Thesis-PDF - IAP/TU Wien

Figure 2.1: Transmission electron microscopy image of boron-nitride nanotubes
grown through laser melting of a boron-nitride target. Nanotubes
seem to be ideally suited for many nanotechnological applications because
of their exceptional mechanical and electrical properties. Scale bar is 200nm.
rections. Either by making use of scientific findings about biological systems as
patterns for developing technological applications (bio → nano) or applying nanotechnological
processes to the interaction with biosystems (nano → bio).
Nanoanalysis - Refers to all techniques available for the determination of
nanoscale structures of materials. Used in all of the other sub-fields it supplies
analytic methods and means for recording basic phenomena and gathering
information at the nanometer scale. As such it is concerned with measurements
of structures and processes required by extreme miniaturization as well as with
suitable measuring devices.
Nanotechnology will possibly play a technological key role in the 21st century.
This interdisciplinary technology is already today increasingly relevant to
economic areas such as chemistry, medical technology, automobile and the food
industry. Current prognoses assume a dramatic increase in the economic significance
of nanotechnology, associated research and production. This is also reflected
in a sharp increase in national spending for research in this area during the last
years (see Fig. 2.2).
Nanotechnology is not a mere reduction in size of existing technologies. It
is based on different working principles and theoretical models that take these
principles into account. Effects that are negligible at the macroscale can become
major contributions at the nanoscale, such as quantum mechanical phenomena
or consequences of high surface to volume ratio. Engineering structures in an
extremely precise fashion and tailoring them to our specific needs by defining
exactly the three-dimensional positions of the atoms and molecules they are built
of is one of the goals of nanotechnology.
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