Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the creation and utilization of materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer length scale—at the level of atoms, molecules, and supra-molecular structures. The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to work at these levels to generate larger structures with fundamentally new properties and molecular organization. These “nanostructures,” made with building blocks understood from first principles, are the smallest human-made objects and exhibit novel physical, chemical, and biological properties and phe-nomena. Nanotechnology’s goal is to exploit these properties and efficiently manufacture and employ the structures.
Nanotechnology has the potential to significantly impact environmental protection through understanding and control of emissions from a wide range of sources, development of new “green” technologies that minimize the production of undesirable byproducts, and remediation of existing waste sites and polluted water sources. Nanotechnology has the potential to remove the finest contaminants from water supplies and air as well as continuously measure and mitigate pollutants in the environment.
Nanotechnology will be a strategic branch of science and engineering for the next century and will fundamentally restructure many current technologies. Control of matter on the nanoscale already plays an important role in scientific disciplines as diverse as physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, medicine, engineering, and computer simulation. A number of environmental and energy technologies already have benefited substantially from nanotechnology in the areas of reduced waste and improved energy efficiency, environmentally benign composite structures, waste remediation, and energy conversion.
Complex physical processes involving nanoscale structures are essential to phenomena that govern the sequestration, release, mobility, and bioavailability of nutrients and contaminants in the natural environment. Processes at the interfaces between physical and biological systems have relevance to health and biocomplexity issues. Increased knowledge of the dynamics of processes specific to nanoscale structures in natural systems not only will improve understanding of transport and bioavailability, but also lead to the development of nanotechnologies useful in preventing or mitigating environmental harm.