ABSTRACT
There is a worldwide great attentiveness in the research and development (R&D) of nanotechnology and its interdisciplinary applications in different sectors, such as medical, pharmaceutical, environmental, renewable energy, and oil and gas industry (Ko and Huh, 2019; Alsaba et al., 2020), where research works on nanotechnology are widely explored in developed countries as these are associated with their national income, intellectual property policies, and human resources. This is very clear within the large amount of money invested on nanotechnology R&D. For example, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, that is, the United States federal government program for the science, engineering, and technology R&D for nanoscale, has been funded by approximately $27 billion (NNI, 2018). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology invested approximately $350 million on the state-of-the-art nanoscale research center (MIT.nano) (Chandler, 2014). Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures funded the leading company in nanomanufacturing, NanoMech, by approximately $10 million. Moreover, the developing countries are also trying to catch the wave of nanotechnology, especially India and China. For example, the Department of Science and Technology, in India, has invested $20 million for nanomaterials science and technology development (Syafiuddin et al., 2017). Even, China is reported to be ranked third in the number of nanotechnology patent applications filed (Syafiuddin et al., 2017).
