**Hyung-Shik Shin**

**1**

**Chapter 1**

*Sadia Ameen*

**1. Introduction**

the order of 10<sup>−</sup><sup>9</sup>

started to have a global commercial impact.

chips, and biomedical and pharmaceutical fields as well.

Introductory Chapter: Prospects

In the past few decades, there has been a worldwide surge of research interests in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. It has been realized that it has an impeccable potential to revolutionize the modern technology in countless ways. The field of "nanoscience" has attracted much attention from scientists and engineers due to its interesting scientific aspects, and the materials thus formed have novel physicochemical properties. In the beginning, the "miniaturization" of new devices and systems being the central theme of modern technologies was considered, but these days the subject of "nanomaterials" indeed happens to be very demanding. It has overwhelming contribution in technological advancement which has already

In scientific terms, nanomaterials are basically any substance having a size of

"nanomaterials" when their sizes are typically lesser than 100 nm. In other words, nano-sized materials are the "collection of distinguishable units," each of which is made up of a limited number of atoms. These units have specific shape and crystallinity and have at least one of its dimensions of about a few nanometers. A few common examples of naturally occurring nanomaterials are particulate matter from volcanic eruptions, different types of bacteria, cosmic dust, protrusions on lotus leaf that limits its wettability, etc. Also there are numerous man-made nanomaterials which include but are not limited to fullerenes, graphene, single-/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), silver nanoparticles, metal oxide nanorods, quantum dots, etc. These nanomaterials have fascinating properties and, hence, are technologically important. For instance, due to the appropriate magnitudes of tensile strength, stiffness, and conductivity, graphene or CNTs have potential applications in catalysis, sensors, and drug deliveries. Nano-sized silver has displayed its capability of oxygen inhibition which could be utilized to pacify the burn injuries of living organisms. On the other hand, quantum dots of semiconducting materials are best suited in display and device technologies related to LED, memory storage, and solar cells [1–3]. In this manner, a variety of nanomaterials are potentially applicable in every sphere of modern technology which includes automotive, aerospace, cutting and device manufacturing industries, printing and color imaging, armor, computer

The fact that attributes a special character to nanomaterials and variation in their overall behavior is their significantly small size. This generates "statistical size effect" that plays a vital role in altering most of the physical and chemical properties of these materials. Due to the reduction of the size to very small dimensions, typically 1–100 nm, more and more atoms are exposed to the surroundings and result into a vast increment of surface area to volume ratio for that

m, i.e., a billionth of a meter, and they are generally considered as

of Nanostructured Materials

School of Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Republic of Korea

Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI), Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejon, Republic of Korea
