Nanotechnology - from a layman

I have never followed (or should I say bothered) about the developments in Nanotechnolgy; However, I have heard about the potential applications and the basics from many people through hear-say. This article is a reflection, of what I had gathered about the technology and its applications from many people, over the last few years.

Nano means 10 to the power -9. This can help you imagine, how small it could be. Nano devices can be built from many materials; However carbon is the most widely used and common material for building nano devices. Generally, using carbon, Nano-tubes are constructed. A significant property of nano-tube is that the surface-area of the tube is very high, and hence it can hold significant quantity of some other materials. Some research is going on for using nano-tubes to carry hydrogen - a potential fuel in the future. A large nano-tube perhaps can be seen only through a microscope, and might appear as a thin black powder, if built using carbon. Nano-tubes made of silicon, or even gold is also in place, but their use and applications are different.

A Nano-tube is a benzene-based structure of the bonds between the carbon atoms, whose property has to be analyzed and studied when they are holding materials like hydrogen or some other material; Right now research is primarily focused on how to use the nano-tube to carry materials using the outer surface-area of the tube, though some researchers are working on how to utilize the hollow space inside the tube to carry materials also.

By now, you might have guessed, that you can only think of carrying chemical compounds or other materials in significantly smaller quantities effectively. Hence research is progressing on how to utilize nano technology for carrying medicines, chemicals and also of how to store and retrieve data (information) from them!

A lot of people, particularly researchers, and students are working in this hot topic. There seems to be two groups here (as usual!) - one of theorists and the other of the practioners. Unlike most other fields, it seems that one could easily start experimenting with nano-technology by investing a few thousands to buy a nano-tube, and study its properties. Also, its said that it is easier to create a nano-crystal (?) in the lab, by growing the atomic structures of a material.

Nano Medicine or Nano Robots is an interesting application area for Nanotechnology and research is going on, in this area. Here it is being said that medicines and that too of a very tiny quantity can be injected at the spots required in a patient's body through this technology. A small tablet like piece, if swallowed by a patient, would travel via the blood stream, before reaching the point where treatement has to be done, and after reaching that point, the medicines or chemicals will be released at the exact quantity for treating the disease. Research is also being carried to perform surgeries through nano-robots.

CAUTION: I have not taken any serious efforts to read, collect and gather data about Nano-technology; Even for writing this article, I have not used any reference material or even used Google. This is absolutely written on the basis, of what I had heard from many people, over the past few years; and hence relying on this information is entirely up to you!.

UPDATE (Jul 2016):  The discovery of  Carbon Nanotubes is hard to figure out. However it could be attributed to the landmark 1991 paper of  Sumio Lijima (Japanese Physicist) who grew graphitic carbon needles on an electrode in a gas-filled vessel.

UPDATE (Sep 2019):  Carbon Nanotubes are being explored to convert heat that is wasted by the Solar Panels (not all light is converted into power in a Solar panel; the efficiency is only around 25%) into light and light into electricity.  Check out this video for more details.