History of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology

Abstract

The secret of nanomaterials is not the size of the particles, but it is in the applications of nanomaterials and the art of making. Nanotechnology is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers. It is an amazing field dealing with very small size particles; imagine that a meter of cloth has been cut into a billion pieces (1 meter =109 nm). Thousands of years ago, the monuments were fabricated and reflected the art and coloures of paints. The Egyptian monuments reflect the beauty and art of paints in the papyrus papers, for example, the ancient pigment known as Egyptian blue may have important new applications in nanotechnology. Lotus flowers were once considered sacred in Egypt and parts of Asia. Significant advances in nanotechnology are helping researchers analyze the type of pigments used to paint mummy portraits in ancient Egypt. Scientists at Boise State University led by a Materials Science and Engineering Professor Darryl Butt, have taken a sliver of wood smaller than a human hair and extracted five extraordinarily tiny fragments—about 20 nanometers wide—and two thin foils of purple paint from a Romano-Egyptian mummy portrait dating to between A.D. 170 and 180. There is a new challenge facing the world, especially in the field of nanotechnology. It was stated by James Canton (2001) that if Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the atomic level, at maturity achieves even a fraction of its promise, it will force the reassessment of global markets and Economies and industries on a scale never experienced before in human history. Nanotechnology will be discussed from all aspects of economics such as wages, employment, purchasing, pricing, capital, exchange rates, currencies, markets, supply and demand. Nanotechnology may well drive economic prosperity or at the least be an enabling factor in shaping productivity and global competitiveness.