ABSTRACT

In 1959 physicist Richard Feynman introduced the potential of

atomic and molecular engineering with his revolutionary speech:

“There is plenty of room at the bottom.” Not but two decades

later, the initiation of various research activities in nanotechnology

began. Only years ago, the microscale was accepted as the smallest

achievable and most desirable size and the ultimate reachable

limit for designing, engineering, and building objects. Today, those

limits have been largely surpassed and the new advantages of the

synthesis at the nanoscale, the scale of atoms and molecules, have

been made available in different areas. Presently, the spectrum of

nanotechnology application has expanded to almost all areas of sci-

ence and technology such as bioengineering, material science, medi-

cine, electronics, and agriculture [1]. The word “nanotechnology”

was introduced for the first time in the late 1970s. Although

today there are almost countless definitions of nanotechnology,

the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) defines it as (1)

Research and technology development at the atomic, molecular,

or macromolecular levels, in the length scale of approximately 1-

10-nanometer range, (2) Creating and using structures, devices,

and systems that have novel properties and functions because of

their small and/or intermediate size, and (3) Ability to control or

manipulate on the atomic scale [2].