NANO DICTIONARY

Nano-Dictionary

Nano
The nanoscale is about a thousand times smaller than micro that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair. Approximately 3 to 6 atoms can fit inside of a nanometer, depending on the atom.

Nano means ten to the minus ninth power (10-9), or one billionth.
Nanoscale technologies use the devices of only a few nanometres. Single molecules and atoms can be manipulated by nanotechnologists.

Nanobacteria
Nanobacteria are the smallest cell-walled organisms on earth. The size of nanobacteria is smaller than the generally accepted lower limit of about 200 nanometers.
Some researchers suggest that they are a new class of living organisms capable of incorporating radiolabeled uridine, while other investigators attribute to them a simpler, abiotic nature.

Nanobe
Nanobes first found in some rocks and sediments. They have tiny filamental structure. It has a morphology similar to actinomycetes and fungi. No conclusive evidence exists about these organisms and their classification.

Nanobes are 20 nm in length which may be too small to contain the basic elements for an organism to exist (DNA, plasmids, etc). Some researchers believe that these structures are crystal growths, but the staining of these structures with dyes that bind to DNA .
Nanobes are similar in size to nanobacteria ( small living organisms). Nanobacteria are supposed to be cellular organisms, while nanobes are hypothesized to be a previously unknown form of life. It is a living organism (contains DNA or some analogue, and reproduces).

Nanocages
Gold nanoparticles absorb light in the visible spectrum of light (at about 550 nm) and kills surrounding cancer cells. They are biocompatible and a contrast agent for optical coherence tomography, which uses light scattering in a way analogous to ultrasound to produce in-vivo images of tissue with resolution approaching a few micrometres. A contrast agent is required to image cancers at an early, more treatable stage.
Nanochemistry
Nanochemistry is the science of tools, technologies, and methodologies for chemical synthesis, analysis, and biochemical diagnostics performed in nanolitre to femtolitre domains. It is used to make nanoscale building blocks of desired shape, size, composition and surface structure.
Nanochemistry use semi-conductors and the semi-conductors are much smaller than normal conductors.
Nanocomputer
Nanocomputer is much smaller than the microcomputer and the minicomputer. A computer with circuitry is so small and it can only be seen through a microscope.
The fundamental parts of nanocomputer are no bigger than a few nanometers. Mechanical, electronic, biochemical, or quantum technology can built the nanocomputers and it mainly deals with materials at a molecular level.
Nano computing
It is a clone of Pico, the editor of the Pine email client. In this, nano is a curses-based text editor for Unix and Unix-like systems. Nano aims to emulate the functionality and easy-to-use interface of Pico.
Nanocircuits
Nanocircuits are organized into three different parts that are transistors, interconnections, and architecture. They are very smaller electrical circuits on the scale of nanometers which has the ability to fit more on a computer chip. .
Nanoclusters
Nanoclusters have at least one dimension between 1 and 10 nanometers and a narrow size distribution. Scientists from the research center Forschungszentrum Rossendorf (Germany) use the survival mechanism of special bacteria to produce solid nanoclusters out of palladium. Bacteria-based nanoclusters ideally suited for building new nano-catalysts.
A new instrument of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University control the size of nanoclusters of 10 to 100 atoms with atomic precision. They created a model nanocatalyst of molybdenum sulfide which is used in hydrodesulphurization. Hydrodesulphurization is a process that removes sulphur from natural gas and petroleum products to reduce pollution.

Nanocomposite
In the field of nanotechnology, nanocomposite has various applications and commercial development. Nanocomposites are found in nature and can be defined as a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm).
Polymer nanocomposites represent a new class of material alternative to conventional filled polymers. To offer tremendous improvement in performance properties of the polymer, nanosized inorganic filler are dispersed in polymer matrix. In 1990 Toyota first used clay/nylon-6 nanocomposites for Toyata car in order to produce timing belt covers. The mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, electrochemical, catalytic properties of the nanocomposite will differ from the component materials.
Size limits for these effects:
<5 nm for catalytic activity
<20 nm for making a hard magnetic material soft
<50 nm for refractive index changes,
<100 nm for achieving superparamagnetism, mechanical strengthening or restricting matrix dislocation movement.
Nanoelectronics
Nanoelectronics often refer to transistor devices that are so small that inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties need to be studied extensively.
Nanoelectronics are sometimes considered as disruptive technology because present transistors are significantly different from traditional transistors. Some of these include: hybrid molecular/semiconductor electronics, one dimensional nanotubes/nanowires, or advanced molecular electronics. The sub-voltage and deep-sub-voltage nanoelectronics are specific and important fields of R&D.
Nanoengineering
Nanoengineering is that branch of one, which deals with the study and practice of engineering on the nano (very small) scale. It is closely related to nanotechnology which derives its name from the nano (one billionth) metre.
Nanoengineering is an interdisciplinary science that builds biochemical structures smaller than bacterium, which function like microscopic factories.
Exciting aspects of nanoengineering are cost-effective, environmentally friendly, non-polluting and requires little energy. It is widely believed nanotechnology will have a greater impact on the world than the Industrial Revolution and is predicted to be a multi-billion dollar business by 2015.

Nanofabrics
It is an emerging nanotechnology that deals with building specialized fabrics. Nanotechnologists are trying to introduce the technology in school uniforms to improve the colour quality and it has been used to create stain repellant fabrics. Bacteria-preventing and waterproofing quality is introduced in new nano-fabric products.
Nano-silver particles are coated by fibres which are used to make socks and they afford anti-microbial protection to prevent odour and ichiness.
Nanofibers
Nanofibres have the diameters on the order of 100 nanometers. Interfacial polymerization and electro spinning are the important methods used to produce nanofibres. Several value added applications of nanofibres are drug delivery, personal care, composite, garments, insulation, and energy storage.
Generally, polymeric nanofibers are produced by an electrospinning process and carbon nanofibers are graphitized fibers produced by catalytic synthesis. Electrospinning is a process that spins fibers of diameters ranging from 10nm to several hundred nanometers.
Sub wavelength-diameter optical fibre (SDF or SDOF) is an optical fibre whose diameter is less than the wavelength of the light being propagated through the fibre.
Special properties of nanofibers make them suitable for a wide range of applications from medical to consumer products and industrial to high-tech applications for aerospace, capacitors, transistors, battery separators, fuel cells, and information technology.
Nanoflake
Nanoflake is a perfect crystalline structure. They absorb all light and have the potential to convert up to 30 per cent of the solar energy into electricity.
Nanoflower
These crystalline 'nanoflowers' were developed by Cambridge University PhD student Ghim Wei Ho, who passes a methane gas over silicon carbide wires, grown from Gallium, to cause these structures — called nanobouquet, nanotrees, and nanoflower — to condense, depending on the temperature and pressure of the growth process.
It refers to a compound of certain elements that result in formations which in microscopic view resemble flowers or trees that are called nanobouquets or nanotrees. These formations are nanometers long and thick so they can only be observed using electron microscopy.

Nanofluidics
Nanofluidics deals with the study and application of the behaviour, manipulation, and control of fluids in structures of nanoscale (typically 1-100 nm).
Nanofoams
Nanostructured materials and foams contains significant population of pores with diameters less than 100 nm. Aerogel is one of the nanofoam. The efficiency of the catalytic production of sulfuric acid, ammonia, fuels, plastics, other chemicals and products, solid and liquid-monopropellant rocket fuels can be improved by nanofoams.
Nanofoams can improve the strength and heat-transfer properties of jet-turbine blades. Nanofoams decrease their weight, reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides from internal combustion engines and coal-fired power plants, enhance the sensitivity of biomedical detectors, and serve as electron sources for plasma TVs and as radar absorbing materials.
Carbon nanofoams and nanospheres of 25–30 nm were conveniently synthesized by using silica nanofoams as a template.

Nanoionics
It is the branch of nanotechnology. Diffusion and reactions at nanoscale, nanostructures materials and nanodevices with fast ion transport are generally referred to nanoionics.
Nanoionics mainly deals with the study and application of phenomena, properties, effects and mechanisms of processes connected with fast ion transport in all-solid-state nanoscale systems.
Two fundamentally different nanoionics are nanosystems based on solids with low ionic conductivity and nanosystems based on advanced superionic conductors (alpha–AgI, rubidium silver iodide–family, etc.).
Nanolithography
Nanolithography which is a branch of nanotechnology deals with the study and application of fabrication of nanoscale structures like semiconductor circuits. It is used in the fabrication of leading-edge semiconductor integrated circuits (nanocircuitry) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS).
Small structures (nm) can be synthesized by Nanolithogaphy. Extreme ultraviolet lithography is capable of using light at wavelength of 13.5nm. In dip-pen nanolithography small tip is used to deposit molecules on a surface which can achieve very small sizes, but cannot currently go below 40nm.
Electron-beam lithography is much more expensive and time consuming than photolithography, It (few minutes) functions more like a dot-matrix printer than a flash-photograph (5 Hous).

Nanomechanics
It is the branch of nanoscience which deals with the study and application of fundamental mechanical properties of physical systems at the nanoscale, like elastic, thermal, kinetic. Nanomechanics is a scientific foundation of nanotechnology.
Nanomechanics has emerged on the cross-road of classical mechanics, solid-state physics, statistical mechanics, materials science, and quantum chemistry. Nanomaterials, nanotribology, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), and nanofluidics are well-established fields of nanomechanics.
Nanomesh
Nanomesh was discovered in 2003 at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. It is a new inorganic nanostructured two-dimensional material, similar to graphene.
Nanomesh is stable in air, water and electrolytes among others. It doesn't decompose up to 1275K under vacuum.
It consists of a single layer of boron (B) and nitrogen (N) atoms, which forms by self-assembly a highly regular mesh after high-temperature exposure of a clean rhodium or ruthenium surface to borazine under ultra-high vacuum.
The nanomesh looks like an assembly of hexagonal pores at the nanometer (nm) scale. The distance between 2 pore centers is only of 3.2 nm. Each pore has a diameter of about 2 nm and is 0.05 nm deep.
Nanometer
A nanometer is 10-9 meters or 10 angstroms or 0.001 micrometers. In 1951, this term was introduced and it is replaced by millimicron. Nanometer is used for very small lengths, and equals ten Ångström. It is often associated with the field of nanotechnology and the wavelength of light. Formerly, millimicron (symbol mµ) was used for the nanometre.
Nanometers are most useful for measuring the wavelengths of light (the visible spectrum is between 400 and 700 nanometers).
The size of the smallest microbes (200 to 300 nanometers), the size of features on an integrated circuit (130 nanometers) and the size of machines being designed for nanotechnology (less than 100 nanometers).

Nanoparticles (Ultrafine particles)
Nanoparticles or nanocrystals made of metals, semiconductors, or oxides are for their mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical, chemical and other properties. They used as quantum dots and chemical catalysts.
Nanophotonics or Nano-optics
Nanophotonics is considered as a branch of optical engineering which deals with optics or the interaction of light with particles or substances, at deeply subwavelength scales. It typically refers to phenomena of ultraviolet, visible and near IR light with a wavelength of approximately 300 nm to 1.2 micrometres.
Nano-optics include near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), photoassisted scanning tunnelling microscopy, and surface plasmon optics. Studying the novel properties of light at the nanometer scale and enabling the highly power efficient devices for engineering applications are the study of nanophotonics.
Nanopillars
Nanopillars are a metamaterial. They reverse optical behaviour and bend optical-behavior assumption.
Nanopin film
It is an experimental material in nanotechnology developed in 2005 with unusual superhydrophobic properties.
A droplet of water makes contact with the surface of this film and forms an almost perfect sphere with a contact angle of 1780. The film is covered with nanoscale topped off pins or cones perpendicular to the surface. This particular nanopin film is produced with borosilicate glass as the primary substrate.
A solution of CoCl2•6H2O or cobalt chloride hexahydrate is heated at 60 °C for 24 hours in a chemical bath deposition to form a brucite type cobalt(II) hydroxide layer with composition
CoOH1.13Cl0.09(CO3)0.39.0.05H20
Nanoplankton
Plankton ranging in size from 2 to 20 micrometres
Nanopowder
They are agglomerates of nanoparticles or nanoclusters. The powders have excellent as-produced size distributions and are ideal for nanopowder research work

Nanoprobe
Nanoprobes are microscopic robotic devices used by the Borg for the primary purpose of assimilation. They can also be modified to attack specific cells which contain a virus or some other disease to help the patient recover.
Nanoring
A nanoring is a small ring formed crystal. The first nanoring made was a zinc oxide nanoring discovered by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology. Many layers of nanobelts are rolled together as coils, layer-by-layer.
Nanorobotics
Nanorobotics is the branch of nanotechnology which deals with the study and application of creating machines or robots of microscopic nanoscale (10-9meters).
Nanorobots (nanobots, nanoids, nanites or nanomites) ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers.
Nanorobots are theoretical microscopic devices measured on the scale of nanometers (1nm equals one millionth of 1 millimeter). Macroscale robots or microrobots are considered as nanorobots.
Nanomachines are used in Medical technology to identify cancer cells and destroy them. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment. The traditional treatment of radiation kills cancer cells and healthy human cells. They cause hair loss, fatigue, nausea and depression.
Nanomedicine's nanorobots are so tiny that they can easily traverse the human. A network of special stationary nanorobots positioned throughout the body. A doctor monitor a patient's progress and change the instructions of the nanorobots in vivo to progress to another stage of healing. When the task is completed, the nanorobots would be flushed from the body.
Nanorobots will possess two-way communication and respond to acoustic signals. They will be able to receive power or even re-programming instructions from an external source via sound waves.
Nanorods
Nanorods are produced by direct chemical synthesis. They may be synthesized from metals or semiconducting materials.
Aggregated diamond nanorods (ADNR) or hyperdiamonds are a nanocrystalline form of diamond and also they are hardest and least compressible known material. They have a modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa), while a conventional diamond has a modulus of 442 GPa. ADNRs are also 0.3% denser than regular diamond.
Gold nanorods have minimal inherent cytotoxicity and used in biomedical applications. Coated gold nanorods have long circulation times of several hours in-vivo.

Nano-Science Center
The Nano - Science Center was inaugurated in 2001 in a cooperation between the Niels Bohr Institute (physics) and the Department of Chemistry. It is located at the north east corner of the University's West Cambridge Site. The Centre provides 300 researchers from a variety of University.
Nanoscience Center (NSC) combines the expertise of physics, chemistry and biology in efforts to produce front-line nanoscience and commercially attractive nanosolutions. NSC serves as a platform for nanotechnology transfer for the needs of domestic and foreign industries.
Nanosecond (ns)
It is one billionth of a second. Computer memory speed is often represented in nanoseconds, for example, 60ns and 10ns are all different speeds of time. The lower this number is the faster the computer will be able to access the memory.
Nanosensors
Nanosensors are biological or chemical sensory points used to convey information about nanoparticles to the macroscopic world. They are the gateways to building other nanoproducts, such as computer chips that work at the nanoscale and nanorobots.
By measuring changes in volume, concentration, displacement and velocity, gravitational, electrical, and magnetic forces, pressure, or temperature, nanosensors will accurately identify particular cells or places in the body in need.They can able to detect macroscopic variations from outside the body and communicate these changes to other nanoproducts working within the body.
Nanoshell
Nanoshell is one type of spherical nanoparticle. It consists of a dielectric core covered with thin metallic shell (usually gold).
Nanoshells possess highly favorable optical and chemical properties. It is used for biomedical imaging, therapeutic applications, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Gold nanoshells are shuttled into tumors by the use of phagocytosis. These phagocytes engulf the nanoshells through the cell membrane.
These nanoshells are not metabolized and they just need to be within the tumor cells. Photoinduced cell death is used to terminate the tumor cells.
They are designed to define the molecular specific signatures of cancer, to improve the detection limits and clinical effectiveness of optical imaging.

Nanostructure
Nanotextured surfaces have one dimension on the nanoscale. The thickness of the surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm. It is the intermediate size between molecular and microscopic (micrometer-sized) structures.
Nanotubes have two dimensions (diameter of the tube is between 0.1 and 100 nm) and spherical nanoparticles have three dimensions (dimension is between 0.1 and 100 nm) on the nanoscale.
Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology covers current work and advanced concepts. With nanotechnology we can observe atoms and molecules and move them around. High-speed computers, medical improvements and enhanced protection of the environment are some of the promising prospects of using nanotechnology.
Nanotoxicology
Nanotoxicology is the study of the toxicity of nanomaterials. The nanomaterials are made of inert elements like gold which is very active at a nanometer range.
Nanotoxicological studies will determine about the threatening of the environment and human beings. The cardiovascular system has been damaged by diesel nanoparticles. Titanium dioxide, alumina, zinc oxide, carbon black, and carbon nanotubes, are some of the typical nanoparticles
Nanoparticles can be divided into
1. Combustion-derived nanoparticles (like diesel soot),
2. Manufactured nanoparticles (like carbon nanotubes)
3. Naturally occurring nanoparticles (volcanic eruptions).
Nanotribology
The term tribology is derived from the Greek word "tribo" meaning rubbing and "logy" meaning knowledge. Nanotribology is a branch of tribology which studies friction phenomenon at the nanometer scale. Nanotribology is the study of friction/wear at atomic length and time scales. Nanotribology and tribology is primarily differentiated by the involvement of atomic forces.
Friction can be reduced by Gears, bearings, and liquid lubricants. The origin of friction for small devices such as micro- or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) require other solutions.
Liquid lubricants become too viscous when confined in layers of molecular thickness. Superlubricity and thermolubricity reduceses the friction.
The future of nanotechnology depends on advancements in nanotribology. Micromachines or nanomachines with moving parts are not commercially available because small frictional forces are enough to destroy the tiny machines within the first few hours/days of operation.
Nanotube
It is a nanometer-scale tube-like structure. They are the members of the fullerene structural family, which also includes the spherical buckyballs.
The ends of a nanotube might be capped with a hemisphere of the buckyball structure. Nanotubes are categorized as single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). Conceptually, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be considered to be formed by the rolling of a single layer of graphite (called a graphene layer) into a seamless cylinder.
A multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) can similarly be considered to be a coaxial assembly of cylinders of SWCNTs, like a Russian doll, one within another; the separation between tubes is about equal to that between the layers in natural graphite.
Hence, nanotubes are one-dimensional objects with a well-defined direction along the nanotube axis that is analogous to the in-plane directions of graphite."
Nanowire
It can be defined as structures have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. Quantum mechanical effects are important and they are also known as "Quantum wires". Molecular nanowires are composed of repeating molecular units of either organic (e.g. DNA) or inorganic (e.g. Mo6S9-xIx).
Different types of nanowires are
Metallic (e.g., Ni, Pt, Au)
Semiconducting (e.g., Si, GaN)
Insulating (e.g., SiO2,TiO2).
Nanowire battery
It is a lithium-ion battery invented by a team led by Dr. Yi Cui at Stanford University in 2007. Silicon stores ten times more lithium than graphite and it allows a greater energy density on the anode. The high surface area of Silicon allows for fast charging and discharging.
The battery only reached 10x density on the first charge and leveled out at 8x density on subsequent charges.
Two processes of manufacturing nanowires are suspension and deposition. A suspended nanowire bombarded with high-speed atoms or molecules to reduce its diameter. A deposited nanowire is fabricated on a surface consisting of conducting substance such as plastic or glass.