Introduction to Materials & Nanoscale technology

A material could be an unprocessed raw material or finished product of its own. Fundamental of
materials science essentially emphases the structure/ properties of materials, their atomistic
models, equilibrium, phase diagrams, kinetics and non-equilibrium transformations, mechanical
processing and their implications. Depending upon nature and processing method materials could
be categorized into-a) Metals, b) Textiles, c) Plastics, d) Finishes, e) Recycled, f) Adhesives, g)
Biopolymers, h) wood and i) glass. The property of any material depends not only on what it's
made of, but also how the atoms and molecules within it are arranged. When we can see the
exact structural differences in materials, we can learn how to engineer them to create new
technologies and to improve existing ones. But this requires seeing on the scale of molecules and
atoms–billionths of a meter, or nanometers (Prof. Bob Sinclair, Stanford Engineering).

In order to visualize atoms and molecules inside the materials we should opt for a tiny scale
roughly one billionth of a meter (10-9) or nanometer. It has been found that under 100nm,
materials express striking change in their physicochemical properties. Nanomaterials drastically
change their properties from the micronized form owing to their diminutive size configuration,
high surface to volume ratio and supramolecular energy at their surface. Encompassing materials
science, chemistry, and many other fields, technology at nanoscale allows scientists to build
materials and structures from the bottom up, producing devices as small as human cells.
Researchers can engineer new drugs, find different ways to sequence DNA, develop novel
semiconductors, and produce spill free shirts, water repellant or composites with ultra-high
strength. They can develop crystals and even artificial atoms that give them unprecedented
control of light. Nanotechnology may bear fruit in applications as diverse as water purification,
energy conversion, biochemical detection, transportation and national security. Much of the work
in nanoscience and nanotechnology is experimental, and researchers often do not know the
performance of an extremely small component or device until they build it. The establishment of
shared, flexible labs is essential for building structures and measuring their performance.