**1.1. Nanotechnology to fibers**

Nanotechnology is a new technology which can make an ultimately fine material such as a fiber (see Figure 1) by controlling atoms and molecules as small as 10−9 m in size, and this technology can be widely used in many industrial situations. Among the many possible nanoproducts, nanofibers could be controlled for fiber length, diameter, surface properties, pore distribution, fiber evenness, cross-sectional shapes, etc.

**Figure 1.** Comparison of nanofibers to conventional standard fibers.

Nanofibers are one of the most advanced materials which can be easily designed with highperformance materials having distinctive properties. New geosynthetic materials which have separation, filtration, and absorption functions and are specifically made could be developed in the field of geoenvironmental applications.(*Koerner, R. M., 2005*) In addition to fibers, nanoparticles (such as nanoclay) can be used to make unique formulations, which can, in turn, be used to make conventional fibers for geotextiles and yarn-type geogrids. As an example of nanocomposite geosynthetics in geoenvironmental applications, it is very important to eliminate the toxic and organic components of various waste leachate solutions. Such capa‐ bility is not found in the standard manufactured nonwoven geotextiles and hence the func‐ tional nonwoven geotextiles need to be manufactured which can absorb the toxic and organic components that may be harmful to personal health and the environment.

It is possible to manufacture these types of functional nonwoven geotextiles by using nano‐ technology. Section 2 describes nanofiber technology to gain insight into extremely small-scale manufacturing. Section 3 describes the objective of this study that introduces nanoclay into a polymeric formulation to manufacture a geotextile for use in geoenvironmental applications. Section 4 provides commentary for future applications.
