What is nanotechnology?

It is the design, creation, synthesis, manipulation and application of materials, apparatus and functional systems on a nanometric scale, which means that they are at a scale of one billionth of a meter (10 ^-9).

The matter, being manipulated to the scale so tiny, behaves in an unexpected way and adopts totally new properties. For this reason, scientists use nanotechnology to develop novel and low-cost materials and systems with unique properties.

Richard Feynman, who was Nobel laureate in physics, is considered the father of “nanoscience.” In 1959 he proposed to produce products based on a rearrangement of atoms and molecules.

Nanotechnology is not defined depending on the type of system under study, but based on the scale (nanoscale), this allows it to be transversal and have applications in all activities of human activity, such as the environment, energy sector, Medicine, electronics, space exploration, construction, agriculture, cosmetics, etc. That is why the impact of nanotechnology in our society is very great, and there is consensus that nanotechnology will give rise to the industrial revolution of the 21st century, as Charles M. Vest’s said (ex-president of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) In a speech of the year 2001.

Applications of Nanotechnology

In the environment. The development of non-polluting materials, energies and processes, wastewater treatment, water deringing, soil decontamination, waste treatment, chemical recycling, nanosensors for the detection of chemicals Harmful or toxic gases, are some of the applications of nanotechnology in the environment.

In energy. As for the energy sector, we will seek to improve the production and storage of energy systems, especially renewables, such as solar energy, or hydrogen-based; Also technologies that decrease energy consumption through the development of innovative, more efficient nanomaterial-based thermal insulators.

In medicine. Nanomedicine is the name given to the applications of nanotechnology focused on medicine, and in this area we find the development of nanoporters of drugs directed at specific sites of the body, which can be useful in the treatment of cancer or other diseases; Molecular biosensors with the ability to detect any substance of interest such as glucose or a biomarker of some disease, nanobots programmed to recognize and destroy tumor cells or repair some tissue such as bone tissue following a fracture, Nanoparticles with antiseptic and disinfectant properties, etcetera.

In communication and information technology. In this field, they cover the development of data storage systems with greater capacity and reducing their current size, material-based screens with greater flexibility or other properties such as transparency, as well as the development of computing Quantum.

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