Trends in Nanotechnology Knowledge Creation and Dissemination

Characteristic Differences Of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a field of scientific constellation and practice in which different scientific disciplines are involved and new knowledge is produced for the sciences involved, as well as for society as a whole. Significant developments in nanotechnology are spreading across the diversified fields of ICT (for faster and smaller processors, higher-density data storage), medicine (for faster drug development, quicker diagnosis, improved drug delivery, better prosthetics), the environment (for pollution control, water purification and clean energy) and materials (for stronger engineering materials, better catalysts, coatings, paints and lubricants, and improved surface properties like scratch-resistance and optical switching) (CRISP/OST Foresight 2001). The decisive factor is that new functionalities and features for the improvement of existing products or the development of new products and application options result from the nanoscalability of the system components alone (Malanowski et al 2006). These new effects and versatile application possibilities are predominantly based on the ratio of surface to volume in atoms and on the quantum-mechanical behavior of the elements of nanomaterials.