Nanosciences

The term nanoscience encompasses research that deals with materials on the nanometer scale. Nano comes from altgr. nannos ("the dwarf") and denotes the billionth part of the unit for units of measurement. So a billion nanometers is a meter. The materials of this size are atoms , molecules and clusters , some of which are used individually with different methods. Quantum mechanics and surface chemistry play a central role in this .

Areas of application

Areas of chemistry , physics and biology that deal with molecules as such and their handling can therefore be designated as nanosciences . The term was actually mainly introduced for materials science .

Linked to this is the idea of ​​invisibly small machines . For example, it has been shown experimentally that it is possible to move nanoparticles, individual molecules and atoms with special nano tools such as the atomic force microscope or optical tweezers . For example, Don Eigler's group at IBM succeeded in depicting the company logo with xenon atoms as early as 1989.

Occasionally there is criticism that the term “nano” is currently being used in many cases as a (inflationary) catchphrase with which research funding can be obtained. It is demanded that the term nanoscience should only be used for such research in which certain (e.g. material) properties change in a "special" way when reduced to the nanometer range.

Visualization

The resolving power of conventional (optical) microscopes is not sufficient to resolve structures on the nanometer scale. Electron microscopes and scanning probe methods such as the scanning tunneling microscope or the atomic force microscope , with which an atomic resolution can be achieved under favorable conditions, are suitable .

Differentiation areas

• nanotechnology
• Nanomechanics and Molecular Mechanics
• Nanoelectronics
• Nano-optics

See also

• Surface chemistry
• Assembler (nanotechnology)
• Nanoparticles
• Nanostructural science
• Eric Drexler
• Richard Feynman
• Balzan Prize
• Sumio Iijima

literature

• Christian Joachim, Laurence Plévert: Nanosciences - the invisible revolution , World Scientific 2009
• Michael Köhler, Wolfgang Fritzsche: Nanotechnology , Wiley-VCH 2007
• Hans-Eckhardt Schaefer: Nanoscience , Springer 2009

Web links

• Wolfgang Heckl, Marc-Denis Weitze, See through the invisible , Max Planck Society 2013
• Video dossier of Swiss television on the subject of nanotechnology ( memento from September 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For example, Gero von Randow , "Nano, nano", rattle the prayer wheels , Zeit Online, August 13, 2004