwarf. Initially, it simply meant small, but now it is often used as a prefix to denote units, such as nanometers and nanoseconds. It refers to the extremely small size of a few billionths of a meter, which is particularly important in science and technology. Therefore, nanotechnology is a general term for technologies that require manipulation or processing at the nanoscale. In this sense, nanotechnology is simply the art of dealing with incredibly small things, so why is it that the word nanotechnology, or even the nano-age, appears on the cover of so many science magazines these days?
Modern science is advancing rapidly as we are able to manipulate and observe things at the nanometer scale. In this blog post, we’ll tell you more about nanotechnology. We’ll explore how nanotechnology is impacting our lives and what possibilities it holds for the future.
As we mentioned earlier, the term nanotechnology isn’t specific to any one field of technology, but rather encompasses all technologies across science that require manipulation at the nanometer level. These technologies can be divided into three main categories.
The first is the processing or synthesis of nanoscale materials to create microscopic machines or materials. In the world of science, being small has many advantages. In the field of electronics, the ability to manufacture devices and integrated circuits in smaller and smaller sizes has made electronics lighter and more powerful. For example, the performance of our smartphones has improved dramatically thanks to nanotechnology, and their battery life is getting longer and longer. Nanotechnology is also enabling revolutionary advances in healthcare by creating very small robots that can travel inside the human body to check, diagnose, and prevent diseases. Furthermore, nanorobots are being used to precisely deliver treatments and drugs to specific cells or tissues. Nanotechnology is transforming our lives not only in healthcare, but also in various industries such as environment and energy.
On the other hand, when a material reaches the nanometer level, it sometimes takes on new properties that are completely different from its normal properties. This is the second category of technologies that seek to apply these properties to improve the performance of equipment or materials. The properties that change at the nanoscale range from optical to chemical, mechanical, and electrical. To give a few examples, ordinary gold is golden in color, but when it reaches a size of 20 nanometers or less, it becomes reddish in color, and even within this range, the color changes with the size of the particle. Semiconductors and metals, for example, exhibit maximum electromagnetic properties in the tens to hundreds of nanometers as they shrink in size. There are many examples of nanoscale structures with new properties in nature. Calcium carbonate, which is not very durable in nature, forms a unique nanostructure in the shells of poisonous abalone, which is strong enough to withstand being run over by a truck. The superhydrophobic structure of lotus leaves, which do not get wet, is also due to the nanostructure on the leaf surface. The development of new materials or technologies by mimicking these nanostructures is a field known as biomimetics, which is also considered one of the most important applications of nanotechnology.
Finally, nanotechnology is also used to observe and analyze natural phenomena at microscopic scales that are normally unknown. Since atoms and molecules, the most basic units of matter, are at the nanoscale, much information about their composition can be obtained using nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is helping us to better understand nature in many ways, from the development of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which allows us to see atoms and the bonds between them, to the use of nanoparticles as contrast agents in MRI machines that allow us to scan the inside of the human body in three dimensions. These advances in nanotechnology aren’t just satisfying scientific curiosity; they’re also leading to industrial applications that are making a real difference in our lives.
As such, nanotechnology is impacting almost every field that represents the cutting edge of modern technology, from the inside out. Nanotechnology (NT) has been selected as one of the 6Ts, the next generation of new technologies that will lead the future, along with IT and BT. It is also a promising field in Korea, which enacted the Nanotechnology Development Promotion Act in 2002 to promote its development. In particular, new materials based on nanotechnology have been actively developed in recent years, which are expected to bring about breakthrough changes in various fields such as energy storage, environmental protection, and biopharmaceutical development. With the development of nanotechnology, it is expected that human technology will become more advanced. It will be exciting to see how nanotechnology will have a greater impact on our daily lives and what innovations it will bring.
