ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief insight into the importance of nanoscience and nanotechnology and optimizing new types of material techniques to detect the weapons of mass destruction. The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies is a research center comprising of a team of MIT, US Army, and industry researchers working in collaboration to discover and implement various nanobased technologies to advance the quality of military surveillance, personnel protection and survivability, defense equipment, and other security issues. Nanoscale systems can be implemented in a wide variety of defense and security applications. The detection of warfare agents—both chemical and biological—is of prime importance in defense and homeland security, and nanomaterials, including those designed with gold nanoparticles, are being implemented in sensor design. Optical spectroscopic techniques are the basis for studying and analyzing different optical properties of nanomaterials. Devising nanomaterials generally necessitates the binding site to recognize the target of interest.
