Nanotechnology Home

Nanotechnology is an exciting area of scientific development which promises ‘more for less’. It offers ways to create smaller, cheaper, lighter and faster devices that can do more and cleverer things, use less raw materials and consume less energy. There are many examples of the application of nanotechnology from the simple to the complex. For example, there are nano coatings which can repel dirt and reduce the need for harmful cleaning agents, or prevent the spread of hospital-borne infections. New-generation hip implants can be made more ‘body friendly’ because they have a nanoscale topography that encourages acceptance by the cells in their vicinity. Moving on to more complex products, a good example of the application of nanotechnology is a mobile phone, which has changed dramatically in a few years – becoming smaller and smaller, while paradoxically, growing cleverer and faster – and cheaper!

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 Nanotechnology, in one sense, is the natural continuation of the miniaturization revolution that we have witnessed over the last decade, where millionth of a metre (10 -6m) tolerances (microengineering) became commonplace, for example, in the automotive and aerospace industries enabling the construction of higher quality and safer vehicles and planes. It was the computer industry that kept on pushing the limits of miniaturization, and many electronic devices we see today have nano features that owe their origins to the computer industry – such as cameras, CD and DVD players, car airbag pressure sensors and inkjet printers.