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].