Chemical Nanoscience Lecture 1

Key vocabulary and concepts from the first lecture on Chemical Nanoscience.

Nanoscience

The study of matter on the nanometre length scale.

Nanotechnology

Deals with the organisation of matter on nanometre length scales into structures that carry out a designed function.

Nanometre (nm)

10-9 metres, or one billionth of a meter, which is the order of a few atomic diameters.

Nanoscience Size Range

The study of objects whose size is in the 1–100 nm range.

Moore's Law

The observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every 2 years.

Top-down approach

A method of creating nanomaterials by starting with a larger structure and removing material to create the desired nanoscale structure.

Bottom-up approach

A method of creating nanomaterials by assembling atoms or molecules into the desired nanoscale structure.

Surface to volume ratio

The ratio of the surface area of a nanoparticle to its volume. This ratio increases as the particle size decreases.

Surface energy

Atoms on the surface of a solid have greater energy than an atom in the interior (bulk) because they are less tightly bound and have fewer bonds to neighbours.

Quantum effects

Effects that become important at the nanoscale due to the wave-like properties of matter, described by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

Chemical Nanoscience

Studies materials with at least one dimension on the 1-100 nm length scale.

Quantum-wells, monolayers, graphene

Materials with 1 x nanoscale dimension.

Nanotubes, nanowires

Materials with 2 x nanoscale dimensions.

Quantum-dots, nanoparticles, clusters

Materials with 3 x nanoscale dimensions.