What is the Nanotechnology

Since about twenty years, a new technological and scientific field was born: nanotechnology. It is a technology which addresses objects of nanometric size. It is the result of the meeting between a significant mass of knowledge in physics solid state and microfabrication, a knowledge that the electronics industry and semiconductors garnered to miniaturize to the extreme their products since the invention of the first transistor in the Forties, with rising generation of microscopes with close field which allow not only visualization but also the measurement and the direct handling of objects on the scale of the atom and the molecule.

The nanotechnology is a global technological solution for a targeted objective. It represents, a very ambitious technological approach. It is the possibility of carrying out atom by atom of the molecular engines, of the microphone-laboratories which gather in a whole of micrometric size of the components nanometric whose functions are complementary to carry out an autonomous task; like, for example, nanocapsules or nanorobots which can move in all the human body while following the arterial ways.

From the discovery up to now :

It is the Nobel Prize Richard Feynman which had predicted into 1959 that human would handle one day the matter atom by atom and had announced that on an atomic scale the scientists would meet new phenomena and new possibilities.

In the field of the electronics, where the nanotechnology was worked out and took its first steps, this technological jump made it possible this industry to maintain its rate/rhythm of development following a law, called "Law of Moore", which had stipulated into 1970 that the number of transistors incorporated in a microchip would be multiplied by 4 every 3 years. Since then, this tendency was never contradicted and one can note a multiplication by approximately 10 000 the number of the transistors now integrable (Pentium 4 has 42 million transistors in 2000, Itanium 220 million today) compared to 1970 (processor 4004 had only 2250 of them).

The nanotechnology left the field of electronics and currently touches all the branches of industry. For approximately 15 years, more than one dozen of Nobel Prize have been decreed for achievements which touch the nanotechnology and today the nanotechnology has already given some fruits such as :

- Carbon nanoparticules in the rubber of the tires intended for the manufacture of the tires in order to increase the wear resistance;

Sun lotions containing zinc oxide particles of nanometric size to reinforce their capacity of absorption of the ultraviolet rays (the cream becomes then transparent and either white opaque);
Increase in 5 years of the memory size of the computers which passes from 500 million bytes to 5 billion bytes thanks to the discovery of a phenomenon which appears only on the level nanometric: the effect of magneto-resistance giantess who allows to measure bits of information encodes magnetically of more in smaller, which makes it possible to increase the density of information on disc.

Prospects

The role of the nanotechnology like the engine in the technological change and its importance for the economic development is currently undeniable.

Electronics : Production of microprocessors functioning at higher speed, consuming less energy and at a lower cost;

Telecommunication : Communication systems at higher frequencies of transmission which could make it possible to decrease displacements with work and the business trips;

Medicine and health : To revolutionize the diagnoses and the treatments by the characterization of the genetic constitution of an individual, to target the medicinal treatment on the area to be treated, to offer apparatuses adapted to the visual and auditive handicaps, to manufacture sensors integrated to detect the body diseases as of their appearance, etc;

Aerospace and car industry : Production of nano instrumentation, sensors avionics, high-output computers with weak energy needs, of coatings anti-wear, materials reinforced by lighter and inexpensive nanoparticules;

Energy : By artificial photosynthesis to produce ecological energy of way, by the production of better filters, better catalysts, composite materials of point to the multiple applications;

Environment : Significant reduction of the quantities of materials and energy used, reduction of the sources of pollution, more effective recycling, selective membranes to filter the contaminants or the salt of water;

Safety : Device which can allow the detection of the identity of an individual by the reading of his biological prints and correctors of chemical agents and biological, miniaturized, textile monitoring systems light, more effective electronic circuits;




Nanobiothechonology : It is the use of nanomaterials or the creation of new instruments or apparatuses functioning on a nanometric scale like biodetectors and chemical detectors or cells encapsulated in nanochip making it possible to thwart the immune system;

Manufacturing sector : Engineering of precision to produce rising generation of microscopes and measuring instruments, handling of the matter at the atomic level, nanopowders incorporated in materials to detect imminent breakings in bulk.


In nanotechnology, a nanometer, it is the dimension of approximately 5 atoms of silicon or carbon or ten hydrogen atoms. The dimension of reference is thus that of an atom, it is the reason of the choice to represent the nanotechnology by atoms in an individual state or forming a molecular structure.

Lastly, and it is a considerable reason, the media communication on the nanotechnologies insists on the spectacular aspect in order to collect more the attention of general public on the possibilities concrete on this new technology.